Petina Gappah

thumb|Petina Gappah in 2016 Petina Gappah (born 1971) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. Quotes A lot of my writing is triggered by something true, either something I read in the papers, something I overheard—I am an inveterate eavesdropper—or something that happened in my very large, and very extended, family. And yet it is precisely those things that no one believes are real. I think I am most successful when I write about people who are as different from me as possible That’s how I want to write, constantly improving, and surprising myself. Honestly, if you have not achieved your vision at the age of ninety-three, after a fairly autocratic rule of thirty-eight years, it may be time to go into a different line I am interested in writing into being a Zimbabwe that feels complete, and not one that is only peopled with those of whom I approve Humour is absolutely the lens through which I perceive the world It is hard not to find humour in Zimbabwe’s politics and current state of absurdity On what she typically writes about in “Exclusive interview: Petina Gappah speaks about the highs and lows of her writing career, and reveals details of her next book” in the Johannesburg Review of Books (2017 Sep 4) I think I am a better writer for being a lawyer. My mind is pretty chaotic because I am interested in so much, but it has been disciplined through my legal studies. I want to believe I am more measured in my responses to events, and that I am more analytical of my own motivations and self-justification. I am strongly opinionated but I have learned the gift of dispassion… On how being a lawyer shaped her writing in “Exclusive interview: Petina Gappah speaks about the highs and lows of her writing career, and reveals details of her next book” in the Johannesburg Review of Books (2017 Sep 4) Authentic is one of my least favourite words because in such a diverse country, whose authenticity are you talking about? On being considered an authentic Zimbabwean writer in “Petina Gappah interview: ‘I’ve written a very Zimbabwean story – we keep a lot of family secrets’” in The Guardian (2015 Sep 5) I think it’s become clear to people what my motivation is. I am not simply anti-government, and I’m not in opposition to any one person; I want to write about all the things that I think are making us into an unkind society… On her motivations as a writer in “Petina Gappah: ‘I want to write about what makes us into an unkind society’” in The Guardian (2016 Nov 13) External links Category:Novelists from Zimbabwe Category:Short story writers from Zimbabwe Category:Lawyers from Zimbabwe Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:Women authors from Zimbabwe