Mentor, writer and story-teller, Dorian Haarhoff, spent time with the Rhodes fourth year writing class answering questions about life, writing and books.
What would you be if not a writer?
Some sort of a homegrown philosopher. I have a need to communicate with people. Maybe I’d be a travelling monk. Or a pilgrim like in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Mentor, writer and story-teller, Dorian Haarhoff, spent time with the Rhodes fourth year writing class answering questions about life, writing and books.
What would you be if not a writer?
Some sort of a homegrown philosopher. I have a need to communicate with people. Maybe I’d be a travelling monk. Or a pilgrim like in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
When do you know you have a final draft of a story?
Sometimes after the seventh or eighth version, I go back to the one I’m happiest with. I also test my drafts with writer friends who will be honest.
Has your writing changed over the years?
I hope it has got more simple. I like to think each work is like a cloudy glass. After time, it settles.
When did you write your first story?
When I was eleven, my father died. I wrote a poem to try to hold my grief. Then I began to trust words.
Where do you get the stories that you tell?
A lot of people send me stories, or I often read them in books. Every culture has stories, and you begin to notice them everywhere. Every fiction is someone’s life story.
Who is your favourite poet?
Gerald Hopkins’s use of language and enthusiasm inspired my writing. Also Robert Frost and Geoffery Chaucer, who talk of the long road to crafting one’s writing.
