Friday, August 27, 2021

Sihle Isipho Nontshokweni On her love for Writing Children Books

Sihle Isipho with co - writer Mathabo Tlali 

International award-winning writer, story teller, PhD candidate, and the host of "The Ultimate book show", Sihle Isipho Nontshokweni had a telephonic interview with Bush radio presenter, Mkuseli “Khusi” Veto of the Morning Cruise on the 26th of July 2021, where she spoke about her book, “Wanda” and other projects that she is busy with currently, including her second book that is set to be available in September.  

Sihle Isipho hails from the Eastern Cape, in a small town called King Williams Town, and is a writer of Children’s books. Her first book is titled “Wanda”, she recently did a world read aloud story which was read to 3 million children in South Africa.  Her new book is titled “Wanda The Brave” and it is set to come out in September 2021.

Her love for writing children’s books began in 2015 while she was doing her Master’s degree at Peking University  in Beijing, China. She would go teach English to kids on weekends, and this is where she developed her passion for writing educational children’s books. She says she was amazed by the immense value of education there, and it is something that she was not used to in South Africa.

Back in 2016, when she was in South Africa, her mother was trying to publish her own book, Sihle got in touch with various publishers.  After she did some research about opportunities available to black women in South Africa, she was asked what kind of work she was looking to create at that time, her answer was “writing children’s books”. An opportunity presented itself, in terms of a competition and she took it, together with a friend, Mathabo Tlali, and that is basically how “Wanda” came about.

She mentioned that, the pandemic has affected her negatively, like most organisations because there is now less interactions, and that means she can’t do what she loves effectively to millions of children, and they have to improvise and do things online, like most people.

She also adds that they have a planned event which would either take place on the 16th of August or on 21st  August in Cape Town. The event would be a reading activation. For people who are interested to know more or to get in touch with Sihle, they can check her on Instagram. Her handle is: @wandathebook. Her personal account is @sihleisiphonontshokweni, and on twitter as well.

Presenter: Mkuseli Veto

 Done by:  Yandisa Qwabe

 

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