Goretti Kyomuhendo

thumb Goretti Kyomuhendo is an Ugandan novelist and the founding director of the African Writers Trust and TUBAZE African Books. Quotes My ideas come from my immediate surroundings, really. I never have to stretch my imagination very far. There are simply too many stories around me. Goretti states how she gets ideas for her writing For me, writing is like a calling. To be honest, I think it is about the only thing job-wise that I really care about. It’s what I want to do with my life. If it was for the money I would have stopped writing long ago because I hardly earn anything from my publications, especially those published in Uganda. But I love doing it. Goretti talks about the love for writing even as it’s not a full time paying job but only for the right reasons, which should include the love for writing. Very few writers make it big with the first book. Most writers I know have to keep at it for several years, and success comes after a long, long wait, for some, with their tenth book. So, yes, go for it if that’s what you really want to be. It’s hard work, it is frustrating most times; there are no guarantees and it can be extremely lonely and makes you feel isolated. Goretti advise to someone that wants to go into writing When writing, I draw from both languages and cultures. As I have already said, the moment I started speaking and writing in English, it became a part of me, but at the same time, my mother tongue, of which I continue to express myself with my immediate family, is a part of me as well. When I’m writing there is always, for example, the issue of the proverb. A proverb in my mother tongue often has no equivalent in English. So I always have to struggle with that. How do I convey my feelings, my true emotions because they are embedded in this proverb, in this song, in this idiom which has no equivalent in English? In my language sometimes, it’s one word or one line. By translating it into English I have to break it down in phrases, and then it doesn’t have meaning anymore. I’m trying to describe it. At worst, I leave it out, because I don’t want to explain it, or because at times I simply don’t have the words to explain it. When I leave it out, I sometimes feel a little inadequate, thinking that I haven’t really expressed my emotions, that I have failed to express my feelings, because I don’t have that language that I can express it in. Then in Uganda, we have certain types of food and vegetable, which cannot be found anywhere else and have no equivalent in English, but they are part and parcel of a Ugandan meal, culture, tradition, language. Goretti expresses the struggles of writing in English and trying translate some indigenous cultures into English External links Category:Living people Category:1965 births Category:novelists from Uganda