“Mulumba” was first published in The Threepenny Review’s Spring 2016 issue 145. They don’t seem to be planning to make it public so I have. I wrote it in November 2014, a tribute to my Block Rosary Crusade-heavy childhood, years spent in chapels in Christ the King Cathedral, Aba (featured photo). It is special to …
Sometime in May my website was hacked and, offline for more than a month’s worth of weeks, I lost quite a lot in access and potential contacts. Sometime in June I began working with a new tech person who’s damn good and will rescue me from jobless Internet people. This is one reason I haven’t …
1. WITH AKACHI I have known Akachi for years, as a poet acquaintance from The Writers’ Community, UNN, but until this year, we hadn’t had a conversation that was personal. On 14 April, I saw a Facebook post by him and was worried. Benson confirmed that he was struggling with depression, and I sent …
A boy’s ears should be busy during Easter. Check out my previous lists—for 2017, for 2018, and a playlist & thoughts. “Ratchet (Happy Birthday),” Drake Friend played it at my birthday and it got me. First Drake solo song I love. “Summertime Magic,” Donald Glover From the Guava Island film, which has Rihanna, which means …
I like the word “feast.” The sound of it, the upper teeth touching the lower lip. I like when it is used in titles of things. I want it when it comes like this. Mario Vargas Llosa was one of the first writers I knew their names and work, back in 2011 when I …
1. This is only half of the story. 2. My third idea for a novel came in June 2013, one evening as I was starting a short story. At that time, the manuscript of my short story collection, You Sing of a Longing, was still in its earliest incarnation, on course to be a …
Between Short Stories and a Novel, My Creative Shutdown and Transitioning Read More »
I wrote this as a comment on a Facebook post that, in discussing a tweet comparing Meryl Streep, Angela Basset, and Viola Davis, suggests that Viola Davis lacks range. Can Meryl and Viola be compared? I think so—it’s okay to compare careers for positives. But in the way that said tweet did? I don’t think so …
How (Not) to Compare Viola Davis to Meryl Streep Read More »
Discussing Game of Thrones is one of the few times random people are allowed to publicly wish death on other people and to invent ways for them to die. If you’ve been paying attention, really paying attention—and I don’t mean memorizing the names of dragons—you’d know now that ONLY a woman will sit on …
In December, I was at The Writers’ Community (TWC) in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka for a prose workshop. It was where we started: Arinze Ifeakandu, Chisom Okafor, Ebenezer Agu, Osinachi, Michael Umoh, Uzoma Ihejirika, Festus Iyorah, Adaeze Nwadike, Pius Ifechukwu. Without TWC, there might be no me in the way that I am. …
Sunday nightfall, I’m bored—actually I feel like munching succulent bread and Vita Milk—so Friend and I go to Spar. We are surprised to see a crowd: a concert is on, a #DefendYourVote initiative, and on the poster are Phyno, Peruzzi, and Naeto C. I’ve never seen Phyno live, or anybody I really want to …