Q&As: Tlotlo Tsamaase – Caine Prize shortlist 2023

By Africa in Words on 2 November , 2023 • ( 0 )

AiW note: The penultimate day in our continuing Words on… Q&A series this week – a range of interviews around the UK-based short story award, the Caine Prize for African Writing, 2023 – sees writer Tlotlo Tsamaase (Botswana) talk with us about her shortlisted story, ‘Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)’ .

In the lead up to this year’s prize-giving – in a change of season for 2023, from early July to Monday 2nd October – we spoke with shortlisted story writers, with judges who determined that list, and, as with our coverage of the Prize last year, with publishers of their stories. A series of “twinned” Caine Prize shortlist 2023 Q&As have followed from there, highlighting interviewees’ involvement and experiences with the Prize this year, and, hopefully, opening up some of the links and connections that can happen in the “prizing” of literature in the process.

Our twinned Q&A with Tlotlo’s in the series today is with Eli Goldman, editor at TorDotCom who published the anthology Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, home of two of the shortlisted stories this year: Woppa Diallo & Mame Bougouma Diene’s ‘A Soul of Small Places’, the story that went on to win the Prize; and Tlotlo’s ‘Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)’ …

Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana author (xe/xem/xer or she/her pronouns). Tlotlo’s debut adult novel, Womb City, comes out in January 2024 from Erewhon Books. Xer novella, The Silence of the Wilting Skin, is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist and was shortlisted for a 2021 Nommo Award. Tlotlo has received support from the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and xer story ‘Behind Our Irises’ is the joint winner of the Nommo Award for Best Short Story (2021). Tlotlo’s short fiction has appeared in News Suns 2, Africa Risen, The Best of World SF Volume 1, Clarkesworld, Terraform, and Africanfuturism Anthology, and is forthcoming in Chiral Mad 5. Xe obtained a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Botswana and won an award for design architecture. Tsamaase is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Chapman University.

AiW: Congratulations, Tlotlo, on being shortlisted for the 2023 Caine Prize for African Writing. Thank you for your story and for talking with us.

Could we open with a bit about some of the “other lives” or pre-lives of your Caine Prize shortlisted story, perhaps something that our readers might not yet know (or that they should, or need to know) about it?

Tlotlo Tsamaase: Thank you so much! My story, ‘Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)’, came about during a jog whilst listening to rap music – a thought came about to write a story about women trapped in songs. I liked the double meaning of trap: to confine something and trap music. I thought I could write the story as a song, so I went about figuring out how I could have the text and content of the story as lyrics. The story is a fusion of many things—satire, social commentary on riots and protests regarding gender-based violence against women, etc.

One thing I struggled with was coming up with the rapper’s names; some readers may have noticed they are named after hashtag movements regarding gender-based violence against women, which the villain of the story later uses as his own marketing tool for self-aggrandizing purposes—this alludes to how some hashtags are used for social media purposes without awareness of the history of those hashtags.

I would watch about two or three music videos repeatedly whilst writing ‘Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)’, trying to replicate the visual and visceral form of music videos into my writing. I find some rap songs poetic so I’d also analyze lyrics, which helped me structure and title the songs in the story. Doing all of this, it took me about a week or two to finish writing the story.

Could you tell us a bit about your (other) work — your writing and/or other kinds of work, roles, or the more general and different sorts of professional hats you wear?

My debut adult novel, Womb City (Erewhon Books), is coming out in January 2024. It’s a genre-bending story set in futuristic Botswana, where bodies are a government-issued resource. It’s a commentary on power, monstrosity, patriarchy, and bodily autonomy.

My novella, The Silence of the Wilting Skin (Pink Narcissus Press, 2020), came out a couple of years ago, and it’s a surrealist story set in an unnamed African city, where a nameless protagonist is losing her identity—her skin color is peeling off, her people are becoming invisible, the world is erasing their language and identity from their bodies as she fights to save her family.

I started out writing poetry, so I consider these two books my longest poems. I have several short stories published online, a longer list and links can be found on my website tlotlotsamaase.com.

I used to work as an architect-in-training, but I wasn’t passionate about it. I’ve taught design at a university and been a columnist and editor for a built environment newspaper. I’m currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Chapman University.

What would you say is the best investment you’ve made in your professional self, and/or the most valued advice you’ve received about navigating your industry (or industries)?

Discipline, intense study, and hard work are key things I implemented to become a better storyteller, but the unfortunate thing about writing is that regardless of whether you write well or work hard, it doesn’t guarantee success or your work gets published—it all depends on your end goal of writing.

Being a self-taught writer, I had to teach myself how to write, which involved studying novels and short stories in different genres. I’d spend weeks and years analyzing different texts, immersing myself fully in the story, trying to figure out how authors stitched the scenes together, how they portrayed mood, why the sentence structures and word choice work throughout the story, etc. This way of intimately knowing a text came from my studying architecture; it provided me with those skills because we had to design buildings we had no idea or history about, as such, we had to conduct a lot of research and analysis to understand the language of say a museum, such that we understand it enough to design it.

So, writing stories is exploring the architecture of a new world. The most important advice I’ve received is to consider your mental health too, and consider rest, life is not just about work, it’s about living, which can be difficult for many people who are trapped in circumstances beyond them.

Looking to you as a reader, what’s the strangest, most significant – outrageous, even – thing you yourself have done, or would do, because of, or for a book (text / story / poem/ piece of writing)? Perhaps there’s a serendipitous, interesting, or uncanny book / text related thing that’s happened to you, or a happy, weird accident that has occurred around books or writing that you can share with us?

Well, writing is a risky business, and it required and still requires a lot of sacrifice from me and discipline, and I guess one can say that’s an outrageous way to live. I suppose then those sacrifices and self-discipline were important things to do to achieve my writing goals.

There have been many serendipitous moments. When I was still studying architecture, I would use my book allowance to buy the English and literature department’s recommended text instead of the architectural department’s. One day I was skimming the aisles and found this colorful book cover of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami and Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi—those two books changed my life genre-wise, and the latter introduced me to interrogating the systems we live in.

I listen to podcasts a lot. I can be picky, but by some random chance, I came across an author, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, who wrote a magical realism memoir, which was a combination of genres I’ve never come across, I was blown away by the book called The Man Who Could Move Clouds. The cool thing about being an author is getting to blurb and read books before they’re published—I read Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Lost Ark Dreaming in one sitting, it’s such a beautiful, amazing piece of work, and it felt like journeying through a fast-paced movie.

What are the most ethical and/or heart-lifting changes in practice you’ve seen happening across your industry/industries recently, and what would you like to see become more visible and celebrated going forward?

There’s not much I can say here, but some of the writers I’m interacting with are taking their mental health more seriously, allowing for spaces of rest, growth and creating safe spaces for each other, whether it’s to share knowledge, advice or talk things out about the industry.

When it comes to writing, we often lean more into the craft of writing, without adding the business side of writing, that is what it means to be a writer, how to survive as one, what to be aware of in trying to be a successful author, etc. I found the latter important during one of the writing mentorships I was in, and the things I learned about, for example contracts, made me aware and proactive as a writer.

Finally, how can our blog, books, and online communities best offer support for your work with African writing?

That’s lovely! If you enjoyed some of my writing, my novel Womb City is up for preorders—doing this and writing reviews helps authors greatly.

I love hearing from readers, bloggers, and online communities; whether it’s to chat, have book club conversations, etc., feel free to reach out to me. I’m on Instagram (and not sure for how long on Twitter) as Tlotlo Tsamaase. You can also find updated information and reach me on my website at tlotlotsamaase.com

Head on over to the Caine Prize website to luxuriate in all those allusive qualities in Tlotlo’s story title, ‘Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)’ — and to do the same with all the shortlisted stories – they are all available to read there.

The “twin” AiW x Caine Prize Q&A with Tlotlo’s today is with Eli Goldman, editor at TorDotCom, publishers of Tlotlo’s story, and of Woppa Diallo & Mame Bougouma Diene’s co-authored ‘A Soul of Small Places’, the story that went on to win the Prize. Find it and click through, via the AiW x Caine Prize Q&A link, to read about “the phenomenal editorial team behind the anthology Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction“, the collection that both of these stories appeared in (2022).

In tomorrow’s twinned Q&As, we will hear from Woppa and Mame Bougouma, a joint authored winner and a milestone for the Prize — and, bear in mind we spoke to the writers before the winner announcement — from Jendella Benson, one of the all-women judging panel, a Caine Prize first for 2023.

You can also find our 2023 posts in the series so far — with writer Yejide Kilanko & judge Kadija George Sesay, and with writer Yvonne Kusiima and publisher Ukamaka Olisakwe of Isele Magazine — via the same link above, or by searching for “Caine Prize”.

As ever, we’d welcome your thoughts on the shortlist, or anything else 2023 Caine Prize related (or just anything else, for that matter!) – comment on the post here, below, or contact us direct and let us know. This also year marks 10 years that AiW have covered the Caine Prize. Thank you for being here with us. You can deep dive into it all here – Q&As, reviews, and long-read thought pieces – and, again, at the AiW search link for “Caine Prize”.

Caine Prize website, “The Caine Prize Announces, 2023 Shortlisted Writers and Judges”:

…This year’s submissions encompassed a diverse range of talent from 28 different countries, including Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Fareda Banda, Chair of Judges, and a professor of Law at SOAS, University of London, expressed her thoughts on the shortlist: “Together we have read, discussed and wrestled an eligible submission list of 230 stories down to the final five. This has not been an easy task. The entries showed the depth and scope of writing on the continent and beyond.

“The stories spanned generations, genres and themes. They challenged, stimulated, shocked, surprised and delighted us in equal measure. The five shortlisted embrace speculative fiction and artivism (using art as a form of activism). Stories of gender-based violence and reproductive autonomy highlight the power of engaging and innovative/original writing. Love is embodied in stories of grandmothers passing on inter-generational wisdom. The sense of alienation engendered by teenage diasporic liminality sits alongside comedic outrage about the perceived status downgrade in moving from city to village. Each story will have its fans and advocates-we loved them all.”

Banda further noted the remarkable fact that four out of the six shortlisted finalists reside in Africa, with two from the diaspora. This year’s shortlist also boasts a joint submission and an all-women judging panel, marking significant milestones in the history of the Caine Prize.