Arthur Onipede Hollist, commonly known as Pede Hollist, a Sierra Leonean Writer and a Professor of English at the University of Tampa, Florida, on Sunday June 14, 2020, encouraged Sierra Leone Creative Writers to focus on strengthening workshops, competitions, artists’ organizations, festivals and collaboration throughout the country in a bid to extend their activities nationwide.
Professor Hollist said that showcasing the country’s rich literature is the product of good writing, adding that other nationals like: the Nigerians, Kenyans, and South Africans dominate the African literary scene because they have more established creative writing cultures – frequent workshops, author readings, more secondary school and college elective courses, competitions, publishers, and websites.
He said that to improve creative writing skills, well-edited works must be presented to the curators of international platforms, and also added that manuscript must also be presented to skilled editors or experienced writers who would point out inconsistencies with the subject matter, plot, and characterization and improve craft elements, grammar errors, typos, and format issues.
Professor said that he teaches English, Academic and Creative writing, and African Literature at the University of Tampa, USA.
He explained that he stumble into writing fiction in his late forties when he was motivated by a colleague. “I often told amusing tales to my department colleagues. One of them encouraged me to convert them into written stories. I did, and ‘Path’, my first novel, was the result. I will encourage beginner writers not to skip the apprenticeship of short fiction and nonfiction narratives because writing a book is an epic task. Still, determination can overcome most challenges.”
He added, “Before writing, I mostly read. By the end of my primary school, I had read all of the 20-book children’s classics my parents bought for my siblings and me. After I completed them, I started reading the entries of the adjacent encyclopedias. In secondary school in the UK and Sierra Leone, I read the novels of Richard Gordon, P. G. Wodehouse, and James Hadley Chase. Of course, as a college student and now as a professor, I read a broad range of literary texts. Reading enabled me to become a writer.”
Professor explained that when writing his book, he usually looks for ideas and incidents to turn into stories, adding that, he always take notes, do research, free-write ,read books in print and e-formats, listen to audiobooks, and attend author readings, daily listen to the news, listen to people when telling stories, and stand-up comedians.
He said that, he usually spends hours, sometimes days, months, and even years shaping ideas to make them fit with others for a story stating that an idea for a recent short story titled “Where One Thing Stands” came to him in 2009 when he visited northern Ghana.
He stated that, he learned about a longstanding land dispute between the Namogligo and Tindongo peoples which resulted in periodic, deadly engagements between the two groups, adding that he wanted to write about the conflict, but could not feel the subject that made an interesting short story.
He further stated that, he finally got the idea of completing the story until 2016 when he met a person who self-described as gender neutral and was searching for acceptance from family and friends citing that after some research, he combined the individual’s desire with the dispute between the warring ethnic groups into a story about difference, conflict, and coexistence.
He said that, a short story he had written, “Foreign Aid,” was shortlisted for the 2013 Caine Prize, arguably Africa’s most prestigious literary award, and added that his first novel, ‘So the Path Does Not Die’ (Jacarandabooksartsmusic, U.K.), won the 2014 African Literature Association’s Book of the Year Award: Creative Writing, and his short stories have been published in several platforms.
He added that during his 2017-2018 Fulbright year in Sierra Leone, he conducted workshops at Modern High School, Harford Girls School and at a community program named Bright Light Youth Empowerment to enlighten people about creative writing.
He also said that he would be starting his literary blog which would be another space for Sierra Leoneans to display their work, adding that if such sites are built with quality materials, the international audience would come to read the rich literature of Sierra Leone.
He advised creative writers in Sierra Leone to write in Mende, Temne, Krio and other local languages, or lightly incorporate indigenous vocabulary, expressions such as ‘fiam’ and ‘kitikata’ and intensifiers like ‘o’ and ‘ya’ into their English-language pieces.
He advised, “Don’t make excuses about not having the time to write. Write, every day, until you have a completed draft. Then revise until you believe it is the next great work the world has been waiting for. After completed, send it to skilled readers who will tell you the work can’t possibly go out into the world as currently dressed. Don’t give up. Keep writing. Success is around the corner.”
By Ibrahim S.Bangura
18/6/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7848