Collen Tonderai Demerez 'Lost Boy' Interview | Respect The Author
Where are you from?
I am from Manchester, England but I was born in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Tell us the story of how you got into writing
Writing was something I did for my mental health. It kind of just poured out of me most of the time. At first it was just poems and little silly songs I’d make up and then it got more compulsive and now I write literally everyday in one form or another.
What was your favorite book growing up?
Funnily enough I didn’t read much growing up I was always a visual person but the first book I ever picked up was Looking for Alaska by John Green and I’d say till this day it’s my favourite book.
What is your favorite book as an adult?
Letters to a Young Poet. It speaks so much to the struggle of a writer at any stage of life.
What is the name of your new book?
The name of my new book is Lost Boy.
What inspired you to write the book?
Short answer I fell in love. Long answer it was more this alignment of everything. The people I was around, the place I was living and the feeling I wanted to capture. I was in love with the essence of the situation I was in and that feeling inspired the book.
Tell us more about your new book
I would say my book was a combination of my experiences, I took everything I experienced and in some ways wished I had experienced and put it into a novel. I wanted to write a book about growing up and talk about how hard it was to be young, especially when you began to discover yourself. The story follows a young woman in her last summer in her hometown and how there comes a time in everyone’s young life that they have to make a big decision and a hard decision at that.
Though the main character is a girl when I wrote it I saw myself, I saw myself in all the characters and the way they made decisions and acted recklessly at times. There’s a yearning for more in this book that I think can be related to by many young people. Especially those trying to figure out their dreams or personhood, and most definitely those figuring out their sexuality.
Where do you go to get into writing mode?I usually can work anywhere but the trick is everything needs to be perfect and it needs to be at night where it’s super quite and everyones asleep. It can’t be too hot or too cold, mellow music in the background and ofcourse there has to be food near by cause writing is hunger inducing.
Who needs to read this book?
I think everyone young, of all races and backgrounds but also adults. I think this book has a great way of showing adults and children learning from each other and seeing that nobody is perfect no matter how old you get.
Who inspires you?
Black creatives, especially those at the top of their games. Barry Jenkins comes to mind, Issa Rae, Jay Z, Beyoncé. These are people that at some point could have given up, their skin colour surely worked against them many times but they never gave up. They used it to fuel them and change the narrative. I hope to do that with this book and the ones to come. To change the narrative around being different .
How important is reading and literacy for youth in this world?
It’s everything. Education is freedom, and reading and writing can literally change lives in so many ways. Every child should have that. Education is/ and should be a human right.
What is some advice you would give to someone with a dream to create something they dream of?
Do it. Just start. That’s the hardest part starting. Sometimes you think about something for so long and a year or two or three pass and you’re like I could’ve had this thing done by now, and it’s true. So just start, even if it’s bad. No one starts off good, not a single person. I’m sure Picasso had to draw a few stick men before he made masterpieces.
Where can people find your new book?:
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