BP Fam, here’s a cool opportunity to learn the principles of writing (for free!) from one of Africa’s most accomplished literary voices.

The celebrated Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah was a guest on the podcast “In Conversation With Trevor,” hosted by the Zimbabwean publisher and newspaper editor Trevor Ncube, which brings together a variety of high-profiled professionals across various fields to engage in “candid, hard-hitting conversations” with Ncube.

Gappah’s masterclass is a detailed overview of the writing process. Drawing on anecdotes from her personal life and professional experience, Gappah lays down an extensive, comprehensible tutorial on writing. The 46-minute class touches on questions of how to write, characterization, and the role of first readers among others. We cannot recommend this video enough!

Petina Gappah is the author of short story collections An Elegy for Easterly (2009) which was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize and the Orwell Prize; and Rotten Row (2016) which was named The Guardian’s Book of the Day; as well as the novels The Book of Memory (2015), which was longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and won the McKitterick Prize; and Out of Darkness, Shining Light (2019) which won the National Arts Merit Award.

Watch the video here.