Author Pamela Power has started a #FridayRead series, in which she interviews writers about their work!

Pamela Power is the author of the novels Ms Conception, Things Unseen and Delilah Now Trending, and is also a television scriptwriter and script editor.

The interview series is called Reading Matters with Pamela Power, and the first author in the hot seat is Sue Nyathi, who was recently longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award for her novel The Gold Diggers.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new feature, "Reading Matters with Pamela Power". Head on over to our website, https://t.co/nmn6VDKsiq and become #AddictedToWords.#Fridayreads#ReadSA@pamelapower #SueNyathi#TheGoldDiggers pic.twitter.com/KX6KcrXl9s

— Go See Do Gauteng (@GoSeeDoGauteng) November 15, 2019

Power says:

Big thank you to Sue Nyathi for being my first author on #FridayReads. Her latest novel The Gold Diggers is published by Pan Macmillan South Africa. I highly recommend it!

In the interview, Nyathi chats about how she wrote her first novel when she was 13 years old, her experience of self-publishing her first book, and the snobbishness she has experienced in the book industry.

Pamela Power: The Gold Diggers has just been longlisted for the prestigious Dublin Literary Award. We all knew this was an award-winning book, did you have any inkling it was going to be this successful?

Sue Nyathi: I will be honest, when I wrote the book it was merely prompted by the conversations around xenophobic violence. I did not have any awards in mind when I wrote it; I was just keen for the world to hear our side of the story. When I wrote the Polygamist I remember being asked where I would want this book to go and I responded by saying, an award would be nice. Then I later discovered self published books were not eligible for mainstream awards so that whole award thing was pretty much aborted very early on in my career. For me the longlisting means a different thing. It is a recognition of the work I have done and an affirmation of my work. I had many doubts in the past about this writing thing. Even as a self published author you are looked upon with disdain, that you are not good enough. The funny thing is that in other industries e.g. the music industry, having your own label is great but in the writing industry self publishing is frowned upon. It’s like you exist on the periphery of the writing world. Many traditionally published writers would not even speak to me, such is the snobbery. I felt it. So even if I don’t make the shortlists or win the main prize, the longlistings say to me, we see you Sue. You are just as good as the rest of them. It validates me as a writer.

• Read the full interview on Go. See. Do. Gauteng

The Gold Diggers was also recently released as an audiobook. Click here to find out more.

• Read an excerpt from Sue Nyathi’s The Gold Diggers here!

Categories Africa Fiction South Africa

Tags Interviews Pamela Power Pan Macmillan SA Sue Nyathi The Gold Diggers