‘Most wokeness I happen to come across is dependent on brokeness’ – Phumlani Pikoli chats about his debut book
More about the book!

Image: Pan Macmillan

Pan Macmillan sat down with author Phumlani Pikoli to chat about his debut book, The Fatuous State of Severity.

The Fatuous State of Severity is a collection of short stories exploring themes surrounding the experiences of a generation of young, urban South Africans coping with the tensions of social media, language insecurities and relationships of various kinds and fiction in the age of ‘literati’.

Pikoli reveals he is working on his next book.

Read an excerpt from the interview:

The book reflects your ‘wokeness’. You don’t shy away from engaging in controversial dialogues around cultural and socioeconomic divides. Do you think these stories have the power to speak to youth of different backgrounds?

Woke is a weird term for me. Most wokeness I happen to come across is dependent on brokeness. But I hope I’m woke? It’s weird the book has meant a lot more than I expected to, to different people. Like it’s lit to hear from people that this isn’t purely a pity party of privilege.

What shapes and influences your bold approach and ideas?

I want to write and I like stories, so it’s dope to try figure out different ways of telling different stories. Or the same stories in different ways.