Nigerian novelist, Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ, wrote her award-winning debut novel, Dazzling, ‘because nothing like it exists at the moment’. Emelụmadụ wanted a book that ‘represented the strange mix of world in which I grew up in contemporary south-eastern Nigeria, with its mores, hierarchies, and beliefs.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
All sort of texts; newspapers with political cartoons, salacious gossip magazines, encyclopaedias, literary fiction, crime novels, romance fiction, horror, children’s books, erotica, plays, poetry, anatomy books, the Bible, and weird, uncategorizable stuff. You name it, I probably read it. My parents weren’t very careful or censorious about reading material and they taught me to read quite early...
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