A place where stories unfold

JGF/LitNet/Huisgenoot Kommadagga workshop 2023: Thabiso Mahlape’s take on storytelling

The Jakes Gerwel Foundation (JGF), LitNet and Huisgenoot will soon host their fourth annual Kommadagga workshop on short story writing for magazines.

The three-week residency takes place from 16 October to 5 November 2023 at the historic Paulet House, the JGF’s charming home-away-from-home for writers in the picturesque town of Somerset East in the Eastern Cape.

Fourie Botha, an editor, publisher and literary agent, and Thabiso Mahlape, the trailblazing publisher and owner of Blackbird Books, will mentor successful candidates in the fine art of short story writing. 

The competition is now closed and no more entries will be accepted.

Thabiso Mahlape talks to Naomi Meyer about the upcoming residency.

Thabiso, you are a publisher and the owner of Blackbird Books, and one of the mentors for the upcoming LitNet Huisgenoot Jakes Gerwel residency in October. As a publisher, what is one of the first things you look at in a manuscript to know whether it is going to be accepted for publication?

One of the first things that excite me is “newness” in a submission.

I love a new take on things and/or submissions. So many stories have already been told; some may be the same as what you want to tell, but how well a writer manages to make it new is important to me. And then the first paragraph: this is where an author ought to show off their writing. Tell me in this paragraph how you are about to consume my time.

You publish mostly novels as a publisher. What is the difference between novels and short stories – some of the differences and some of the similarities?

In my opinion, a short story is a lot more difficult to write. You have to get your point across as quickly as possible, with maximum impact and with one story and one plot.

With a novel, you have a much longer time to tell the story, but it also has its challenges. You have to employ more subplots as well as different stories. There are many more characters to build and sustain. You have to hook the reader and keep them interested for a much longer time than with a short story.

The two employ the same storytelling devices, but they are just applied differently.

Read here:

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Naomi Meyer, deesdae senior inhoudsbestuurder van LitNet, is ’n niepraktiserende prokureur. Ná haar regstudies en klerkskap in Bloemfontein voltooi sy haar meestersgraad cum laude aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad in die Departement Afrikaans en Neerlandistiek. Sy was in 2000 en 2001 voltyds betrokke by LitNet. Tussen 2002 en 2011 het sy in Ierland gewoon, waar sy by ’n regsuitgewer betrokke was, regsassistentswerk vir ’n prokureur gedoen het en viool by ’n musiekskool gegee het. Haar jeugroman Ruik jy die filmster het in September 2006 by Tafelberg verskyn en haar roman Web in 2017 by Queillerie.

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Thabiso Mahlape is a trailblazing publisher who is the owner of Blackbird Books. Blackbird Books, a globally recognised publishing house, was founded in August 2015, the first black owned publishing imprint in South Africa. The launch of Blackbird Books transformed the South African literary landscape and since 2015, Blackbird has put an immense amount of effort in pioneering and establishing a home for new African narratives and stories that reflect the African experience. Publisher/writer/speaker/businesswoman Mahlape holds a Bachelor of Information Science degree specialising in publishing from the University of Pretoria.

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