James Fungai Maposa – Founder & CEO
I am a poet, lyricist, writer, editor and publisher with a passion for the arts, including the provision of a platform for other young- and like-minded artists to showcase their work to the world.
Writing for me is a necessary outlet to express myself. I have found that my message carries further each time that I write my thoughts down when compared to me saying them. There’s beauty in assembling words together to mean something and bring emotions to life. This beauty has been experienced through first starting my own blogspot and then co-authoring an anthology. I was disheartened by the fact that most publishing houses turned our manuscript down. It made me feel that I wasn’t good enough. In spite of this setback, I entered a few poems from the anthology into a few poetry competitions. The result of this initiative was overwhelming, with us winning or being listed as finalists for a few of these competitions. This restored my hope in our work and encouraged me to go the distance on my own. I engaged an editor to proof-read our manuscript and self-published “at the poet’s Lounge” in November, 2016. This was a very proud moment for my co-author and I; a moment I shared with all who knew and knew about me. This sense of pride compelled me to start my own publishing company. There’s a lot of undiscovered talent out there and based on the experiences that I have gone through, I want to help some of them get their work shared with the rest of the world. I want them to feel as proud as I did when I published my own first book. Tracy Publishing provides them with this platform…
Why Tracy?
The company is named after my daughter’s second name Tadiwa Tracy. Like most children, reading is less of a priority when compared to playing with her friends and watching television. Based on this, her and I have had many fights with me pushing her to read more and more with each passing as there is a lot of amazing literature waiting to be consumed by her beautiful brown eyes. From a practical standpoint, your interest in reading grows if you know the author or have some sort of a relationship with him. I have a few friends who have gone the short- and full-length novel route and am first in line to take a look at their work. With this in mind, I challenged my daughter to try and write a story each day that I would get to read. I became her audience and challenged her to write whatever came to her mind with little to no guidance from me. The result if this challenge has been amazing with her writing about what happens at school, her family and friends and things she loves and hates. Her writing has opened another door to her life, letting me into her magic both from an intellectual and emotional perspective. Based on her contributions being some of the highlights of my day, I in turn challenged myself to do more from a writing perspective to show her how important reading and writing were in terms of our civilization and socialization. I remembered starting a blog in 2008 which a friend and I often posted on to explore our writing talents. I reviewed this work and converted it into a co-authored anthology titled “at the poet’s Lounge”. Self-publishing at the poet’s Lounge exposed me to the trials and tribulations that writers go through when putting their work together and seeking for a publishing deal. These trials and tribulations compelled me to start my own publishing company. A company committed to supporting burgeoning talent to build their work to life and share their magic world. As my daughter grows and perfects her art, I trust that one day she will want to share her magic with the world. Tracy Publishing hopes to be the first place she gets a hold of when she has something that she’d like to share.
