Zimbabwean born and bred, Wisdom Ncube, got nominated to receive an Honoree award at the AfriCan Honoree Authors’ Awards in Johannesburg set for the 31st of July 2022, on his poetry anthology “Words of Wisdom”. Besides being a freelance writer on Upwork and Urban Writers, Wisdom is the editor of Cloutbase magazine. More so, he is an award-nominated blogger (www.hekimadaily.wordpress.com) at the 2021 AfroBloggers Awards. The self-published author has a poetry anthology available in print and on Amazon Kindle. Motimagz’s Anasha Maruziva had an interview with him, on a question-and-answer basis, as follows;
When did you start writing and how has been the journey?
Professionally, that is paid to freelance, it’s been 2 years but I’ve been writing since Grade 3.
The freelancing journey was hard at first because when you start off, you don’t have a profile and you’re a nobody but you have to work your way up which I did. In my first gig, I got paid $US10 and I was very happy, now I ghostwrite books of up to 30 000 words and I’m actually making a living from freelancing.
Quite some accomplishments you have achieved at a tender age. Congratulations on being nominated to receive an honoree award at the 2022 5th Annual AfriCAN Honoree Authors’ Awards. Tell us a little bit about that?
Thank you Anasha. After penning my anthology and publishing it, I was privileged through a close friend to note that Nomination submissions were underway for the awards. I then submitted my book and was then notified of the nomination on 31 May for the awards which will be held on 31 July 2022. The highlight of these awards is that one of my role models in terms of writing alone and not anything else, Joshua Maponga, received the award in 2020.
The poetry collection, “Words of wisdom” that you got nominated for, what does it encompass, and what made you write such?
My inspiration to pen an anthology was mainly inspired by the group of exceptional poets I belong to called Gourd Of Consciousness aka Intanga Hub of which I am privileged to be part, where I’ve had my poems featured in the Queensdale Report Newspaper & 3-mob.com. Words of Wisdom is the first volume of a collection of 20 poems that have been penned under deep thought and scrutiny of day-to-day issues. It is a multi-faceted expression of poetry in simplicity that takes the reader through a rollercoaster of emotions. From the stresses of everyday life to the cries of the girl child.
The beautiful love stories and the pain of regret. The sad and painful moments of life and the array of hope. From migration tales through to the pains of the girl child, one can only expect to be serenaded by the poetic reasoning of different scenarios that apply to life. I wrote this anthology in honor of my late mother of blessed memory because she believed in my writing gift from a young age and this is the best way I could thank her.
How can we get a copy of this book?
Because the book was Self Published in South Africa it is available at the Bridge Bookstore in Johannesburg however hard copies are available also on-demand in Zimbabwe as well as the soft copy through arrangements and through Amazon Kindle.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see myself as a 6 figure freelance writer, probably a multi-award-winning best seller with a self-publishing consultancy.
As a self-published author, what have been your greatest challenges and how have you managed to overcome them or cope with them?
Marketing my book has been the greatest challenge but with the drive I have, I managed to self-sell as well as approach book stores and strike deals as with the Bridge bookstores. It’s progressive. I’m learning as I go.
What words of advice would you give to the upcoming authors, bloggers as well as freelance writers.
Where there’s a will there’s a way. Every dream is achievable.
In this internet age, opportunities are limitless. If the mainstream media won’t help you climb the ladder, the internet will.
Everything is living on the internet. All the high earners are on YouTube, Upwork, Tiktok, the list goes on.
