Fourteenth Caine Prize Shortlist Announced

The shortlist for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing was announced on Wednesday 15 May. The shortlist was dominated by Nigerians.

The 2013 shortlist comprises:

• Elnathan John (Nigeria) Bayan Layi from Per Contra Issue 25 (USA, 2012)
• Tope Folarin (Nigeria) Miracle from Transition, Issue 109 (Bloomington, 2012)
• Pede Hollist (Sierra Leone) Foreign Aid from Journal of Progressive Human Services, Vol. 23.3 (Philadelphia, 2012)
• Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria) The Whispering trees from The Whispering Trees, published by Parresia Publishers (Lagos, 2012)
• Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria) America from Granta, Issue 118 (London, 2012)

The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 8 July.

Visit here for more details.

Yari Yari Ntoaso: Continuing the Dialogue – An International Conference on Literature by Women of African Ancestry

The Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA) and New York University (NYU), in collaboration with Ghana-based Mbaasem Foundation and the Spanish Fundación Mujeres por África (Women for Africa Foundation), will present Yari Yari Ntoaso: Continuing the Dialogue – An International Conference on Literature by Women of African Ancestry.

This major conference will put writers, critics and readers from across Africa, the USA, Europe, and the Caribbean in dialogue with each other in Accra, Ghana, from May 16-19, 2013.

The conference program includes an entire panel devoted to Ghanaian literature, a Saturday morning “storytime” for children, and workshops for adult and youth. All events are free and open to the public, and all Ghanaians interested in literature – whether as readers or as writers, both youth and adults – are encouraged to attend. Register at

http://owwainc.org/gettingthere.html. Most events will be held at the lovely facilities of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (No. 54 Independence Avenue, near the Ridge Roundabout) in Accra.

Interview with Ghanaian Poet and Blogger, Nana Fredua-Agyeman

Credit: freduagyeman.blogspot.com

Brief Biography:

Nana Fredua-Agyeman is a Ghanaian poet and blogger. He has been widely published in both print and e-zines: Acorn, Frogpond, The Heron’s Nest, Shamrock, Haiku Journal, Simplyhaiku.com. Nana has a prepared manuscript titled ‘BLACK PATHOLOGY’, which he hopes to get published one day. He blogs at freduagyeman.blogspot.com.

Geosi Reads: Is/Are there any circumstance(s) that led you to write poetry?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: After Secondary School – what they now call Senior High – I looked back and was touched by all that my mother did for me when I was in school. So to show appreciation, I decided to write something. At the time I didn’t know what it was supposed to be. But I really did put pen to paper and began writing. This produced something that was later polished and could then be regarded as a poem. The other circumstance that made me write the second poem, and therefore totally reduced the inertia, was when I watched a documentary on Female Genital Mutilation. I was so touched that I cried. That evening I wrote my second poem.

Geosi Reads: Does writing poetry come easily for you?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: Sometimes it does; at other times, even if I make a conscious effort to write, nothing comes to me. However, if I’ve thought over a subject for a long time and I finally decide to write, it comes smoothly.

Geosi Reads: How do you start a poem? How do you know when you’ve come to the end of a poem?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: There is no one specific start to any poem. Each poem is unique in how one conceives it and writes it. However, sometimes a title will come to mind. Something interesting; then I start to think what can be done to this beautiful title. Sometimes it takes months to develop a subject to suit the title. Then and only then – after I’ve mentally conceived of the subject – do I sit to write it down. This would be followed by several revisions. At other times, an idea for a poem will be kick-started by a passage, sentence of a word in a novel I’m reading or a documentary. There are times where I know what to write and later think about the title, when the work is done.

When I can no more generate enough verses, without being repetitive, to address the subject or title, I stop. Sometimes I end after two verses, sometimes after ten pages. It all depends. However, with time, I’ve come to adopt the minimalist’s approach to writing. I like how cryptic they turn out and how one can say a lot with few words.

Geosi Reads: Writing poetry and Performing poetry. Which of the two do you like doing most?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: Writing is good for me, though when I write I imagine myself performing and that determines the structure and mood I put into it. Sometimes, the shape of the words on the page is key to its unravelling and one can easily lose this in a performance. I’m biased to writing, perhaps because I’m a poor performer.

Geosi Reads: Do you think poetry has a place in this 21^st Century?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: Why not? Poetry will always have a place. One can use poetry for several things. For instance, a poem can analyse the human condition. It can question actions or provide explanations. It can provide a different way of seeing everyday things. The issues we face in the 21^st Century are not mutually exclusive to poetry.

Geosi Reads: Does it matter to you the subject matter of your poems?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: I usually don’t think about the subject matter though I tend to hover around specific subject – the human condition. I hate wars and warmongers; I hate when people lord over others; I hate obsequious grovelers; I hate pretenders. These are the things I write about. Thus, I want my writings to raise questions, to show how simple we are; for instance, we shall all die including the dictator who kills millions or the democrat who send drones to other countries. In the end, what do we seek to gain?

Geosi Reads: Does reading novels have any influence on writing poetry?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: Reading in general triggers the mind to think farther and wider. Initially, I used to write one poem per every read book. I believe that a writer should first be a reader. Also, novels say in a long way, what poetry would say in a stanza or two.

Geosi Reads: You are an Agricultural Economist by profession. Why do you indulge yourself in the art of poetry?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: Agricultural Economics is what the educational system led me to. You obtain a certain grade and some people somewhere decides you must read these subjects and so on. Then when you are old to take a decision, you are tied by your previous studies – at least this is how the Ghanaian educational system is set up. Though I don’t regret what I studied. Poetry is life. I just fell into it as I’ve already explained. Besides, there was once a time where Secondary school graduates had to stay home for almost two-years before proceeding to the universities due to a long-term strike by lecturers which resulted in backlog of students. Consequently, between 1997 and 1999 I had a lot of time on my hands and decided to jump into writing and poetry came easily to me.

Geosi Reads: You’ve been widely published in both print and e-zines: Acorn, Frogpond, The Heron’s Nest, Shamrock, Haiku Journal, Simplyhaiku.com. Do you intend to publish them in one collection?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: These are my haiku poems. Yes, but I have a (non-haiku) poetry manuscript titled Black Pathology, which I intend to get published.

Geosi Reads: You keep three separate blogs – thus – ImageNations, Haiku from Ghana, Black Pathology. Could you discuss them all?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: When I discovered blogs, I became interested. At the time, I had asked myself what I could do for literature in Africa instead of constantly berating authors on the continent. In June 2009, I decided to dedicate a large portion of my readings to African literature. So when I discovered blogs at the same time, I jumped to it and used that platform to share the books I’ve read. This led to ImageNations. Later, when I wanted to create a Haiku presence in Ghana, I realised that the best way to go is not to mix it with the literary blog dedicated to African literature. It will lose its impact. Thus, I created a different blog for it and named it Haiku from Ghana.

Black Pathology, as a blog, should not be confused with Black Pathology, my manuscript. The only thing they have in common is the themes. The blog is for political, social, economic and other issues that come to my notice and to which I want to contribute. I have varied interests and that’s where all the non-haiku, non-literary interests converge. It’s also the youngest member of my family of blogs.

Geosi Reads: ImageNations seems to be the most vibrant of them all and one that I follow consistently. Does it come to you as a surprise that many people follow ImageNations as compared to your other blogs?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: No. I dedicate much more time to ImageNations than the others. Haiku is not common in Ghana and because I’m not very active on it, I don’t expect it to be that vibrant. Again, I do read a lot so creating content on ImageNations comes naturally. Black Pathology will get there, though it will be more because of the issues I discuss than the volume of the posts.

Geosi Reads: I am wondering how you came about the name ImageNations?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: That’s fun. It occurred to me that imaginations are images we create in an abstract nation we call the mind. Writing breathes life into these images. ImageNations was how I titled my very first poetry collection, which later morphed into Black Pathology.

Geosi Reads: On your blog, you’ve noted that the vision of ImageNations is to see the growth of African Literature. Has this vision been realized?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: I have received several messages from readers who have read some of my recommendations and who look up to the blog for African titles and alternatives to the common European titles. Again, the blog has brought some form of awareness to African Literature. Because I don’t discriminate between established and new writers, people get to read the young talents on the continent. I’ve also been contacted by publishers who want me to review their books for them on my blog.

However, more can be done. Growth in African Literature is not one that a simple blog can single-handedly achieve. However, when one googles for a book by an African writer one should be able to find it, and then find others. If the person is interested in the book he found, then he would more likely come back for more. Soon he or she would have become an ardent reader of African literature.

Geosi Reads: One of your poems I have secretly admired is ‘A Curve in the Tell.’ The first two lines reads: – There is a Curve Deeply, – Seated in their Tell-.  If I may ask, in whose tell is there a curve?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: The tales told by Westerners about Africa are so convoluted that sometimes you begin to wonder if they see with different eyes. I specifically wrote that in response of Naipaul’s The Masque of Africa. There is a given template on the narrative of Africa; if your text veers off this narrative, it is considered un-African. For so long a time, people have solidly stuck to this narrative. It’s sad. It is said that if the Lion does not tell its story, the hunter will always win the battle.

Geosi Reads: I am highly aware that Ghanaian writer, Ayi Kwei Armah is indisputably one of your top-most favourite authors. What would you say to Armah should you ever meet him?

Nana Fredua-Agyeman: I will seek his thoughts about our current governance system.

END.

Interview with British Writer, Andrew Blackman

Credit: Andrew Blackman

Brief Biography:        

Andrew Blackman is the author of the novel On the Holloway Road (Legend Press, 2009), which won the Luke Bitmead Writer’s Bursary and was shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize.

His second novel, A Virtual Love, (Legend Press, 2013) deals with identity in the age of social networking.

Andrew has lived in London, Barbados and New York. His work has been published in Monthly Review, the Cincinnati Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Seattle Times and a host of others.

Geosi Reads: The first time I heard your name and nationality, I was a bit confused. Why Blackman? On a lighter note, which part of you is black?

Andrew Blackman: This question made me laugh! I don’t know the exact origin, but apparently Blackman is an Old English name meaning someone with dark hair or dark skin. It does cause confusion sometimes!

Geosi Reads: You attended some of the best well-known schools in the United Kingdom: Dulwich and Oxford. Did you know at the time that you were being prepared to be a writer?

Andrew Blackman: I did want to be a writer at that time, but it felt like an impossible dream. We were being prepared for high-paying, high-status jobs, and creativity was not on the curriculum. So I wrote a bit in my spare time, but I didn’t consider the possibility that I could do it as a career.

Geosi Reads: At a point in your life, you quit the highly paid corporate banking job to become a writer. For Christ’s sake, why would you do that?

Andrew Blackman: It always felt dishonest to me, and I hated who I was becoming. Day to day it was not too bad, but when I thought about doing it for the rest of my life, I felt as if I’d made a terrible mistake. Things reached a head when I was working on Wall Street and saw the World Trade Center buildings collapse just down the road from my office. I walked home covered in the ash of several thousand dead people, and decided that I didn’t want to die doing something I hated.

Geosi Reads: Is your writing career paying the bills? Are you satisfied as a writer? Do you ever regret quitting the banking job?

Andrew Blackman: Just about! It’s a constant struggle to pay the bills, especially because my wife is an artist so her income is pretty erratic as well. I don’t make a full living just from my novels, but when I add in short stories, freelance writing and journalism, I can just about cobble together enough to get through the month. We have to be very frugal and can’t do a lot of the things we used to do when I was a corporate banker, but I don’t ever regret it. I’m so much happier now, and am doing what I wanted to do with my life.

Geosi Reads: You enrolled at Columbia University’s Journalism School. Do you see any influences of your journalistic background in your writings?

Andrew Blackman: Yes, it was great training. First at university and then as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, I learned how to write quickly, how to write under pressure, how to write when I didn’t feel like writing, how to grab readers’ attention quickly and then fight paragraph by paragraph to stop them from drifting away to something else, how to accept seeing my writing ripped apart by editors, and how to put readers’ needs above my own at all times. I also learned a lot about editing by seeing what experienced editors did to my writing. I saw that a piece can almost always be made better by deleting rather than adding words.

Geosi Reads: You were the first winner for the Luke Bitmead Award in 2008. As a writer, do you ever experience depression?

Andrew Blackman: I often experience despair and hopelessness, and struggle to keep writing and putting myself out into the world. But I hesitate to use the word ‘depression’, because clinical depression is something very different from day-to-day woes. I’ve never got close to what Luke Bitmead experienced, being hospitalised several times and eventually committing suicide at a very young age. Since winning the award, I’ve got to know Luke’s mother, and learned more about his life, and I’m grateful never to have experienced those depths of depression myself.

Geosi reads: How much of impact did your winning of the Luke Bitmead Award have on your writing career?

Andrew Blackman: A huge impact. Before that, I didn’t really have a writing career! I’d had one short story published, and that was it. Winning gave me a £2,500 cheque and a publishing deal, which was just a massive break for me. It felt as if my life had changed overnight. Six months later, ‘On the Holloway Road’ came out, and the ‘impossible dream’ of being a writer had come true. I also got an agent on the back of that, and had the confidence and the credibility to take my writing career seriously. Now I have a second novel published, and feel as if I am on my way. None of it would have been possible without the Luke Bitmead Award. Perhaps I’d have found another way, but I just don’t know – it’s so competitive, and there are many talented writers who never get a publishing contract.

Geosi Reads: From ‘On the Holloway Road’ to ‘A Virtual Love’? A gap of four years between the two books! Why that long?

Andrew Blackman: I wrote ‘On the Holloway Road’ very quickly – I completed the first draft in a month. But ‘A Virtual Love’ is quite a different book, with a more complex plot, and I needed to take more time over it to get it right. My agent was very helpful with suggesting changes at various stages, and so the rewrites took time. And then there’s the simple fact that the publishing cycle is quite slow: I signed the contract with Legend Press a year ago, but the book only came out at the beginning of this month!

Geosi Reads: Much of A Virtual Love takes place online. How obsessed are you with social media in this modern age of Internet?

Andrew Blackman: I think it’s a very interesting time. Whenever human beings create a new technology, that technology also shapes us in ways we don’t always realize, and the Internet is no different. I’m interested in the profiles that we create online and how they differ from our real selves. I find that they’re often more like advertisements for ourselves, editing out all the boring or embarrassing stuff and presenting an idealized version for public consumption. And because everyone else is doing this too, it’s easy to feel inadequate or anxious about how people view you, and how many friends or followers you have. Some of the ways we behave online are simply extensions of what we’ve always done, but some I think are quite new.

Geosi Reads: I read from online that you wrote the last chapter of A Virtual Love in a cemetery. How much does place/environment factor into your writings?

Andrew Blackman: Yes, that’s true! Usually I am more boring and simply write at my desk, but sometimes I like to mix things up. It was a bright spring day, and I had gone out around north London looking for a café to write in, but came across a beautiful old Victorian cemetery and went for a walk. Then I found ideas coming into my head, and I sat on a log with a notebook and pen and the whole chapter just came to me. The environment I was writing in gave the chapter a mournful, contemplative tone, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Geosi Reads: You’ve dabbled in several kinds of jobs: banking, journalism, writing and blogging. Did your life as a blogger influenced you to create a Jeff Brennan who was a reclusive famous blogger?

Andrew Blackman: Ah, I wish blogging was a job, but I haven’t made any money from it! I started my site as a place to write book reviews – I have a terrible memory, and wanted to keep a record of the books I’d read, as well as perhaps understand them better by analysing them as I wrote the review. I still do book reviews, but have branched out to talk about the writing process and literary events, and to give updates on my latest writing. My own blog didn’t really play a part in creating Jeff Brennan. My fictional character’s blog is much more popular than my own, for one thing! And he’s a political blogger too. So a lot of the things he experiences are quite different. My own blogging life has been much more pleasant and less dramatic than his.

Geosi Reads: Besides London, you’ve lived in Barbados and New York. Could you discuss any striking experiences in these places?

Andrew Blackman: In Barbados I was quite struck by the effects of tourism. Essentially the main national industry is the production of a fantasy for foreign tourists. The tourists want a tropical island paradise, and so that’s what they get. It’s so important for the economy that the needs of local people often seem secondary to the needs of the visitors from Europe and North America. In the US and UK I have also noticed that fantasy plays a large part in the construction of national identity, but at least it’s the fantasies of the country’s own citizens, not those of outsiders. Barbados is a tiny island that was left with a lot of problems after centuries of British colonialism, so it’s remarkable how far it’s come in the short period of independence, but there have been significant costs to that rapid development as well.

END.

Interview with Ghanaian Writer, Nana Awere Damoah

Brief Biography:

Credit: Nana Awere Damoah

Nana Awere Damoah was born in Accra, Ghana. He has formal training in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST). A British Chevening alumnus, Nana works with PZ Wilmar in Lagos, Nigeria. Nana started writing seriously in 1993 when he was in the sixth form and has had a number of his short stories published in the Mirror and the Spectator. In 1997, he won the first prize in the Step Magazine National Story Writing Competition. His short story Truth Floats was published in the first edition of African Roar Anthology. He is the author of Excursions in My Mind, Through the Gates of Thought and Tales from Different Tails. Nana keeps a website at http://www.nanadamoah.com/.

Geosi Reads: Permit me to begin the interview with your association with the Joyful Way Incorporated. How did you get yourself involved with this Christian Music Ministry?

Nana Awere Damoah: Thanks, Geoff. To learn from you, may I first say thanks for this opportunity, I am honored by this interview and inspired by your passion in promoting African literature and writers.

My association with Joyful Way goes back to my secondary school days in Ghana National College, Cape Coast and in 1989 when I joined a singing ministry of the Scripture Union (SU) in my school – Burning Fire. At the time, the patron of both SU and Burning Fire, John Gordon Egyir-Croffet, was a former music director of Joyful Way and a patron of the Mfantsipim branch of Joyful Way, so Burning Fire got affiliated to Joyful Way. My first official meeting at Joyful Way was in 1992. I must say the ministry has had a great impact on my life and even on my writing, because we used to write poems and sketches for our crusades and concerts.

Geosi Reads: Some literary critics label you as an inspirational/motivational writer. What is your response?

Nana Awere Damoah: I prefer being referred to as a reflective rather than a motivational writer. I will explain. I like being motivated to being inspired to develop speed. A person can move fast but in the wrong direction. A quote I love – ‘It doesn’t matter how hard you row if you are headed in the wrong direction.’ When your speed comes after reflection, what you have is velocity – speed in a specific direction. That is what I aim to achieve with my writing; for my readers to pause, think and act. I hope to think motivation is encapsulated in this.

Geosi Reads: One of your first short pieces, ‘The Showdown’ was published by the Mirror in the mid-nineties. I am wondering how you felt at the time to see your story published?

Nana Awere Damoah: My goodness! I can still remember that day in 1995! We were supposed to be in first year at (Kwame Nkrumah) University of Science and Technology but were at home due to a year-long lecturers’ strike. I submitted the story to a family friend who worked at Graphic, he gave me his thumbs up and asked me to put it in an envelope. I have been a regular buyer of the Mirror since my teens and when I saw my name in the national weekly – my name! – I almost passed out! My greater joy was seeing the pride on the faces of my parents. I still have the cutting from that day’s Mirror!

Geosi Reads: Do you think the publication of ‘The Showdown’ motivated you to carry on with the craft of writing?

Nana Awere Damoah: Absolutely! It gave me the confidence that my writing can be appreciated. That was, however, my first attempt at fiction writing; my first piece of writing was non-fiction, and that article was later published in my second book.

Geosi Reads: In your view, has Ghanaian print houses done enough to promote the literary scene in the country?

Nana Awere Damoah: No. I can’t even say they can do more, as they are mostly involved in textbooks for schools where the returns are assured. The greater percentage of books released by Ghanaian authors in recent years are either self-published or by foreign publishers.

Geosi Reads: How has marketing your books online (e-reads) been like for you?

Nana Awere Damoah: I have been working at honing my online marketing skills since 2008. I look at it with a long term view: not just marketing books but creating an online brand name, which hopefully should translate into offline recognition. So I use all the outlets: Facebook, Twitter, emails and via my website.

In between release of my books, I ensure that two things are happening: writing and sharing articles, stories and anecdotes plus one liners as well as interacting with my readers. So far, it has been fruitful in terms of brand building and with my third book, the economic dividends are beginning to show.

Geosi Reads: The title of your first book ‘Excursions in my Mind’ was taken from Samuel Taylor Coleridge. What compelled you to pick this title?

Nana Awere Damoah: I am a quotations buff. In 2004 when I started writing the series of articles from which my first two books ensued, the idea was to write about my daily experiences and the lessons I derived from them as I reflected. So you realised that the articles are as eclectic as their settings. Coleridge’s words ‘From whatever place I write you will expect that part of my ‘Travels’ will consist of excursions in my own mind’ aptly captured the essence of what I was doing. It is interesting how that expression has stuck with a lot of my friends and readers. On good days, when interesting issues come up as they do often in Ghana, we have fun taking excursions in people’s minds!

Geosi Reads: In my review of ‘Excursions in my Mind’, I noted that there is ‘…a thin layer of difference…between the author and the narrative’. It must have been painful putting down your own personal experiences?

Nana Awere Damoah: That is right and this buttresses my previous answer. I have had readers tell how bold I am to share such personal experiences and thoughts. Yes, some of them have been painful, such as the chapter ‘Loss Taught Me’ – that article took me three years to finally put down. In some way, I see writing as therapy. When I write, it is like transferring the pain from my heart to the paper and when I do encounter similar situations again, I go back to read and minister to myself. I can say that I take the prescription ‘Physician, heal thyself’ very seriously.

Geosi Reads: Your second book ‘Through the Gates of Thought’ combines poetry, stories, articles and aphorisms. Were you trying to experiment with all the genres of literature?

Nana Awere Damoah: For my non-fiction books, I try to mix most of my varied styles. Story telling is natural to most Africans and even when we sat by the fireside to listen to our parents, a lesson was delivered in the form of a story. I have been doing poetry both in print and on stage for some years, and I don’t want to do a book of only poetry, which I think is usually for a specialist audience. I like to experiment and not pigeonholed. My pieces are diverse – this writer can be described by the same word.

Geosi Reads: Your most recent book, ‘Tales from Different Tails’ is a departure from your first two books. What memories run through your mind when you pick up the eighteen year old short story ‘The Showdown’.

Nana Awere Damoah: ‘The Showdown’ got a new title – ‘Guardian of the Rented Well’. The feeling is nostalgic, and I remember that day in 1995 anytime I read that story, and bless my God for this creative journey so far.

Geosi Reads: Music and Writing? Which of the two do you love doing most?

Nana Awere Damoah: Writing! Writing – I create. Music – I consume.

END!

See my review of Nana Awere Damoah’s Excursions in My Mind.

An Interview with Ghanaian Writer, Martin Egblewogbe

Credit: oneghanaonevoice.com

Brief Biography:

Martin Egblewogbe is the co-founder of the Writers Project of Ghana. He is also an editor with the “Ghanaian Book Review”. Martin writes mainly short stories and poetry. He is the author of the short story collection, Mr Happy and the Hammer of God.

Geosi Reads: The first time I came across your name was at the bookshop. How many of writing years did it take you to get ‘Mr Happy and the Hammer of God’ into the bookshops?

Martin Egblewogbe: The stories included in the collection were written between 1999 and 2008. They were selected from scores of others and put together because they had more or less the same ‘colour’. At the extremes, ‘Down Wind’ was written in 1999, and ‘To-morrow’ in 2008.

Geosi Reads: What struck me about your book was the title. If I may ask, who is Mr Happy and who or what is the Hammer of God?

Martin Egblewogbe: The short answer is that Dervi is Mr Happy and the hunchback is the Hammer of God. The long answer lies in metaphor.

Geosi Reads: Some writers have argued about how difficult it is to write a short story as compared to a novel. In your view, are short stories difficult to write?

Martin Egblewogbe: I guess it depends on the genre of the short story or novel, the style of writing, and the scope of the story. For example, ‘Jjork’ was difficult to write. It was originally three to four times the current length, and included Jjork in ‘real life’ — Jjork as appears in the published version of ‘Jjork’ is a mental construct of the ‘real-life’ Jjork.  Reducing the story to its present form took innumerable cuts and re-writes. Looking back though, I think the original version was more fun.

Perhaps, this will answer the question from my perspective: I have completed less than five, perhaps three, full-length (50,000 word +) novels, whereas I probably have over a hundred short stories.

Geosi reads: You first self-published Mr Happy and the Hammer of God. Why?

Martin Egblewogbe: I had an idea to deliver low-cost books to a wide local audience, and wanted to do a proof-of-concept. It didn’t work, probably because I was unable to dedicate sufficient time to the process.

Geosi Reads: One reviewer, Kinna of Kinna Reads in her review said of you, ‘I find his portrayal of women or his female characters problematic’. Is your portrayal of women indeed problematic?

Martin Egblewogbe: I don’t know what makes the portrayal of female characters in my work ‘problematic’. Perhaps, the portrayal is unrealistic? But I cannot tell, really.

Geosi Reads: In one of your stories titled ‘Pharmaceutical Intervention’, you highlighted on the theme of abortion. What is it about abortion you wanted to get across to the reader?

Martin Egblewogbe: The actual question is not about abortion, really. As with some of the stories in the book, it is about the terrible dilemma of certain types of exchange, purchase: an abortion to maintain the status quo? what does a person need to exchange for happiness? For life?

Geosi Reads: In ‘To-morrow’ a man is fed-up with life and in ‘Twilight’ another man is facing death. Two key words come to mind considering these stories and thus ‘life’ and ‘death’. Can you throw lights on these two important words?

Martin Egblewogbe: Shall we play with the words a bit? In ‘To-morrow’ a man kills himself and  and in ‘Twilight’ a man is dying, so in ‘To-morrow’ a man dies and in ‘Twilight’ a man dies. So there’s just one word. However, since there cannot be death without life, we must add that word as well. But actually, life & death are like the opposite sides of a coin. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have one word that represented the ‘coin’, with life on one side, and death on the other? I would have used that word instead.

Geosi Reads: How did you arrive at choosing ‘Mr Happy and the Hammer of God’ as the title of the book and why not any of the other stories?

Martin Egblewogbe: I thought that the story ‘Mr Happy &C’ captured the thematic leaning of all the other stories.

Geosi Reads: Ayebia has republished your book under a more established and traditional publishing house. Are you optimistic about a wider readership?

Martin Egblewogbe: Yes. And at this time I must acknowledge with thanks the efforts of Kinna Likimani and Ama Ata Aidoo who brought the book to the attention of the publisher.

Geosi Reads: You are a leading member of the Ghana Poetry Project. Has the aim for which the project was established been achieved?

Martin Egblewogbe: The Ghana Poetry Project is now the Writers Project of Ghana, and it is very much a work in progress. Quite a bit has been achieved, and we look forward to this year with great optimism as we roll out more programming.

END.

Interview with Ghanaian Writer, Ayesha Harruna Attah

Credit: Ayesha Harruna Attah

Brief Biography:

Born in Accra, Ghana, Ayesha Harruna Attah wrote and published her first novel, Harmattan Rain, with a fellowship from Per Ankh Publishers and TrustAfrica. Harmattan Rain, was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Africa Region. Ayesha was educated at Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University and received an MFA in creative writing from NYU in 2011. She is working on her second novel.

Geosi Reads: You come from a family of writers. How much of impact did that have on your becoming a writer?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: At first I tried to run away. My goody-two-shoes way of rebelling was choosing a different career from my parents so I studied science in school. I completely ignored the fact that I was always entering writing competitions, or that I kept tons of diaries filled with angst and bad poetry. Eventually I came full circle and luckily when I did I had my parents’ support. Sometimes you can’t fight what’s in your blood.

Geosi Reads: Angst and bad poetry! What comes to mind when you look at your old diaries?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: I cringe a lot, thinking I should burn them, prevent anyone from blackmailing me… But there are one or two good pieces that end up saving the whole bad lot.

Geosi Reads: Your debut novel, ‘Harmattan Rain’ was published by Per Ankh in 2008. Take us through the writing process?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: Per Ankh is a publishing cooperative run by a worldwide group of friends. They also operate a nine-month long writers’ workshop, Per Sesh, for young African writers. I was accepted to Per Sesh, and that’s where I wrote my first novel. Ayi Kwei Armah, the author of several novels including The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and coordinator of Per Ankh, led our workshops. The process involved research, writing, workshops, editing, more writing, more research, more editing. The workshop was set up so we had no reason to procrastinate: our food, shelter, and well-being were completely taken care of.

Geosi Reads: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is undoubtedly one of my favorite books. Have you read the Beautyful Ones…? If yes, what are your impressions?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: I love that book! What’s interesting about it is that in many ways it could be describing life in Ghana right now, which probably doesn’t speak well about our progress since independence.

Geosi Reads: In my review of Harmattan Rain, I wrote that the first chapter ‘…hooked me in’. How much of attention was given to the first chapter alone?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: Thank you! A lot of attention has to be given even to the first sentence.  Some writers can’t proceed if they don’t have the first sentence right, but I’m not that kind of writer, and the opening chapter wasn’t even the first chapter I wrote: it kind of developed half way through writing Harmattan Rain. I knew I wanted a strong opening, one that would show Lizzie-Achiaa’s ambition, independence, and wild spirit—the same one that lives in her daughter and granddaughter. Once the whole book was written, I went back to the opening chapter several times to make sure it captured the entire novel’s mood.

Geosi Reads: In Harmattan Rain, you do not only tell the story of three generations of women but you also weave into the storyline the political history of Ghana. How much of research went into the book?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: I did a ton of research. I read Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s biography, his seven-year plan for Ghana, accounts of various missionaries in Ghana, but my biggest lifesaver was a compilation of 50 years of articles from the Daily Graphic. That book was such a gem, because not only did its articles recreate the zeitgeist of those years, but it also contained adverts of commodities like shoe polish, details that added wonderful local color and richness to the novel.

Geosi Reads: How much of your real life experiences go into your books?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: I try to create new worlds when I’m writing, but real life invariably seeps in. There are also times when real life experiences are just too good and juicy to pass on or to even make up. Ultimately I guess it’s a combination of imagining and stealing from real life.

 Geosi Reads: You wrote your debut novel through the Per Sesh Writers Workshop based in Popenguine, Senegal. Can you tell us about the place and what went into the workshop?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: Popenguine is a lovely village in Senegal, by the Atlantic Ocean. It was especially great for me, because I thrive by the ocean! The workshop structure involved critiquing our peers’ work, discussing the craft of writing by reading literature from all over the world, and then learning about the publishing process—from how to layout books to the business side of publishing.

Geosi Reads: I understand that one of your mentors at the workshop was Ghanaian most celebrated writer, Ayi Kwei Armah. How was it like studying under him?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: He was tough, but supportive, like one would expect from any mentor. He was brilliant at editing both on a sentence and story level. He’s also very funny. I remember being shy about writing a sex scene so I’d emulated the style of Ghanaian movies of yesteryear: a couple goes into a bedroom, they cover themselves with a sheet and the rest is left to the viewer’s imagination. He laughed and said I couldn’t do that to my readers. Part of the reason people come to books is to escape or to learn, so I had to give as much detail as I could.

Geosi Reads: You had me laughing out loud! Very, very, true about the style of Ghanaian movies of many years ago. Would you ever mind venturing into areas like play or screenwriting?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: I have been toying with screenwriting and would love to see my writing on the big screen!

Geosi Reads: You hold a master’s degree in Journalism. How much of your journalistic background do you bring to your literary works?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: I think the way I write and the way I approach my stories borrow from my journalism background. I love to do research and interview people. Also, when I’m writing fiction it’s almost as if I’m sent to my imagined world to report back.

Geosi Reads: Are you optimistic about the future of Ghanaian literature?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: I am. There’s a growing list of serious writers such as Mohammed Naseehu-Ali, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Nii Ayi-Kwei Parkes, to name but a few and I know these numbers will keep growing. What I’d like to see is writers breaking into other genres of fiction, and I know it’s only a matter of time.

Geosi Reads: What have you been working on in recent times?

Ayesha Harruna Attah: I’ve been at work on my second novel. I’m also editing a number of short stories that have been on the back burner for a while.

END!

See my review of Ayesha Harruna Attah’s Harmattan Rain.

Interview with Alba k. Sumprim: Author of The Imported Ghanaian

Credit: Alba Sumprim

Brief Biography:

Alba Kunadu Sumprim is a shoot-from-the-hip, take-no-nonsense writer, intrepid traveller, giraffe fancier, movie lover and would be assassin, born in London . . . .corrupted in Accra.

By day, writer, editor, columnist and cartoonist. By night . . .

Having been battered into submission, Alba insists on staying in Accra, where she’s regularly accused of being Senegalese, Malian, Ivorian, Liberian or Zimbabwean, in fact, any other nationality but Ghanaian. She now happily accepts whatever nationality Ghanaians want to impose on her.

 Geosi Reads: When did your love for writing began?

Alba K. Sumprim: From a young age, though when it happened I wasn’t aware. I was a strange kid who didn’t fit into the ideal of what I was expected to be. I fell in love with cinema, and dance, and opera and classical music at a young age, something my parents didn’t understand or encourage. They wanted me to do well at school and get a good job, something most parents want for their children. I started writing stories and keeping a diary just to get ideas, I didn’t think I could discuss with others, out of my head and onto paper. In boxes stored in London, I have at least all my thoughts from ages 14 to 20 written in notebooks. I’ve been writing since . . .

Geosi Reads: Your book, ‘The Imported Ghanaian’ first appeared as articles in the Daily Dispatch. Tell us about how it generated into a book?

Alba K. Sumprim: After my work started appearing in the newspaper, I started a blog dealing with the same themes and a few people suggested that I write a small book. The idea to step up to a book came from the then Nigerian High Commissioner in Ghana, who was a huge fan of my column. He called the newspaper and left his number for me to call him. During our conversation he laughingly mentioned that he was fed up of the newspapers piling up in his room and wished I would put them in a book so he could have all his favourite stories together in one place. Obviously, a book wouldn’t take up as much space as a stack of newspapers.

Geosi Reads: So did you ever get this Nigerian High Commissioner a copy of the book? If yes, what was his response?

Alba K. Sumprim: Unfortunately, he had left Ghana by the time the book had come out, but someone from the Embassy got copy to take to him.

Geosi Reads: You were born in London before moving to Ghana. Are you the ‘Imported Ghanaian’?

Alba K. Sumprim: I most definitely am but now I’m probably the ‘Adapted Ghanaian,’ lol

Geosi Reads: Are you happy with your ‘new’ adaptation?

Alba K. Sumprim: Yes, because I’ve adapted based on my own rules understanding. I can only be responsible for my own behavior so I haven’t bought into the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ syndrome. Example, I will arrive on time, always, but with a book to while away time, if the person hasn’t arrived within a time frame, I leave and forget it. Previously, I would have taken them to task.  I just choose my battles and look for the beautiful nonsense or ignore it. I can’t change anything but I can change the way I react to it, that’s my adaptation.

Geosi Reads: Your book is a combination of graphics and texts. What did you intend to achieve with this?

Alba K. Sumprim: I think Ghanaians have a great sense of humour and are some of the funniest people in the world, but I don’t think we’re very good at laughing at or making fun of ourselves as Ghanaians. When I wrote the first book, there was a part of me that worried that people would be upset at what I wrote and as you know, comedy is a great way of talking about serious issues and getting to the heart of thing without upsetting people. It also makes what you’re saying more palatable when people are laughing or find some humour in what is being said. I also felt the cartoons would be unique and a good selling point, which proved to be true. After mastering cartooning (which seemed to take forever) I want to, one day, produce a graphic novel.

Geosi Reads: How much of your real life experiences go into your books?

Alba K. Sumprim: About 99.999999999999999%, and that is why so many people identify with the books because they are the daily things that happen, they’ve also had those experience too. My book just gives them another perspective to the situation, in most cases it reaffirms it.

Geosi Reads: How long did it take you to complete the Imported Ghanaian?

Alba K. Sumprim: Because of having to learn how to cartoon, it took about three years. I had all the stories already written but I had to select those that would fit into the picture I wanted to create. A bit like picking the right pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to make a coherent picture. I then had to build up the courage to make it public and put it all in one space, I was worried about how Ghanaians would take it because I think we have a very high opinion of ourselves but we’re also pretty thin skinned about what we perceive as critique.

Geosi Reads: Take us through the publication process? Was it difficult getting published?

Alba K. Sumprim: I think there are more publishing opportunities now than when I wanted to publish. Because of the nature of my book, text and graphics, I was constantly being told that it didn’t fit a mould or genre, so eventually, I self published. Because I took all the risks it wasn’t difficult getting published. I did a lot of research online, I wrote to many printing companies and before taking the final leap, I uploaded my manuscript to lulu.com and bought a copy to see what it really looked like. Once I was happy with the result I printed my books. Voila, The Imported Ghanaian was brought to life.

Geosi Reads: Was it not a painful and demanding route you took to self-publish?

Alba K. Sumprim: Not really! It was probably the easiest. The most difficult part is having to bear all the costs and take complete responsibility for the success or failure of the book, but I don’t think self-publishing here in Ghana is a painful and demanding route, it is literally, the only route available to most of us who want to see our work in print. There aren’t that many publishing opportunities here.

Geosi Reads: A Place of Beautiful Nonsense is yet another book to your name. I am curious to know how you arrived at the title?

Alba K. Sumprim: There’s a lot of nonsense in Ghana, but there is beauty in all of it. Oh, did I just say that? Okay, a lot of it. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find it, especially, when you’ve had situations where you’ve wanted to commit a heinous crime with a blunt object. Coming back home can be frustrating and if you don’t look for the beauty you will rush to the nearest travel agent and jet out of here like a bat with the devil on its tail. Ghana is the place of beautiful nonsense and there is lots to smile and laugh about, you just need to look for it.

Geosi Reads: Well explained! But is it always the case that there is beauty in nonsense? Is nonsense sometimes not totally nonsense?

Alba K. Sumprim: Of course there is gold, even in the biggest pile of shit. Total nonsense tends to have the most beauty in it but you have to dig hard and have a warped sense of humour to enjoy it. Outside my bedroom window one early morning, a mechanic was working on my neighbour’s car. He revved the engine for over ten minutes and my room was filled with fumes. I was coughing. I went out and told him the impact of his revving the engine. He looked at me puzzled, and then, I kid you not, he bent towards the exhaust pipe and scooped up some fumes with cupped hands and sniffed, “Ei, Madam, I can’t smell anything o!” What do you do with a person like that? It was incredible that he couldn’t smell it. I rolled around with laughter and started my day. Another word for beauty could also be sillyness. You know, when something is so ludicrous the only thing left to do is laugh because it has no explanation.

Geosi Reads: In your own view, what is the best time to write?

Alba K. Sumprim: The ‘witching hour’, of course. That time between 1am and 4am. The gates to the spirit world are at their widest and it’s a time when creativity is at its most potent, the air is different, the quality of sound is different, its . . . for me, the best time to work.

Geosi Reads: You worked on a number of film projects in Cuba and London before moving to Ghana. Is it profitable to earn a living solely from writing in Ghana?

Alba K. Sumprim: Hell no! Unless your business is text books. I would stick my neck out and say all those of us who are writing in Ghana have other jobs that pay the bills. I do.

Geosi Reads: One of the radio programs I love so much on BBC is ‘Story, Story, Voices from the Market’, where you served on the writing and editing team. How is the process of translating texts into voices? Do you achieve the same effects from the translation?

Alba K. Sumprim: Story Story is a beautiful project and I had the honour of working as a writer and editor for over six years. Radio is pretty challenging because you need to use few words to create visuals in people’s minds and tell complex stories within a short time frame. The translating process involves not just writers and editor, but producers, directors and of course, the actors, who give life to our words and create the personalities listeners have come to love. I think with Story Story we achieved that simply because of the quality of all involved, it’s a product of great teamwork and long hard meticulous hours. It’s a project that is very much loved by those involved with it.

Geosi Reads: How has your book been received by Ghanaians?

Alba K. Sumprim: I’m glad to say I’ve only received one bad review, I think he was terribly unfair but one bad review is okay. Also, if you don’t get at least one bad review then something must be wrong. Practically everything else has been really positive, from Ghanaians and foreigners. My books have reached as far as Guadelope, Jamaica, the US, Poland, and places I never conceived the book would arrive at. Interestingly, responses I’ve received from countries where the population is predominantly African ancestry, often go along the lines of ‘Everything you talk about happens here too.’ It’s not just a Ghana thing, it’s a global thing, it’s just that I’m talking about where I live. More foreigners buy my books but I also have a good fan base amongst teens, which I think is wonderful. The art of reading is not defunct. Yet!

 END!

Interview with Nigerian Writer, Sefi Atta

Credit: sefiatta.com

Brief Biography:

Sefi Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She was educated there, in England and the United States.

A former chartered accountant and CPA, she is a graduate of the creative writing program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Her short stories have appeared in journals like Los Angeles Review and Mississipi Review and have won prizes from Zoetrope and Red Hen Press. Her radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC. She is the winner of PEN International’s 2004/2005 David TK Wong Prize and in 2006, her debut novel Everything Good Will Come was awarded the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.

Her short story collection, Lawless, received the 2009 Noma Award For Publishing in Africa. Lawless is published in the US and UK as News From Home.

She lives in Mississippi with her husband Gboyega Ransome-Kuti, a medical doctor, and their daughter, Temi.

Geosi Reads: You write in many different genres: short stories, radio plays, novels. Could you discuss the different genres? Which one do you enjoy doing most?

Sefi Atta: I enjoy writing plays most. I haven’t written a radio play in a while and I don’t write short stories anymore because the process of submitting them depressed me. I really enjoy revising novels, but drafting them can be a pain.

Geosi Reads: Were you a keen reader growing up? Which book(s), if any, had the most influence on your becoming a writer?

Sefi Atta: I don’t remember being a keen reader, but apparently I was. My aunt told me that whenever I was teased for reading, I would say, “To each his own.” I read Macbeth as a secondary student in Nigeria and it was like an African play to me. It had all the right elements—witches, kings and assassinations.I was my class playwright and I wrote plays set in villages with kings and chiefs.My plays were about treason and betrayals. If they were influenced by Macbeth, they were also influenced by Nigerian plays I had seen and Village Headmaster, a television drama series I had watched as a child.Later, as a student in England, I studied French and English literature. I read L’Etranger and the rhythm of the novel felt familiar to me—very African. Camus was so different from Shakespeare, Dickens, Moliere,Maupassant and other writers I was studying. I had stopped writing plays set in villages because they were not relevant to my experiences and I knew my English classmates wouldn’t appreciate them.I can’t say L’Etranger influenced me to write, but for the first time I considered the possibility of telling a story that resembled my own experiences in my own voice.

Geosi Reads: Do you ever mind what people say about your writing?

Sefi Atta:Only when they are rude, but I no longer read reviews so it doesn’t matter.

Geosi Reads: Are you rigid about your writing schedules?

Sefi Atta: I have to be because I don’t know when to stop. I’m addicted to writing.

Geosi Reads: Do you remember an exact moment when you decided to become a writer?

Sefi Atta: I never wanted to be a writer; I just had stories I wanted to share so I learnt how to write and kept going. If I could sing or paint, I would.

Geosi Reads: Do you ever have writer’s block?

Sefi Atta:Yes, whenever I write non-fiction. I fall asleep and eat a lot of chocolate cake.

Geosi Reads: Is the process of writing a novel very much different from a play?

Sefi Atta: Absolutely—the visual possibilities of a play, the sheer number of words you have to write in a novel. But I have to say that writing about my writing process is more daunting than writing non-fiction.

Geosi Reads: Your debut novel, ‘Everything Good Will Come’ won the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for literature in Africa. Everything Good must have been a big success?

Sefi Atta: I don’t think of my work in that way. For me it’s always been about developing and trying something new.

Geosi Reads: Your short story collection, ‘Lawless’ which received the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa was published in the US and UK as News From Home. Were you worried about the change of title?

Sefi Atta: No, but it was confusing for a while. People thought I had a new book out.

Geosi Reads: You seem to play with words when it comes to titles of your books: Everything Good Will Come, Swallow, News From Home, A Bit of Difference. Do you engage in a conscious exercise in ‘fishing out’ words for your titles?

Sefi Atta: I couldn’t decide on a title for my first novel and my editor came up with Everything Good Will Come. After that, I thought I should name my own books.A Bit of Difference seems just right.

Geosi Reads: Which of your own books would you say stand up best?

Sefi Atta: Again,I don’t think about that. You have to understand that I’m always working on something new and while I’m working, I’m absorbed with my characters, their conflicts,my language and settings. I’m in another place and it is a shock to come out and consider my previous works. Of course once in a while I do, for example at literary events, but for the most part I am focused on my next work.

Geosi Reads: Will Sefi ever return to her profession as an accountant? Or, is she happy as a writer?

Sefi Atta: No, but my accountancy experience could come in handy if ever I find myself in the right position. For now, I’m very happy to write.

END!

Caine Prize 2013 Judging Panel Announced

Credit: Caine Prize.com

The judges of this year’s Caine Prize for African Writing have been announced.

The panel will be chaired by art historian and broadcaster Dr Gus Casely-Hayford. He will be joined by award-winning Nigerian-born artist, Sokari Douglas Camp; author, columnist and Lord Northcliffe Emeritus Professor at UCL, John Sutherland; Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, Professor Nathan Hensley and the winner of the Caine Prize in its inaugural year, Leila Aboulela.

This is the first time that a past winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize will take part in the judging.

This year 96 qualifying stories have been submitted to the judges from 16 African countries. The judges will meet in early May to decide on the shortlisted stories, which will be announced shortly thereafter. The winning story will be announced at a dinner at the Bodleian Library in Oxford on Monday 8 July.

Please see here for the full press release.