Finding Me

By Nissi Mutale

Who said beauty queens could not write? 'Finding Me' is the debut book written by Nissi Mutale the multi award winning blogger and Winner of Miss Southern Africa UK 2011. 'Finding Me' is a delicious combination of poetry and blog posts
taking its readers on a raw, emotional and yet refreshing journey of one woman's transition from girl to woman.
"I write to stay sane. When I write I am in my safe place. It also gives me a chance to think. When I am translating my muddled thoughts into a coherent set of ideas that will make sense, I am forced to find solutions. The writing process helps me to think beyond my problems and look at how I can go about finding answers. I fall in love with myself and begin to understand that I am only human, I will make mistakes but I will fight to learn from them.

Put simply I write to save myself from myself."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nissi Mutale
• Release date: Jan 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466136069

Nissi Mutale

Nissi Mutale is a Zambian born writer who grew up and lives in East London. She writes Chick Lit, poetry and essays on Black British culture. Nissi blogs about writing at: plantainperiodicals.wordpress.com and life at: nissiknows.wordpress.com

Book preview

Why do I write?

I write to stay sane. When I write I am in my safe place. Be it songs, poems, short stories, creative essays, writing brings me a sense of peace. It also gives me a chance to think. When I am translating my muddled thoughts into a coherent set of ideas that will make sense, I am forced to find solutions. The writing process helps me to think beyond my problems and look at how I can go about finding answers. I fall in love with myself and begin to understand that I am only human, I will make mistakes but I will fight to learn from them. Put simply I write to save myself from myself.

Part I: Paper Pills

This first section of the book is a collection of peoms I wrote between the ages of seventeen and twenty one. It was a big time of change, pain, heartbreak and discovery. During this time I learned that pride certainly comes before a fall, learned to love wholeheartedly and have that love thrown back in my face, how to push past painful situations with a bag of lessons so that I do not make the same mistakes again and how to trust God even when my world was seemingly falling apart around me.

I called this section ‘Paper Pills’ because my words were a kind of mental and emotional medication for me. I can honestly say that writing has been and continues to be one of the greatest releases I have. I have given you the poems in their raw state; you will read of my anger, hunger, love, lust and confusion just as I felt it. My hope is that I will evoke a reaction in you that will cause you to think about your life and therefore find a strange but very real remedy in the