MarLa Sink Druzgal

I was happily surprised when a friend of mine just told me that she is planning to use our online book club in her class. I thought maybe she wanted to show her students the mind of an author at work, but she said her primary interest was in the questions themselves. She wants to show her writing students how to read as writers, and felt the questions coming in are exactly the way writers should be reading for the sake of their own craft.

Brilliant!

She isn’t one of my featured readers, so I didn’t even realize she was reading along. But after the latest Q&A with Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, she asked me for permission to use the site as a reference, and to print out portions of the Q&A to accompany passages from the books.

I was stoked. One of the best things I learned from my own writing professors was how to read like a writer. Reading is still enjoyable, but I rarely read without paying attention to craft. And the questions coming in from many of the featured readers for our online book club show that other writers read the same way.

As I’m looking through these questions coming in for October author, Niq Mhlongo, I can tell which questions are coming from writers versus those coming from the average reader. All questions are valid, of course, but it’s so much fun to see what each writer has been observing in a text, and what they ask of the author.

So who are these wonderful featured readers asking the brilliant questions? Well please take a look at their bios on the Featured Readers page, by clicking here. These readers, most of them already well-established writers, teachers and editors, are excellent at reading critically, and it shows through in their own work. Please take a little time to read their bios, and click through to their websites and read some of their work as well!

Are you a Creative Writing Teacher?

If you’re also a teacher of creative writing and you also find the Q&A something you can use in teaching your writing students how to read more critically, you’re more than welcome to direct them to the site, or print the Q&A. Just please make sure you talk about these wonderful authors who created all the interesting books to prompt those questions!

And please, I’d love to hear about how you use the material, and maybe even take a photo of you and your class so I can share you with the world!

Following are the July, August, and September Q&A with authors. You can join the book club at any time, whether you’re a writer or just an avid reader, by picking up a copy of the latest book and reading along. Then submit your questions by the middle Wednesday of each month to: marla@marlasinkdruzgal.com

July Q&A with Futhi Ntshingila

August Q&A with Nthikeng Mohlele

September Q&A with Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

I will be posting the Q&A for Niq Mhlongo by the end of October, and announce the winner of a signed book by Niq. In the meantime, please be reading Nothing Left to Steal, by Mzilikazi wa Afrika. Happy reading!

Love, MarLa