An Interview with Zee Edgell

By: Gayle Vanderhorst
Tweetie211@Hotmail.com

Start with a Dream: An interview with Zee Edgell
The interview was conducted via e-mail after a lot of hard work on the part of Ms.Edgell and the group that worked with her.

Gayle Vanderhorst: Since all of your novels are set in Belize and you live in the United States, how do you stay abreast of the current political situations there?

Zee Edgell:  I stay abreast of current events in Belize through the newspapers, periodicals, newsletters, the Internet, regular visits, family and friends.  I also read history books, travel books, archival material and anything else related to the specific period in which my book is set.

GV: Why has the political situation in Belize influenced your writing so
profoundly?

ZE: The political situation in Belize has profoundly influenced my writing
because I am keenly interested in the process by which Belize (formerly
British Honduras) became an independent country in 1981.  I am also
interested in all that has happened since Independence.

GV: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an author from a
country that has produced very few authors?

ZE: The main advantage of being one of the few authors from Belize is that
there is so much history to work with: pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial.  The country is also very beautiful and a variety of ethnic groups make their home there.  There is little possibility of ever running out of fascinating stories to dream about writing, and perhaps, someday, to write.   For me, there are, quite honestly, no disadvantages to being an author from Belize.  Other Belizean writers, however, are hampered by a number of issues including access to books, education, economics, etc.  Sometimes I daydream that, one day, I may help to start an MFA program at the new University of Belize, but, so far, it is only a daydream.  On the other hand, where else does one start but with that dream.  Of course, many writers have written very great and famous books without a formal education, although they did have to educate themselves.

GV: How do the roles of women in America differ from their roles in Belize?

ZE: This question deserves an essay.  However, I will try to answer as
briefly as I can.  Belizean women, formally educated or self-taught, do very
well in Belize, at least they have done during the past two or three decades. Many of them head businesses, hold high positions in Government etc. However, like in the U.S.A., no Belizean woman has ever become Prime
Minister, and there is, I believe, only one female Minister of Government.  
The economically, and educationally disadvantaged, women, of Belize, do much less well, and far too many live in abject poverty.  One of the main
differences in the roles of women in Belize and those of women in America is that in Belize most hardworking women have limited opportunities to become economically independent.  In America, women have a far greater range of choices and opportunities.

GV: Politics, the influence of the matriarchal society, and the presence of
the Catholic Church are included in The Festival of San Joaquin and Beka
Lamb. What kind of impact did these things have on your life as you grew up?

ZE: They had a very great influence.  I attended Roman Catholic schools.  
From 1949 to 1981, Belize was struggling, in one-way or another, to gain its
independence from Britain.  This last could not help but affect everyone in
Belize.

GV: I read in a review of The Festival of San Joaquin that it was based on a
real incident. How much of the story was non-fiction? Did you change the
names of the characters? Are the characters on which the story is based well
known people in Belize?

ZE: I would say that although the story was inspired by a real incident in
which a woman kills her husband (not altogether a rare occurrence in Belize,
as elsewhere), what interested me most was what happens to a woman in Luz Marina's situation.  What does she do, and how does she feel, when she must change her goals, fight to survive, and more, to succeed?  The characters are not based on well-known people in Belize, or on any specific Belizeans at all.

GV: In Beka Lamb, is Beka's rebellious nature a symbol of Belize's quest for
independence?

ZE: I have never, consciously, tried to insert symbols in any of my work.  
At the time of writing the novel (written in Afghanistan, the U.S.A., and
finished in Bangladesh), I did not think of Beka's rebellious nature as a
symbol of Belize's quest for independence.

GV: What inspired you to be a writer?

ZE: Other writers inspired me to want to be writer. I love reading. As a
young girl, characters in books kept me company, as they still do.  Books
help me endure a number of otherwise seemingly unendurable hours, etc.  I
enjoy thinking about the characters long after the story has ended.   In the
1950s, we had no television, or telephone.  We did have a radio, and a
phonograph.   I wanted stories on the library shelves, among all the other
books, which showed my own perception of life in Belize.

GV: What would you like to tell young women aspiring to become writers?

ZE: Young women, I would say, read, read, read, whatever you like most, for that is probably the kind of book you are going to write.  Next, I would say learn your craft, by osmosis through books, and also by reading books by authors who write about the craft of writing.  Fiction Writing workshops are sometimes a good place to learn your craft.  You need to cultivate a lot of patience, you need dedication, and you need to want to write a book more
than anything else in the world.  If you have that last requirement, you
will find a way to overcome the obstacles that litter the road of all
writers, and you will succeed.