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Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent
WINNERS of the #WeWrite online short story competition for primary and secondary school pupils have said their creativity was tested as they had to look for alternative means to gather information for their stories since they could not do much physical interaction due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The competition that was held on Wednesday saw Lister Gatawa, a pupil at Umvukwes Primary School in Mvurwi emerging as winner and walking away with ZW$800. Nokutenda Chimbetete, a Form 4 student at St George’s came out tops in the senior’s division and bagged ZW$1 500.

Lister Nyasha Gatawa

Chimbetete was followed closely by Rolihlahla Nyirenda, a Lower 6 student at Dominican Convent High School and Faith Baya, a Lower 6 student at Townsend High School who walked away with ZW$1 000 and ZW$500 for taking second and third positions respectively.

The junior division winner, Gatawa who was awarded for her short story on street kids said she was inspired to join the competition by her parents.

“I was inspired by my parents who encouraged me to use my writing skills to join the competition. I made use of the Internet to research some of the information and also communicated with important sources like my teacher and friends through WhatsApp and text messages.

“Writing has changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic as I couldn’t conduct physical interviews with some of the street kids and stakeholders like children’s homes,” said Gatawa.

At her school, the young and zealous writer has managed to scoop three accolades in English writing and was best English writer of the year in her Grade 4 class last year.

Heading to the seniors, Chimbetete clinched first position through a story titled The Storyteller.

“The story captures the anxieties that always come with writing any piece of fiction and those anxieties were even easier for me to write because I was already in a sort of anxiety over the state of the world, so I was best able to capture that feeling in writing.

“Writing has changed for the better during the pandemic and I think writers should produce more interesting stories as the lockdown has really forced us to take time alone, and that time alone allows creatives to introspect and better understand their own state of mind.

“That understanding of one’s own mental state allows those creatives to write more psychologically revealing characters, who in my opinion, always make a narrative vastly more interesting,” said the enthusiastic young writer.

Nyirenda, through the short story The Awakening celebrated diverse cultures.

Rolihlahla Nyirenda

“I wrote an African story that celebrates cultures that may seem uncouth to the rest of the world. I reimagined my topic in the most natural way possible to me and as a result, I produced my piece of work,” said the Girls College 2019 Literary Competition First Class Award winner.

Baya through her story I Have Something To Tell You said she used the platform to discuss impending problems, particularly those that revolve around women.

“With the pandemic rendering me incapable of physically discussing such important issues with my peers, I saw this competition as a platform to shed light on these imminent matters.

“Being at home amid the lockdown was a silver lining. I had enough time to come up with an idea, draft it, remove the unnecessary components and finally piece all the puzzles of my story together,” she said. – @mthabisi_mthire.