Author of On Black Sister’s Street and ‘Head Above Water: Scanning Buchi Emecheta’s Oeuvre’, Chika Unigwe, believes it is important for an author to know as much as possible about the characters they are writing about: ‘to write a character well, one must treat that character with integrity and respect, and that means knowing as much as there is to know about the character.’
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?
I read everything. My older siblings’ schoolbooks and novels—James Hadley Chase, M & Bs; Chinua Achebe and Cyprian Ekwensi. A lot of Enid Blyton. A classmate had a subscription to Highlights for Children (an American children’s magazine) and I asked my father to take out a subscription for my younger sister and me too (and he did)...
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