Interview

In this interview, Carl Terver, an essayist, poet and the founding editor of Afapinen, speaks with the 2022 NLNG Shortlistee, S’ueddie Vershima Agema, on his book, Memory and the Call of Waters. CARL TERVER It must be great to have made the NLNG Prize shortlist. Congratulations. Will you kindly tell us about your thoughts at […]

Saddiq Dzukogi is the author of Your Crib, My Qibla published under African Poetry Book Fund Series by the University of Nebraska. The book has been shortlisted for Julie Suk Award finalist and Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry shortlist in the United States. In this interview which took place in cyberscape across two continents, Peter […]

Romeo Oríogun is the author of A Sacrament of Bodies and Nomad, and a few other poetry chapbooks. Nomad has now been shortlisted for the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Literature (poetry category). In this conversation with OlongoAfrica, conducted over zoom by Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún and Olajide Salawu, he talks about his motivations and influences. The conversation […]

[NOTE: I first learnt of Biyi Bándélé thanks to Ayọ̀ Arígbágbù, who never stopped gushing over The Man from the Back of the Beyond. I took interest and sought out the writer. When his book, Burma Boy was published in 2007, I reached out to him that I had written a review of the book […]

Ademola: Somewhere, Chinua Achebe says, “there is no story that is not true.” While this is a profound assertion, it also speaks, in my opinion, about the stringency of the fiction-nonfiction rules. As someone whose first book, Satans & Shaitans, was a fictionalized account of a deeply researched feature of the current Nigerian society, what do […]

Kola Tubosun (KT): The Girl with the Louding voice, a very fascinating book I read over the last couple of days. I am glad to speak with the writer. Abi Dare (AD): Thank you, Kola. It’s such a pleasure to be here with you. I’ve heard great things. KT: I enjoyed the book very much […]

Cheluchi Onyemelukwe’s debut novel, The Son of the House, won the award for Best Fiction Writer at the 2019 Sharjah International Book Fair. Uche: Congrats on The Son of the House—a heartrending novel dealing with rape, teenage pregnancy, treachery, and female oppression. What was it like writing it, and how did it start? Cheluchi: Thank […]