Featured Interview With Cornelia Fick
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a South African writer. I live in Johannesburg with my family and two dogs. My debut collection of short stories was published in 2017. I’m currently writing a historical novel about slavery at the Cape. In my spare time I like to go to the movies, read and play the computer game ‘Plants and Zombies’.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve always been an avid reader and told stories to my siblings on cold winter nights while we waited for my parents to arrive home from work. I started writing in primary school, mostly songs, which was, unknown to me at the time, an induction into poetry.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read anything I can find but my favorites are the classics. I like the work of Tolstoy, Hemingway, the Bronte sisters, John Steinberg and Jane Austen.
My late father, who also wanted to write but never got around to it before he died, inspires me to keep going no matter how many rejections I collect along the way (and there has been many)
Tell us a little about your latest book?
I’m hoping to have my historical novel, The Weight of Bodies, (working title) published next year. My research took me to the archives but also to tourist attractions which seem to omit the slave element. For example, long before Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, there were other political leaders -exiled royalty from South East Asia forced into slavery, chiefs of the local Khoi, etc.
The book is about Amberike from Abyssinia, an 11-year-old girl who catches the eye of a hardened slave master.
My collection of short stories, Eye of a Needle: And Other Stories, originated in the MA Creative Writing at Rhodes University. As an older writer this course lifted me out of depression and put me in touch with who I was. I found my voice and I’ll always be grateful for that.
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