Category: Arts & Life

Maik Nwosu is Professor of English and chair of the Department of English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver, Colorado, United States. A recipient of the Nigeria Media Merit Award for Journalist of the Year, Nwosu is the author of a poetry collection, Suns of Kush; three novels — Invisible Chapters, Alpha Song, and A Gecko’s Farewell; and a collection of short stories, Return to Algadez. He has authored a number of academic books and essays. In this interview with United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU, Nwosu, who was Executive Editor of The Source, discusses his books, writing, migration and more. Excerpts: 

Your last novel, A Gecko’s Farewell, is in need of a younger sibling. When are you going to grant this wish?

I’ve actually completed other novels since A Gecko’s Farewell, and it’s my hope that they will be published soon. 

You are undoubtedly a huge literary figure. However, your fictional books have largely been published only in Nigeria. What problems have your agent encountered in marketing your unique stories to gatekeepers in America and the rest of the developed world?

I’ve had my manuscripts accepted for publication here in the US and also in the UK, but they ended up not being published. In the UK, I had a small publishing firm accept my novel for publication some years ago. I was working with an agency at the time, but it was a fellow writer who recommended my manuscript for publication. When I spoke with the agency, they dissuaded me from signing that contract. In the US, I had the editorial arm of a major publishing company recommend my manuscript for publication. But that was only half the story. I was later informed that the marketing team wasn’t as enthusiastic because they weren’t sure there was a significant market for the work. So, the search continues.    

I once read that you have an unpublished work titled Zero. You were also in South Africa to work on a book some years back. Do you feel bad that these projects have not become public property?

Not really. We travel an uncertain road. It’s called Life. My approach has changed over the years, something somewhat relatable to the “amor fati” concept popularised in some circles by Nietzsche. I can’t say I’m joyful either. The writer often writes with a sense of an audience, and the audience can help further or fulfill a work of art. I believe a book should be circulated and become part of an international republic of letters that exists in some form – even if it means different things to different people. 

You are Head of English Language department. What does this entail?

I’m currently the department chair for English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver. The chair is the chief administrative officer of the department, so that means representing the interests of the department and managing its affairs – schedules, budgets, student and faculty success, conflict resolution, everything. It’s not an easy job by any stretch, but there are processes in place that sometimes make things more manageable.  

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What courses do you teach and why did you choose them?

I was hired to teach Anglophone literature. The classes I teach are mostly on literary or interpretation theory, African and black diaspora literature, postcolonial as well as world literature, migration and diaspora, and semiotics. I’ve also taught creative writing workshops, although not recently. These courses reflect my core intellectual interests, and they often connect with my graduate studies at Syracuse University or my experiences and insights as a first-generation immigrant. My school has a predominantly white population, so I purposely focus on courses or texts that diversify our curriculum.  

What does it take to prepare students for a writing career?

The preparation here begins from kindergarten or first grade; kindergarteners or first graders learn about imagination and narrative frameworks, including how to respond to prompts. College creative writing workshops tend to focus, although differently, on similar or comparable things. In between those years, there are so many factors that play different preparatory roles – interest, reading, experience, environment. For a long time, I tended to believe that writing can’t be taught; you either have it or you don’t. But that’s not entirely true. There is talent, of course. But reading and practice and experience also shape the writer. I don’t think anyone can be led by hand and transformed into a writer against their will or without some talent.   

What makes a good writer?

Attention to form, the reinvention of form if necessary. The world is full of stories but not as many writers. The exceptional writer harnesses the resources of the imagination or distills experience into numinous nuggets that transcend time and place without necessarily being ungrounded in a particular time and place. We return to a great literary work like an old house that has become relatively familiar but which still remains inspirited and capable of fresh revelations or nuances. 

What does your writing process look like?

I often block out everything else to write. So many of my books, especially literary works, were written during writing residencies or the equivalent in Germany, Italy, South Africa, and the USA. During this period, I defer almost everything else and focus on the writing — until I complete a first draft. Before that time, I must have been thinking about the story or poem and playing with forms. When I actually start writing, I sometimes take a different creative path despite the preceding mental process. 

Is there any correlation between migration and the muse? Is it possible for a writer to lose steam after leaving home?

These lines in a poem by Esiaba Irobi come to mind: “Is this the fate/Of all fugitives? Is this their lot? That the more/ They wander, the more the world grows wide?” The world indeed grows wide in this context. Migration can be unsettling or disruptive, but it can also create new opportunities or chart new cognitive maps. Literary history has many examples of writers who created outstanding works or had life-changing experiences as migrants. It’s also possible to lose steam anywhere, at home or abroad. For me, writing is not simply a hobby or an occupation. I’m a writer deep in my spirit. 

The summer is around the corner. Do you have book recommendations?

One of my colleagues gave me a book today that I plan to read this summer – Agur Schiff’s Professor Schiff’s Guilt, the story of an Israeli professor who goes to West Africa “to trace a slave-trading ancestor.” My other recommendations include David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black and Boubacar Diop’s Murambi: The Book of Bones. 

Lola Akinmade Åkerström, a Nigerian-American, is a naturalised Swede on account of her marriage. She didn’t start out writing fiction. Creative non-fiction and travel writing found her first. She wrote and published two non-fiction books— ‘Due North’ and ‘Lagom’. In 2021, she released her first novel, a novel initially turned down by hordes of acquisition editors before it was accepted. That novel is ‘In Every Mirror She Is Black’. Its sequel, ‘Everything is Not Enough’, and another book, known now as ‘Deepest Well’, have got dual deals in the Un​​ited Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. deal is in six figures and the UK one is five figures. In this interview with United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU, Lola Akinmade Åkerström discusses gatekeepers in international publishing, what makes a good work of fiction and more. Excerpts: 

You have shattered the gatekeepers’ walls in the United States and the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe except in Sweden where you call home. How does this make you feel?

For me, it’s a testimony in believing in your own voice and fighting to use that voice. Some gatekeepers wanted me to water down my message before they would consider publishing my work but I declined. This work feels so much larger than my personal desires. I usually don’t like the phrase “giving a voice to the voiceless” because I believe we all have our own voices. But what I do believe in is using your platform to elevate the voices of others who are marginalised and aren’t being listened to because of all the metaphoric noise in various rooms. That’s what my debut novel IN EVERY MIRROR SHE’S BLACK was about.

Between creative writing and photography, which one brings you the most joy?

Both equally. I’m a storyteller at heart and I use whatever outlet I feel can tell a particular story strongest in the moment. Sometimes photos can speak a thousand words, other times photos can’t do justice to the written expression of emotions and feelings.

How have your strides in the global literary community affected your personal life?

I love that we’re seeing much more contemporary fiction where Black women are given space to not be perfect, make mistakes, and fail spectacularly too. Stories where Black women don’t have to always be strong or work twice as hard for what others get so freely. I love that literature is deeply individualising and humanising our stories, and giving us a wide range of emotions and genres. My work is about pushing us from a space of always surviving to thriving against all odds.

I have seen writers who write amid blaring music and noise. I have also seen those who need near absolute silence to work. Which group do you belong to?

 I love writing to music. Especially emotive songs which mimic or replicate the feelings my characters are experiencing. With each novel, I publicly share a Spotify playlist of songs which inspired me during the writing process. Here is the playlist for EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH – http://bit.ly/NOTENOUGH

What do you think makes a work of fiction great?

Complicated, messy and complex characters written with such rawness and realness they are triggering. When readers want to fight the author at the end of a book not because of the prose but because they have become so connected and attached to the characters as real people.

Your new work, Everything Is Not Enough, continues the story of Kemi and others. What messages are you passing with this book?

The book’s dedication already sums it up – “For the strong looking for safe spaces to be weak.”
In In Every Mirror, She’s Black, I created space for the women to make mistakes, be vulnerable, and be treated as individuals, while fighting society’s stereotypes of them.

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InEverything is Not Enough, boy do they make mistakes. But more importantly, they come out stronger on their own terms.

It’s an invitation for us as readers to challenge our ways of looking at the world, and for us to interrogate the true meaning of grace and gratitude, forgiving but not forgetting, surviving versus thriving, and simply being human underneath it all.

Are you an apostle of art for art’s sake or art for relevance?

Depending on the day and my mood.

 Summer is around the corner. What are your book recommendations?

I recommend the following three for now:

– My Life As a Chameleon by Diana Anyakwo

– Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli

– In Such Tremendous Heat by Kehinde Fadipe

Do you have any plan to transfer your writing knowledge to the younger generation?

I already do through my online academy GEOTRAVELER MEDIA here where I provide courses on storytelling, pitching, finding your nice, one-on-one coaching sessions, and much more – https://academy.geotravelermedia.com/

 Lastly, do you think writers are born or they are made on earth? 

Everyone has the potential to be a great writer. The first step is pushing fear aside and starting to use your voice, even if it’s a whisper. 

By Sanchitagi Ndakitabu Qasim

When a book became an ageless window on to a lively, transgenerational view point of intellectuals, creators and the ordinary people, the audience of writers, intellectuals, poets, critics, journalists, book lovers etc must only but give-in all their delicate attention to the inspiring author. Adams Page Bookstore at Machima Plaza, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, was filled-up to its bookish capacity, for a book bustling with wits to peers, muse, wannabes and enablers – Yogiza Jr’s poetic perspective is always keen to unravel the myth of individual dreams and aspirations.

In his vivid, acclaimed debut renaissance collection, Umar Yogiza Jr breathes life into wane beauties and plucks meaning from our boring everyday mundane ordinaries: failures, fears, traumas, love, rejects, yearns, hatred, grief etc. Umar Yogiza investigates as both behold and beholder throughout his book “Instrument of Immorality”, exploring personal and untouched sacred themes, such as religion, ethnicity, child-education, depression, teen marriage, domestic abuse, and the multiply neglected forms of violence that goes on unnoticed.

Inside my head the fire is everywhere, the flood is everywhere, the running is everywhere, the grief, the happiness, the fear and the war is everywhere and expanding and only verses was for me, said, Umar Yogiza Jr, a Devine contribution. I am from a small village of not more than five thousand persons, where everyone knows another to his great grandfather, and I am not from a rich family, poetry is the only commonest, cheapest and the easiest weapon in my kind’s hands for liberation against so multiple face slavery.

One Friday morning in 2012, Umar Yogiza said, I was buying a half ‘mudu’ of beans in Mpape market when I noticed, four people’s excessively beating up a boy of my age, dragging his heavy body through his ears towards an opened car, in the name of arrest. No one intervened, unless me with my mouth and a young man with his Samsung camera phone. Presumably they were plainclothes police officers, whose government uniforms had maybe erased all wrongdoing in their acts. I asked he camera, I asked he camera. In their retaliation, the police plainclothes officers arrested me and the boy into the car with the accused to the police station, they said we were a hostile witness. It would take a day and half before we were acquitted of the charges leveled against us. This is my country, he said, and this is nothing compared to what others had gone through. Only poetry can console me at such a moment.

Umar Yogiza’s voice is as gentle as the wind voices and the way they touch one‘s skin, in his title poem– Instrumental of Immortality, listen to him read it and you will fall in love not only with poetry but Umar Yogiza Jr a little bit too. To be sincere, he griped every one in the audience with the title Instrument of Immortality, a poetry of rare ingredients and old lyrical pleasure. he says. “As a poet the fortune of the society is in our wits, write even if you think you are terrible at it, write if you‘re good at it, and no one is ever good, a poet he said, should always try to be the best he can before he become dust. Behind him, beside him, above him, beneath his and on the table, all-brand-new in their glistening leather jackets are book of Adams Page New , as true as the author doing their very best to distract us from the seriousness of Yogiza’s eloquent poetry rendition.

Two years ago the poet lost his mother, I remember I read this poem to my mother and I remember how she laughed and laughed and thought no one would take the poem seriously judging by the way I expressed myself. Yogiza read with love and grief, he says. It takes a lot of courage to distance oneself from grief as poet after a painful loss, you have to at times let the words be their writer and let the objects speak for themselves. looking back he realised he‘s not the only one dealing with grief and loss and in points of fact, he have been grieving for so many things for most of his life, he said, being it friends, family, work, etc. grief is collective phenomena. I think we grieve everyday it depends on what. I believed Yogiza said, the poetry becomes a meeting point where we can meet each other at that moment of our lives.

There are potent anecdotes, buried deep in Yogiza JR’S Instrument of Immortality for every reading, he prosaically braids together his life and poetry in a simple modern way.

 In the audience that includes the awards winning poet and dramatist Mallam Denja Abdullahi, the poet and critic Paul Liam, Poet, Reviewer, and book promoter Salamatu Sule, Poet, writer and literary promoter Hussain Zaguru Abdull’Qadir, award-winning poet and short story writer Su’eddie Agema Vershima, Poet, dramatist, and performer Owi Ocho Africa, Poets and veteran Journalists Thomas Peretu, Award-winning poet Kabura Zakama, Award-winning spoken words poets Peter Benjamin Peter, Hadar Otaki, Esther Emenike, Chief Eddie, Mohammad Obida, Barista Faith Akatiki, Liman Abdullahi, Akatiki, ANA Abuja Chairman Taiwo Akerele, Social media influencer Dr. Nana Hauwa, writers like Vine Paul, Sani Oji, Attah De Titan, Hauwa Jids, etc. when the whole of Abuja literary fraternity gathered in one place, I’ll only be for the selfless poet and literary promoter Umar Yogiza Jr.

Nigeria-Canadian based media strategist, Esther Ijewere, has announced the release of her new book, “How To Make Affirmation Work For You.” The book, designed to motivate and inspire people in challenging times, provides tips and guidelines on how to overcome negative thinking habits and create a new route in their brains for positive thoughts.

According to Ijewere:”The book was written to encourage everyone to respond positively to life’s challenges by making positive affirmations. She believes that by harnessing the power of positive declarations, anyone can transform their lives and impact the lives of others.

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“The book emphasizes the power of the tongue in making positive declarations, which can lead to transformation by God. It provides readers with practical steps to navigate through life, even during difficult times, by using positive affirmations to achieve their set goals”.

As a respected writer and columnist in the Guardian Newspaper, Esther Ijewere is well-known for her advocacy for girl-child and women empowerment. Her new book is a testament to her commitment to empowering people to live their best lives by tapping into the awesome feeling of empowerment and self-belief that affirmations can create.

“How To Make Affirmation Work For You” is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their self-esteem, replace negative thoughts with positive ones, learn new skills, succeed at work, or improve their relationships. Get inspired and tap into the power of positive affirmations by getting a copy of Esther Ijewere’s new book today!

Nigerian-Irish writer Chimeka Garricks is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel ‘Tomorrow Died Yesterday’. His collection of short stories, ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’, was recently released to the international market in the United States and the United Kingdom by publishing giant HarperCollins. In this interview with United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU, Garricks, who is also a structural and developmental editor, sheds light on how the book initially published in Nigeria by Masobe Books got the big deal.

Your collection of short stories, ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’, was recently released by HarperCollins to the international market. Did you see this coming when you were writing it?

I hoped it would get into the international market, so after I wrote it, I prepared the best I could (for instance, I negotiated a publishing deal that kept an open route to the international market if the chance came). In a way, I bet on myself. 

But honestly, almost all of it (i.e., the fortuitous encounters and connections, unexpected support, a big slice of luck or God’s favour if you will) was out of my control.

How long did it take you to work on this book?

It took me about four years to complete all the stories.

Why did you decide to write a book built around songs?

Because music saved my writing.  I was struggling and failing to write a second novel. I was listening to a lot of music (as I usually do). Somehow, miraculously, the music helped unlock some subconscious stories in my mind. So, I grabbed the gift and ran with it:  I started writing short stories to music. And because I struggled with titling the stories, I used the titles from some of the songs I wrote them to.

Four or five stories in, I decided to do a collection of stories rather than the novel. The rest is history.  

Will you say writing has been good to you?

Yes. I’ve been blessed. 

What makes a good or great writer? Awards or what?

There isn’t a simple answer to this. Art is subjective: one man’s great writer is another’s overrated bum. Or as Duncan Mighty puts it, “Even if you be the world’s best, some people go dey call you oluku”.

Awards help, but they aren’t the be-all and end-all. And there’s something deeply foolish in judging greatness solely by awards. 

I guess in a way, it comes down to who each person likes and considers great. Every writer is not for every reader and that’s okay. 

What does your writing process look like?

I used to be more of a mood writer, who typically only wrote when inspired. I’m trying to change that by outlining my scenes and creating almost-daily writing time.

Do you have any new work in progress?

Yes.

The Summer is around the corner. Do you have book recommendations?

‘Pleasantview’ by Celeste Mohammed;

 ‘Daughter in Exile’ by Bisi Adjapon;

‘Tomorrow I Become A Woman’ by Aiwanose Odafen;

‘The Marriage Class’ by Adesuwa O’man Nwokedi;

‘When We Were Fireflies’ by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim;

‘The Middle Daughter’ by Chika Unigwe;

‘Don’t Answer When They Call Your Name’ by Ukamaka Olisakwe;

‘Ghost Girl, Banana’ by Wiz Wharton.

 Have you had reasons to miss Nigeria, or you feel at home abroad?

Home is where the heart is. My family is with me, so it’s easier. Like most Nigerians, I have a love-hate relationship with the country. So, yes, I miss some things about Nigeria. But it’s also fine to love Nigeria from afar: isn’t that what people in toxic relationships should do?

Your novel, ‘Tomorrow Died Yesterday’, remains a reference point. How did this idea hit you?

I lived through the start of the Niger Delta crisis. And by time and chance, I crossed paths with many of the major players. I was witnessing history but realized that the way it was being recorded and the narratives being spun differed from the complex reality.

So, I decided to tell a story, to tell some of the truth. 

What has been the response to the international release of A Broken People’s Playlist?

The reviews I’ve seen are overwhelmingly positive. So, it has been great, and I’m enjoying it.

Any nuggets for younger writers?

Live immersively, and gain life experience. Like heartbreak, they’ll enrich your writing.

As you already know, being a writer (especially an African one) means going against overwhelming odds. But, bet on yourself, knowing you’re likely to lose: it makes winning sweeter.

I’m biased about this, but I’ll say it anyway. Don’t just write pretty sentences. Tell great stories. Memorable stories live forever.

Finally, take all writing advice with a pinch of salt. 

Aside from writing, do you do something else in the UK?

I edit (manuscripts, screenplays, copy, and content). And I ghostwrite.

Some writers experience writing fatigue when they move abroad. What has your experience been like?

Guy, I already had writing fatigue in Nigeria. I can’t tell the difference really. But even with fatigue, God dey: we go still run am.  

A book that makes a case concerning Planet Earth –‘Extraterrestrials and Us’ has been launched.

The book, according to an auto technician entrepreneur, Taiwo Abiri, makes a case concerning the most important subject matter on Earth at this point in time.

It is also to raise awareness to Africans and my generation especially that we (humans) are not alone and that extraterrestrials have been collaborating and influencing matters on our planet, Abiri said.

“I am sure you have been seeing the videos of UFO(UAP) encounters in the news and on the internet and even how the US Congress has been holding open hearings and inquiries on the subject matter. So it is buzzing and very pertinent.

“The book connects the dots between what UFO sightings mean, Extraterrestrial abductions, paranormal activities, megalithic structures, human history and the science of consciousness. It shakes a number of foundations but it is based on empirical findings. It tells the story of how covert military agencies and groups have worked hard to cover up the secret technologies recovered from retrieved crashed anti gravity space crafts.

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“Nigeria just joined a group of countries in the Artemis Accord recently signed by Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami on Dec 22, 2022 and have become stakeholders in outer space exploration among other things. It discusses the ET encounters, abductions, the secret military missions, the cover ups and the types of extraterrestrials that has been visiting our planet.”

On what he intends to achieve with the launch of ‘Extraterrestrials and Us’, Abiri said: “It is information. How you choose to use it is really up to the reader. But it presents a case and backs it up with empirical evidences. When you see something with your eye, someone can say maybe you have eye problems. Just like in my case, when I told my neighbors that I saw a UFO while I was a student in OAU, some of my friends said maybe I didn’t see well. That maybe I had a few drinks. So I stopped telling people about it.

‘’So, there is a stigma attached to talking about the paranormal especially if you’re a contactee or experiencer. But in cases where there is instrument recording, RADAR events. Top fighter jet pilots like David Fravor, former head of AATIP Lois Elizondo, Christopher Melon who is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, Paul Helyer the former minister of Defense of Canada and the Prof Haim Eshed former Israeli head of Space Mission who is also a Brigadier general have all come out to state that there are extraterrestrials here influencing things and much more.

‘’ Even the Vatican made an official statement on this subject matter in 2009, stating that “it has now become clear much sooner that previously anticipated..that life exist elsewhere in the universe and because of that the time has come for our human family to start an important conversation of investigation the profound philosophical and theological questions that are posed to us.”