30 May 2023

A book authoured by Gothataone Moeng titled Call and Response is a collection of stories about ordinary people and how they find meaning in their lives.

Speaking during the book launch at Exclusive Books in Gaborone on Thursday, Moeng, who holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts and Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi, said she feels proud to have persisted with the dream of publishing a book.

She said even though she had had stories published in journals and anthologies over the years, Call and Response was her first actual book. “I am particularly excited that the book is now available in Botswana and will be accessible to readers here,” She said.

Explaining more about the book, she said the short stories were set between Serowe her home village and Gaborone with focus on women as her area of interest.

The former journalist with BOPA and Mmegi said the stories were about women who had to find ways to navigate the constraints of patriarchal culture alongside seeking to pursue individual goals and accomplishments in a modern and globalised society.

“Readers should expect characters that may feel familiar to them, who are grappling with universal themes and longings such as the desire for love, whether familial or romantic,” she explained.

Also, Moeng said readers would come across characters that want to self-actualise and those dealing with abandonment and difficult familial relationships including those who are grieving and coming to terms with death.

She said she was happy to have been inspired by the talent shown by Batswana writers in the likes of Wame Molefhe, Botho Lejowa, and Lauri Kubuitsile, who had been publishing books over the past decade. 

“This means that I am adding to the national literature, and to the myriad voices that are attempting to tell the Botswana story,” said Moeng.

As a Motswana writer, Moeng said over the years, there had been growth within the literary space in Botswana, which was evident from the number of books that had been published and the number of people who were interested in writing.

However, she said the growth was impeded by lack of support from institutions that should be supporting writers.

Adding to the challenges that writers found themselves in, she said was limited resources to train and develop those in the literature space such as writers, editors and publishers.

She, therefore, suggested more training including fellowships and residencies that could allow writers the time and space to fully devote themselves to their work. 

“Writers should be offered annual grants and funds that can allow them to take some time from their job to focus on finishing book projects. Government should also give publishers grants to help subsidise the publishing of books so that more books are published to international standards and can be distributed outside of Botswana,” she advised.

She further emphasised the need to recognise writing and literature as a profoundly important part of cultural expression, adding that, ‘literature reflects our society, how we see ourselves as a nation, how we find meaning and grapple with the complex problems wrought by modern life, how we connect our past to our present life and attempt to forge a better future.”

Moeng is a 2023-2024 Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellow at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA.

She was also a 2022-2023 Fiction Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Centre in Provincetown and a 2018-2020 Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University.

Her writing has also received fellowships and support from Tin House, where she was a 2019 Summer workshop scholar and recognised by Public Space as a 2016 emerging writer fellow. 

Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, the Virginia Quarterly Review, American short fiction, Public Space and the Oxford American. Her book Call and Response was published by Viking/Penguin Random House, a US publisher and Oneworld a UK publisher.

It has received positive reviews in some American and UK journals and magazines. Ends