A businesswoman. A mother. Margaret Chideme never imagined that should become an author. However life somehow decided it for her. What started as just really long Facebook posts, developed into a blog and then a book. Yet this is only another chapter in Margaret’s writing journey. As far back as she can remember, writing has always been a part of her identity.
“Writing has just been a part of who I am. I can’t even say I fell in love with it, it’s kind of like having a leg… I guess I’ve just always been a writer.”
Margaret Chideme
In high school Margaret used to write a lot of fiction, something she thinks played in the writer she would become. High school was followed by a lull in her writing but soon she would start doing really long Facebook posts. Spurred on by the comments she received, Margaret would start a blog titled “Maggie’s Diary”. A place she describes as home.
“It’s a place [Maggie’s Diary] that serves me as much as it serves the reader. I’m grounded in my truth when I write there. I write about life’s truths according to my perception. It’s filled with memories about my childhood and my ideologies on love, life and identity.”
Margaret Chideme
Although writing was a constant part of her life Margaret says she just stumbled into becoming an author. She considers it something that just happened as she got older, spurred on by the comments people would leave on her very long Facebook posts.
In 2021 Margaret finally published her debut novel. A poetry anthology titled “First Thirty”.
“First Thirty is literally my life story. All the poems are very personal and most are about my experiences and the experiences of those close to me. First Thirty is a poetry collection about love and lust, pain and abuse, womanhood, divorce, searching and rediscovery. The poems speak of the different phases in a woman’s life, her most raw inner thoughts, and it also pays tribute to people who have been instrumental in my life.”
Margaret Chideme
In 2022 Chideme was named as part of the debut Scripts & Bars cohort and in 2023 she founded Lifeline Publishing House Zimbabwe. Chideme hopes to not only keep expanding horizons with her own writing but she also hopes to help overlooked Zimbabwean author’s get published.
“The most satisfying part of my writing journey has just been the opportunities and the experiences that writing has afforded me. I think it’s just opened up a different world where I’m constantly surprised by how far it’s taken me and just having these magical experiences because of the writing and also when people actually read the book and they resonate with it and it touches them in a way, that’s very satisfying for me, it makes it all worthwhile.”
Margaret Chideme
Margaret Chideme is part of ‘Tha Plug In’, a Creative showcase by the British Council in partnership with #enthuse Magazine.
