Perseverance pays off for young writers
Perseverance has paid off for a young rural school boy and his school mates.
Despite their background, young learners from Hudson Ntsanwisi Secondary School in Nkowankowa have written and published an anthology that consists of eight short stories, two plays and 42 poems.
Jackey Mukhawana from Dan village outside Nkowankowa, came across an advertisement online placed by William Jenkins a retired Information Technology person from Vancouver, Canada.
Jenkins was offering South African authors a chance to publish books. Mukhawana saw this as an opportunity to spread his wings and show the world what he is capable of.
Mukhawana faced many challenges to get his stories to Jenkins, he had to type his stories on his cell phone and email them from it.
Despite all odds he managed to have his first book published but only 21 copies were printed. Soon after that Mukhawana convinced his friends to write poetry and send it through to Jenkins.
They did it and after a year Jenkins printed “An anthology out of South Africa” which was written by Jackey Mukhawana, Alter Mathebula, Eustacia Nhlangweni and Bekazi Mboweni, all learners at Hudson Ntsanwisi.
Mukhawana and Alter Mathebula are from Dan village, Eustacia Nhlangweni from Petanenge village while Bekazi Mboweni is from Nkowankowa town ship.
The anthology was printed by a company in Cape Town, this reduced the printing cost.
The first book was printed in the USA and the costs were a bit steep because shipping had to be included.
“Our target audience is the youth as our book offers encouragement and advice “We want to encourage the youth and to empower themselves through reading. The students wish to publish a novel one day and they have developed a passion for writing” said Mukhawana.
“I would love to study Actuarial Sciences, but I don’t think I would ever stop writing,” said Mathebula.
The learners struggle a lot with typing and sending emails and have planned to save up the money they make from the sales of these books to purchase a laptop, which they will be able to use to make their work easier.
Mukhawana makes it a point that he encourages his fellow learners at Hudson Ntsanwisi by reciting poetry at the school assembly.
The four writers say they hope to inspire teenagers not to give up on their dreams even when their situation may be challenging they must study hard and everything will fall into place and they would really appreciate support from the public especially young people.
Lukas Groenewald, Manager Editor of the Herald group of Newspaper was the first to purchase three books from these upcoming writers.
An anthology out of South Africa’ book costs R100 and can be found at Barry’s Bookshop, shop 19 Dannie Joubert street Tzaneen, Letaba Herald offices at 32 Boundary street Tzaneen, Hudson Ntsanwisi Secondary School in Nkowankowa or you can contact Eustacia at 076 884 9358.
For more information about the book contact Mukhawana on 074 454 1600.
