Crossing Borders Magazine

Mentor Sara Maitland's invaluable guide to presenting your writing in a way most likely to impress an editor.

Download 'Presentation'

Biography:

'I was born in 1954, at Mpilo Hospital, just across the street from Barbour Fields Stadium, home to Highlanders Football Club. Ever since I could read and write, I have been passionate about creative writing and reading fiction. The main stages I went through in reading fiction were comics – True Africa, Dandy, Beano, The Archies, then Enid Blyton, James Hardley Chase, African writers – the Drum group of the 1950s, Chinua Achebe and many others. Thrillers have also been part of my reading diet. I still enjoy comics and cartoons. 

I think my writing became more focused when I started the Crossing Borders course. Two of my short stories have been published in local anthologies. I hope to do my own collection of short stories early next year.'

Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:

'It was lunch time when I read the email. I stood up, closed the office door and then for about 30 seconds, I danced indlamu (a Zulu traditional dance in which one alternately throws his/her feet as high as possible). I tried to phone my wife on her cell, she was unreachable. I went to see Vanessa next door. She is the Assistant Human Resources Officer who typed the story and assured me that it was a good read, though she was not in her office. I walked some 100 metres to the IT administrator Mduduzi's office. I wanted to ask him scan the picture I would send you. He was not in the office. I went to the offices of two more colleagues. Both were not in.  I tried my wife again. This time I got her. She congratulated me but was in a noisy supermarket and so we could not talk much. I felt the need to look someone in the face as I talked about the winning entry. Though I was sure that Mrs Salvatierra, a colleague, was not in her office, I still visited her.  She was in with two more colleagues. I told them to stop whatever they were talking about and listen to me – for  I had submitted a winning entry.  They fired me with questions. I enjoyed answering all.  About an hour later, I saw Vanessa and told her about the win.  "Tell all those who subsequently read the story that I read it first," she said.'

Read about Mzana Mthimkhulu

Download 'First Love'

Biography:

'My name is Christopher Mlalazi. I was born 18 May 1970. I am a Zimbabwean citizen, a Ndebele, and I live in the city of Bulawayo, which is situated in the province of Matabelend. I work as an Acting Bursar in a local primary school. I am also a freelance playwright, and have written and showcased several stage plays with several local professional theatre groups. I am happy to say that at least in theatre I have achieved what I have failed to do in long years of fiction writing – that is to get my artistic work performed and appreciated by a large audience.

My major objective in artistic expression has been to attempt to write novels and get them published and read by the general public. I have written four manuscripts, which I call novels, which I have so far failed to get published. This is made further worse by the fact that currently in Zimbabwe fiction publishing is non-existent, because of hyper inflation, or as the critics of the government call it, economic mismanagement. I hope the Crossing Borders project will improve my writing skills and assist me to get my work to also cross borders and hopefully become international (big dream!).'

Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:

'Before I was selected for Crossing Borders I thought I could write, but after the course I now believe I can write.  In a short space of time, just six months, the project has enabled me to make a giant leap in the quality of my stories, an effort I think would have taken me eons had Crossing Borders not crossed my path.

Right now I am only published in short story anthologies; I have four novels I am trying to enrich; I am actively involved in  theatre as a playwright; I also write poetry; I am trying to market a feature film script... the list is endless.  I beleive in versatility, but first a writer has got to master one's chosen genre before experimenting with others.  My chosen one is prose.'

Download 'What am I?'

Biography:

Ayodele Arigbabu is a young Nigerian writer, born in 1980, and resident in Lagos, Nigeria with about ten years creative writing experience. He studied Architecture at the University of Lagos, where he was at different times the Librarian and President of the Pen Circle, an association of young writers. His short story You Live to Die Once won the 2001 Liberty Bank Short Stories Prize, his poem Livelihood got a honourable mention at the 2003 Muson Poetry competition. His stage play Moremi: The Legend Retold was staged in December 2003 at the University of Lagos Main Auditorium to an appreciative audience and is currently being prepared for performance in Oklahoma, USA.

His short story Special Secretary was shot in November 2004 as a Yoruba film. His interests lie in capturing dialogue, narrative and the vagaries of contemporary human existence in an urban matrix. He practices architecture in Lagos, and is a member of the Committee for Relevant Art, a cultural activist organisation and organisers of the annual Lagos Book and Art Festival. He writes comic book scripts, co-ordinates the Lagos Comics and Cartoons Carnival for Evolution Media and has a collection of short stories entitled Blues Tones published by Evolution Media, Lagos in 2004 in the Three Kobo Book, a book of three authors on three genres.

Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:

'In one of my responses to questions asked in the participants evaluation form for Crossing Borders earlier in the year, I wrote:

'I feel efforts should be made to get at least one publishing house involved; to publish at least one author or an anthology from every country's Crossing Borders participants, every year. Before Crossing Borders started, there had been a glut of unpublished authors in Africa for ages, helping a select few increase their proficiency without the sense of accomplishment that publishing brings only serves to heighten that lack.'

Now that I find myself being published a few months after, I believe the online magazine is a laudable project which would multiply the worth of the Crossing Borders scheme to participants by several degrees.'

 '

Download 'Special Secretary'

Biography:

Fredrick Stembridge Mulapa was born in Zambia in 1973. He went to Mpelembe Secondary School, then the University of Zambia, and finally the University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Currently living in the capital, Lusaka, Fredrick writes both Poetry and Prose. The Asylum Seekers, a newly completed manuscript, is his first long piece of work.

Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders magazine:

'I was very excited when I learned that my novel extract had been selected for publication. The  only work I have had published so far are a few poems in Magazines and anthologies. Now I can consider myself a novelist.'

Download 'The Asylum Seekers'