Award-winning poet, author and mother of four, Haroldene Tshienda, of Kuils River, published her fourth book earlier this month.
Raising four children, her youngest is one-year-old, hasn’t put the 41-year-old’s writing on hold. Her latest work, A Woman’s World, she says, is a rallying cry for all women.
“The book consists of 12 poems and is aimed at every woman, young or old. All woman need a bit of encouragement daily. Yes, we deal with our problems differently, but I am sure some can relate to another.
“My book speaks of my experiences and how I learned to overcome them, maybe it will work for another woman.”
The idea for the book, she says, took shape during the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign as she found herself “devastated” by statistics of women and children being abused.
Haroldene started writing at a young age and, after saving up enough money, she published her first book, Never Give Up, in 2015.
In the same year, she opened her own publishing company to help disadvantage writers get their work published.
“I have seen potential of good writers in my community, and I would like to help them get their work out there. At a low cost.”
In 2016 she published her second book, Moving from Pain in Power. And a third work, Black Poetry, followed a year later. It was inspired by her trip to Johannesburg, where she took part in the 40th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, representing the Western Cape legislature.
At the event, she took home the Department of Arts and Culture’s Contribution to Literary Arts in the Western Cape Award (“Kuils River poet has much to celebrate,” Northern News, April 2017.)
She is now working on her fifth book, teen novel called Teens and Their Things, due to be published later this year.
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