Lost your password?

Interviews

Chimezie Chika

‘Writing Is a Process of Thinking and Thinking Is Living’ Chimezie Chika’s First Draft 

Nigerian writer, Chimezie Chika, believes that fidelity to the quality of work is what makes an artist or artwork timeless: ‘I think art has a lot to do with quality—and I mean quality as substance: the quality of colour, the quality of light, the quality of strokes, the quality of mood, the quality of thought, and the quality of ideas. All great art possesses these qualities.’
August/September 2024First DraftInterviewsNigeria
Nadia Davids

‘Plays Are an Astonishingly Intimate Way of Experiencing Art and Time’ Nadia Davids’ First Draft

South African writer, Nadia Davids, says her latest play, Hold Still, first came to her when she was living in London in 2015: ‘There was a constant stream of horrific news stories depicting families fleeing their homes. I wanted to explore how ordinary people responded to a humanitarian crisis and how family histories shape us. I also wanted to consider what happens when the crisis reaches our own homes.’
August/September 2024First DraftInterviewsSouth Africa
Pede Hollist

‘I Like Narratives That Take Me on a Quest’ Pede Hollist’s First Draft

Sierra Leonean academic and author of So the Path Does Not Die, Pede Hollist, wants more people to know about the diversity of Sierra Leonean literature: ‘I wish people are aware of the efforts by Sierra Leoneans to write in the country’s national languages, and the financial struggles to support young writers through workshops, retreats, prize-bearing competitions, professional editors, and competitive publication outlets.’
First DraftInterviewsJune/July 2024Sierra Leone

‘Write Something Familiar in a Way That Readers Encounter It as Something New’ Ololade Faniyi’s First Draft

Nigerian feminist scholar and author of An African Feminist Manifesto, Ololade Faniyi, is drawn to writings about the digital and the African imaginary: ‘We must resist the universalizing mission disguised as bridging the technological divide. We have lost so much as a people; we don’t have any more to lose.’
First DraftInterviewsJune/July 2024Nigeria
Ololade Faniyi

‘Writing Comes From a Place of Danger and Struggle’ Patrice Nganang’s First Draft

Cameroonian academic and author of Dog Days, Patrice Nganang, says social media has led to his transformation as a writer: ‘Social media led to my imprisonment, helped me free a few hundred people from jail, build schools and bridges, and feed incarcerated individuals. Simply put, it made me the writer I always dreamed of becoming.’
Best of 2024: First DraftCameroonFirst DraftInterviewsJune/July 2024vol8-no3