Inspiring Women Summer 2018

Bogotá: A Writer’s Advice – Complete the Book
VICTORIA KELLAWAY
American Women’s Club of Bogotá, Colombia
From: Kent, England
Lives: Bogotá, Colombia
I became a newspaper reporter at the age of
twenty-one. Most of my work involved despair. I
was the journalist who appeared in the
aftermath of horror, be it a single death or
thousands, asking those involved to share their
suffering. I believe that work is important, it gives
people a voice and it holds others accountable,
but it did take its toll. At twenty-seven I was ready
to escape and I chose the Galapagos Islands. It
was the most remote, fascinating place I could
imagine and an inspired decision. Three months
later, I was refreshed and keen to explore more of South America. I arrived in Bogotá,
Colombia, and found it irresistible. I decided to stay a while to study Spanish, dance salsa and
figure out what I wanted to do with my life. A few months became a year, and a freelance
writing career, and my first book was published four years later. I met my husband, Carlos, the
year the book came out. Sometimes I don’t know whether I chose Bogotá, or it chose me.
I was lucky enough to have a mother who read to me as a child and I still remember how proud
I felt when my parents first let me choose a book to read alone. But my relationship with reading
was not idyllic. A teacher confiscated one novel when I was ten, and my mother was called
into the school to explain. “She must have taken it from the bookshelf,” she said. “What are we
supposed to do, tell a child not to read?” I developed some anti-social tendencies, and often
had books confiscated so I would participate in family gatherings. And yet, I never understood
the relationship between writers and books. The only job I could imagine that allowed a person
t o w r i t e w a s
newspaper reporting
and that’s why I chose
it. It wasn’t until I was
nearly thirty that I
realised I could write
books too.
Since then I have cowritten
a satire on
Colombian culture,
called Colombia a
Comedy of Errors and I
have co-edited two
essay collections, Was
Gabo an Irishman?
(Tales from Gabriel
García Márquez’s
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