May Ifeoma Nwoye is a professor of Business Administration and a former Bursar of the University of Benin, Edo State. A former Vice-President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Nwoye is presently a staffer of the IBB University, Lapai, Niger State. She is the author of Oil Cemetery; Broken Melodies; Death by Installments; Endless Search, A Child of Destiny; Blind Expectations and more. In this interview with Edozie Udeze, she talks about her deep love for books, her foray into writing and more
What sorts of books do you like most?
Generally I am not particularly ruled by categories; I am an academic so every book is of interest. But in terms of creative work, I love detective stories, indeed any book that engages people with suspense.
I love to read works of fiction. As you know, fiction books are ones that have been made up. Perhaps some of their elements are based on hints of truth, but they have been elaborated, fabricated, and used to embellish into a true story. I also like satire, specifically political satire, which commonly takes the form of ridiculous and contemptuous politicians. Classics are also of special interest to me. Mystery and action also appeals to me to a reasonable extent.
When you read a book, what are the salient things you look out for most?
For creative writings, I look at the settings, the plot, characterization, and then the message the story is attempting to convey. I am always excited at the climax of the story as well as the resolutions. I also look out for the protagonist as well as the antagonist. Somehow one of them usually captures my attention and I put myself inside the character and travel with the writer. It is funny, but that is how I assimilate the stories and it becomes part of my knowledge reservoir. Suffice it to say that good writing also consists of mastering the fundamentals like vocabulary, grammar, and the other elements of style.
Who are your favorite authors in the world and why?
My favorite authors of all times, comes from various background and style- Jane Austin. Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Chinua Achebe, Ousmane Sembène, Cyprian Ekwensi, Buchi Emecheta and surprisingly James Hardley Chase and a few others.
When and when do you like to read and what time and why?
It depends on the type of book you are reading. If I am reading a text book. I want a very quiet environment in the evening or early hours of the morning without worrying about distractions, disturbances. If it is a book of entertainment or creative writing, I read any time of the day even in a plane or train or car.
What is your preferred literary genre?
Novels and short stories are my favorite genre. Poems appeal to me as well. Ocassionally drama. I prefer watching drama piece than just reading it.
Classic novels offer amazing interest to me in particular. They usually have memorable stories and interesting characters.
They can teach you a lot about how people live and what society is like even in the past. Novels of Times by Charles Dickens remind us of the poverty in London during the Industrial Revolution while Jane Austen’s fiction shows us what family life was like in the 18th century. Man of the People by Chinua Achebe told me the story greed and corruption of post-colonial period in Africa and so forth.
People who are interested in history or philosophy can read classic novels to find out how ideas have changed and how the world became what it is today.
The impact they make on me is always long-lasting, and they never dissolve with passage of time.
What book or books have had a greatest impact on you and why?
Apart from the Holy Bible, the book that is so outstanding to me in its all-time-truth is Animal Farm by George Orwell. The book is a political fiction. The work is so outstanding by the intense intelligence and wit of the author, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to tyranny, a passion for lucidity in language, and a belief in egalitarianism. It is probably one of the books the contributed to my interest in economic and social justice. Hear him:
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
-George Orwell
As a child what books tickled you most?
It was, if I can remember, a book called ‘African nights entertainment’ By Cyprian Ekwensi
“Put your money on this sheepskin,” said the old man, “and if, by the time I finish my tale, there is one of you awake, that man shall claim everything we have collected.” Young men, old men, children, women, they all put some money on the sheepskin beside the story teller…..”
They all fell asleep!
Indeed, the beginning of that book really captured my attention that I never wanted to stop until I almost finished it. But, like the rest, you won’t believe it, I fell asleep towards the end.
The other was the passport of Mallam Ilia by the same author: Cyprian Ekwensi. Mallam Illia, the brave adventurous young man in his prime of his youth. There was also this Drama Boy. And later Christmas Carol
At what point in your life did you begin to nurse the idea of becoming a writer?
I suppose a lot of writers will tell you that writing is therapy – and I suppose it is for me, in a way. I did not plan to be a writer. I didn’t even consider becoming a writer until, I recall, feeling overwhelmed with the prevailing situation at the time I started, having just returned to the country. It is; therefore, let’s call it, accidental good choice at the time of idleness.
It is absent of job that made me begin to write in the first instance, that was when I first returned to Nigeria after my education in the United States. I knew only very few people, so I started out by putting some of my observations down. Like I have consistently said, Nigeria is like a theatre. There is always so much going on at the same time and people trying to get in the way of one another, especially the way greed and lust have become part and parcel of Nigeria’s disturbing experience. In some of my writings you see how kindness and trust are oftentimes recompensed with back-stabbing, double-crossing, duping and general heartbreak. These are the events of our times.
But then, I’ve kept writing because I still have stories to tell, I still have things to say.
I’d like the world to be different because of my words, of course. I like to educate, to assist, to enlighten, to entertain. The body of my words is meant to take people a bit further along the path, so that they better understand who they are, who we are as people, how we are to live in light of reality.
How has writing shaped or reordered your life?
Indeed passion for writing can lead one to many different paths in the world of entertainment and media, apart from education. From reporting, to public relations, to writing scripts, storyboards, or advertising copy. But then, I am a teacher, I use my writing experience, which for the most part tell the stories of life and reality, during interactions with students. Like I often say, a writer carries the world and travels with it. Everywhere I go, places I have seen and events I hear about are all raw material to work with. So writing has made me to be more observant and more attentive to the actions and events of the society and the ecosystem if you will. So in a way, I might say that writing has carried me to where I never expected to be. Exposed me to people and events and it has helped me re-order my priorities to a large extent. Writing makes my universe!
If you meet your favorite author face to face what would you like to ask him/her?
I will never meet him. He is dead. Even if we have to meet on the ‘last day’, I probably will not recognize him.
What book do you plan to read next?
I cannot hold myself to any in particular for now because I am forever buying new books anywhere I go.
When I walk into a bookstore, Airport or any place books are available, I can’t help myself; I always buy one or many at the same time. When I get home I put them aside, often respectfully, as if they were works of art, displaying them on a bookshelf or propping them up on my bedside table, eager to start reading as soon as I have the instant. But I am usually very very busy.
You may not believe it, but days, weeks, or months may go by before you actually crack open one of these books. It’s not for lack of trying! When I finally do, sometimes I will be thrilled by all the learning and emotional depth and humor and writing quality that exists in this book that’s been sedentary within reach all along and I will be amazed that I waited so long open it. But that does not guaranty that I will finish it before I delve another one!
How do you arrange your private library?
I never gave it a thought. But then, I generally placed my books according to subject interest for quick reference in the first instance. But not so neatly arranged the way a good Librarian will do. Sometimes you find piles on the floor or by my bed, especially when I am researching.
Are you a reader and how often?
Like I have indicated earlier, I have occasionally set one good book down and picked up another, and forgotten the first nearly entirely, even though I could have been quite infatuated with it before. Sometimes I engage in two-ways of reading two books at the same time. Nonetheless, I will say that for me, there is actually no rigidity about the frequency or length of time.
But for reading generally, I read every hour, if you count reading the expiration date on canned food and drug labels.