Brittle Paper’s Writer of the Month for May is Riley Hlatshwayo!

Riley Hlatshwayo is a trans nonbinary writer from Durban, South Africa, currently based in Johannesburg where she is pursuing a postgrad in creative writing. As someone who considered herself multifaceted, seamlessly blending her roles as a film and TV reviewer, book blogger and researcher, it all boils down to one thing: using her passion for writing and storytelling to spread awareness on the queer experience, personal development and mental health.  With a keen eye for representation and visibility, Riley crafts compelling pieces that resonate with people simply because they are written with the readers in mind, told with honesty and care.

She has written extensively for FunDza Literacy Trust, an organisation that prides itself in taking the culture of reading and writing back to the people, to the young and underprivileged. Through their writing, Riley seeks to illuminate the beauty of diversity and challenge societal norms, fostering a space for introspection and empathy. Whether unravelling the complexities of identity or dissecting the nuances of cinematic artistry, Riley’s words invite readers on a journey of exploration and understanding. You can find the rest of her work in publications like the Ake Review, SA Film Chronicles, Tagged! Magazine, and an anthology of short stories titled, Go the Way Your Blood Beats.

Let’s sit down and have a chat with Riley, our wonderful May Writer of the Month!

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Brittle Paper

Riley, congratulations on being our May Writer of the Month! This past month, I published so many of our pieces and there were a few stories that stayed with me but your story, “Fathers,” was my absolute favourite. So, as we kickstart this interview, let’s begin with how Riley Hlatshwayo became a writer.

Riley Hlatshwayo

There was a student teacher who gave us a writing exercise in primary school. I remember it was for Arts and Culture, and we had to write something on a number of topics. I wrote on HIV/AIDS and the weight that this has on love and family. I was a very weird kid, always had questions, always running my mouth. I owe that student teacher for indulging my curiosity and allowing me the space to begin writing. I think that’s the first time I actually started writing. I remember her continuously asking me to read the story for all her classes, making me ask the learners what they took from it. You can imagine how this feels for someone so young, to be put in this position, to be affirmed like this. I started writing more, reading when I could. The stories grew from there. I remember at some point when I started high school, I was doing comics and different mediums, writing stories based on my friends’ drawings and based on things I was watching. I was writing fanfiction before I knew what fanfiction was.

Whenever I think about that era of my life, I laugh because I did quite a lot of things then that I did not have the language for. The student teacher in primary school allowed me to dream and challenge myself, and the more teachers who read and engaged with my work, the better it all became. One person planted the seed that many other people would keep tending to until this big ass tree grew and grew [laughs].

Brittle Paper

I really love that! Having a teacher, at such a young age, nurture your creative side and allow you to tap into it is beautiful to hear about.

I have a tradition of asking a few random questions to help us get to know your literary side a bit more before we get into your writing. First up, what is the earliest book you remember reading and loving?

Riley Hlatshwayo

The earliest book I remember reading is a series of Mona the Vampire books I got as a gift from my grandfather’s employer. I lost myself in that world. When eTV started playing the animated series, you can imagine the excitement I felt to see things that had only been real in my imagination somehow manifest before my eyes.

That was only my childhood. I wrote about the book that changed things for me as not just a writer, but a queer writer, when I first started my blog. It was a book titled The Biggest Scoop by Gilian St. Kevern. I may have been a little too young to read a book like that, but it was the first time I read a book with a gay main character, and that did things for me. I remember I started writing freely about gay people after that. It was like I got permission to be, to finally put myself in the pages.

Brittle Paper

No one could ever overhype the positive power and influence artists have on people, and the way you describe the way Kevern’s book had an effect on you is testament to that.

Is there a book that you know people love but you (secretly) don’t see the reason why?

Riley Hlatshwayo

[Laughs] I wish I had intelligent answers like, Why are you reading Dostoevsky? (No jab to Dostoevsky, by the way. He’s just the only one at the tip of my tongue.) But no. I just judge people who read Colleen Hoover books. If she has no haters, then I must be dead.

Brittle Paper

[Laughs] I don’t know the likelihood of Hoover seeing this interview but let’s see if we get any angry emails.

Last of the random questions is, if you could have a dinner party with your favourite artists, who would they be?

Riley Hlatshwayo

Beyonce! [Laughs] I kid. I feel like a dinner party with James Baldwin, Akwaeke Emezi, George M Johnson, Ocean Vuong, and Nakhane would make for great conversation. It would be a bit interesting and chaotic considering that they have different personalities. But it would be nice to have my favourite authors, dead or alive, together in one space. They write beautifully, insightfully. Real life stuff. I wish I wrote as well as they do/did.

Brittle Paper

As someone who has published your work, trust me, you do a beautiful job of writing about real life stuff.

Now, let’s finally talk about the reason you are here! “Fathers” is an unbelievably well written story. You weave so many emotions and themes into this short story and your protagonist’s journey feels so real that it’s difficult to not feel their grief as if it were your own. How did this piece come to be?

Riley Hlatshwayo

I wrote Fathers (originally titled “On Fumbling Fathers and Manic Mothers”) as an assignment for my Creative Writing class last year. The brief was to write about a journey, or a story that ended in a journey. Something like that. The journey was the point of the story. I came into that space very angry at my dad, so much of my writing is like a middle finger to fathers and parents in general. The final product is due to the collective effort of my cohort, who helped me reel it in and ground the work into one resonant feeling: the longing that actually brought me to write about my dad. It has gone through a bit of changes since I got out of the writing class, adding and removing stuff every time I sent it out somewhere, but the yearning and anger remains. I am grateful that the grief resonates, because I wrote about the performing of the rites as something aspirational. I am a second child and my dad passed away when I was very young. I never would have had the opportunity. Writing about doing that for him was a gift to myself. I remember writing the bit where I mention how my protagonist feels a little bit apprehensive about owning the pride of doing that for his father. I feel like I wrote that to put it out there that the sadness and resentment is still there, but I still love that I did that.

Brittle Paper

I’m sorry you had to deal with such grief when you were young but it’s heartwarming to hear you writing that part as a gift to yourself. It takes a lot to be gentle with oneself and I’m honoured you shared it with us all.

It’s difficult to pick just one favourite but a part I really love in the story is:

“Be patient with him,” your Father said solemnly, his eyes never leaving yours and your hands clasped tightly in his. “He’s young and scared. You’re both very young and don’t need to have everything figured out just yet.” Your Father never got to know this, but this conversation saved your relationship with the boy who will come to be your husband. That conversation taught you to approach a terrified boy with kindness, and you made him feel safe to do the unthinkable. Something many boys like you are never given space to do.

There’s this deep warmth you feel towards the dad in this section, and a growing understanding and protectiveness for the main character. You really do an amazing job of navigating the themes of relationships, fathers and sons, romance, grief, and the cultural aspect of the ritual being performed.

Riley Hlatshwayo

I am so glad [laughs]. As I mentioned in the question before this, there were many opposing feelings when I wrote this. I walked into the writing class with the goal to work on my descriptive writing (I felt like I told more than I showed) and how to write emotions better. My classmate, Josh, a very intelligent guy, who writes amazing sci-fi, mentioned how this very scene was written so effortlessly, it was a surprise that I say I can’t write emotions. I just had to lean more into it, into the significance of gestures and what is unsaid. I continued, or tried to, do that throughout the story.

Brittle Paper

Until you said it, I would never have guessed that writing about emotions was something you struggled with because, as Josh said, it is so effortless and impactful. I’ve only had the privilege of publishing one of your pieces thus far, and I’m curious to know more about your writing process and also if there’s anything you like to write about more than other genres/topics. In this story, grief, family, love and tradition are at the forefront, are these the topics you like to write about or do you write about whatever the writing muses throw your way?

Riley Hlatshwayo

I don’t set out to write about my family. It’s something that just happens. I write a lot of speculative fiction, things rooted in folklore and African mythology. I used most of my writings to answer questions I have creatively—like, what would happen if a traditional practitioner had their ancestral gift stolen from them? From that question came Anemoia, a story about time travelling sangomas and the dangers of having your gift stolen from you by your trainer. I like pushing the envelope. I like making the real fantastical because the real scares me most of the time, so I will exaggerate something to make sense of it, unmake and remake it into something different. Akwaeke Emezi called it worldbending, and it’s what I love about being a writer. I can be a god dismantling reality because it’s mine to do with whatever I want.

Brittle Paper

I love the phrase “unmake and remake.”

Your Medium page is where readers can go to read more of your work. What I really liked, and please do correct me if I’m wrong, is that your page is a great place to read articles and reviews of mainly South African media content and it was really great to browse. Over the past few years, me and my friends have been increasingly talking about how proud we are of the progression in South African media. Are there any South African books, series or movies you want to recommend to our readers?

Riley Hlatshwayo

Oh yes, that was by accident, by the way. I started the blog to write about any and all media. The South African angle started when I took a freelancing gig with these beautiful people who do amazing work of showcasing and reviewing the South African film and television space.

If you’d asked me this question last year, I would have said we have quite a way to go. I mean, we do, but we’re doing very well right now and there’s room to grow. Authors like Nozizwe Cynthia Jele, Angela Makholwa, Fred Khumalo, and the likes have always been my favourite. Streaming platforms like Netflix and Showmax have an amazing and engaging catalogue, my favourites currently being Justice Served, Catch Me a Killer, Youngins (which has talented young people on its writing team, as it should be with shows for the younger audience), and Red Ink. There are so many things to love, and the readers just need to check out my blog and social media. I post a lot of my thoughts and reviews there.

Brittle Paper

I don’t doubt they will go check out your pages, I know I will. I grew up consuming so many South African shows but as I got older, I kind of stopped. And lately, I’ve been feeling guilty about it so I will definitely be looking through your posts to see what to start with.

On Friday, your new work will be published. Without giving too much away, what can you tell us about it?

Riley Hlatshwayo

At this point, I am on the fence about what to send. I have two works that I’m playing with—”Exhumation,” is about motherhood, the matriarchy and how loss can be generational. “Postmortem” is a missive about unspoken words, regret, and someone using said unspoken words against you. What happens when someone tells your story for you, twists it as if it were their own?

Also, it’s not lost on me that both titles have deathly connotations [laughs].

Brittle Paper

Before we go, apart from your writing, Riley, what is one thing about yourself that you want to share with our readers? Anything.

Riley Hlatshwayo

I am not a very exciting person. I just write and rant, and dream of making short independent films that will be made available to watch for free on platforms like YouTube and Vimeo and wherever people watch things for free.

Unrelated: I also believe that we will see a free Palestine in this lifetime. We just need to do the work of using our collective voices and our positions to put to light the atrocious nature of this genocide.

Brittle Paper

I cannot agree more with your final statement and what an important note to end on!

Riley, thank you for sitting down to chat with us and for sharing your work with us. I really do hope Brittle Paper gets to publish more from you in the near future, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for when those independent films start taking the world by storm!

 

 

For more of Riley’s work, be sure to check back in on Friday, and for more interviews with our writers, check out March’s with Omobola Osamor here.