Poet pens debut book at 69

By Trevor Makonyonga

It was an inspirational day at Methodist Church in Zimbabwe, Twinlakes in Norton as 69 year old first time author, Amai Angela “Pikitayi” Chirenda Rugara launched her book, Emotional Evolution.

Speaking to Bustop TV, Pikitayi gave an account of the inspirational journey which influenced her book.

“I have always loved poetry since my school days. Through my many years of reading novels, business books and etc I always found myself plucking out quotations from each read including the Big Book the Bible. As much as I compiled these sayings I never thought I would write a book myself. VaChikepe The Poet kind of hoodwinked me into his artistry and I felt comfortable in his space.”

Pikitayi also said that international award winning poet, Takudzwa “VaChikepe the Poet” Chikepe was very instrumental in her writing career.

“I got inspired to write poems but with hesitation. I was not certain that my poems would make sense. I wanted my poems to be educative or depict feelings that had been shared with me or that I observed but not expressed. I was not afraid to fail but wanted passionately to transform lives through poetry. This is how my journey began to write and I will keep going. It took me a good amount of time to be confident in penning thoughts , emotions and experiences. My mentor VaChikepe was extremely encouraging and bullied me positively to get more out of me. His energy and passion for poetry is absolutely amazing . I just had to be his number one student as his oldest student at 69 years old. I had to make him proud . I worked very hard and managed to publish my first book within a year of writing poetry with VaChikepe’s help off course,” said the author.

She added that she is currently working on more anthologies.

Pikitayi said, “I have three , four more anthologies in progress with at least one to be published around July 2021 all being equal. I successfully wrote short stories that roused interest for more, so I am actually working on a novel from one of the short stories urged by my readers’ demand for more of the story.”

The Emotional Evolution anthology was edited by Zolisa Gumede and published by VaChikepe.