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Nigerian novelist, Yewande Omotoso’s most recent novel, An Unusual Grief, was inspired by her experience of loss: ‘My mother died when I was 23, and apart from the recent birth of my children, that is the most profound experience of my life. The grief that followed is a sharp memory of mine and I’ve often joked that the experience irrevocably marked my writing.’
My parents exposed my brothers and I to a range of books and comics. By doing this, they were non-discriminating, and I really appreciate that especially now as an adult.
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About the Author
is an architect, with a masters degree in creative writing from the University of Cape Town. Her debut novel Bomboy (2011, Modjaji Books), won the South African Literary Award First Time Author Prize. Her short stories include How About The Children (Kalahari Review), Things Are Hard (2012, Caine Prize Anthology), Fish (The Moth Literary Journal) and The Leftovers (One World Two). Omotoso was a 2015 Miles Morland Scholar. Her second novel The Woman Next Door (2016, Chatto and Windus) was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Literature Prize. Her third novel An Unusual Grief (Cassava Republic) was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Republic of Consciousness Prize.
Nigerian novelist, poet and author of Graceland, Chris Abani, does not believe ‘Nigerian literature’ exists as a category: ‘It is a common misconception that there is a fixed category that can be read as essentially “Nigerian literature”. Nigeria has 500 nations, 500 languages and about 2,000 dialects. While culture and language can overlap, the level of diversity is such that Nigerian literature cannot be easily narrowed down.’
For the co-founder and publishing director, of Cassava Republic Press, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, it is telling that African literature is often pronounced dead in recent years, when more women and queer voices are becoming more prominent: ‘The loudest obituary writers about African literature tend to be men. These elegies seem to come from a tacit sense of personal or generational displacement rather than from the actual state of the field.’
Nigerian poet, novelist and author of Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Ben Okri, argues that Nigerian literature doesn’t always have to be about Nigeria: ‘Nigerian literature limits itself to Nigeria and then limits even the ways in which the country can be written about. What we want is a vast literature, a great literature…that speaks to all humanity.’
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