Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu Interview
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to conduct an interview. First off, this is embarrassing for me but how do you pronounce your name?
No worries. I keep the phonetic spelling of my name on file in my computer for just this question (which I get all the time J): Neh-dee (Nnedi) Oh-core-ra-for (Okorafor) Mm-bah-chew (Mbachu).
Is there a story behind the name Nnedi?
My full name is Nnedimma Nkemdili Okorafor-Mbachu. Imagine if I put that on my books. Talk about scaring people away. Ha ha. “Nnedimma” means “Mother is good.” Nnedi means “Mother is”. Apparently when I was born I came out looking exactly like my grandmother.
What kind of research did you have to do for The Shadow Speaker
?
Plenty. But for different things. I did a lot of research on the Sahara Desert, the Wodaabe people of Niger, the Hausa people of Nigeria and Niger, various forms of Islam, the Aïr Mountains, the country of Niger, a lot of scientific stuff (especially for the capture station), etc. I did a lot of scientific research, mainly involving creatures. The many creatures of my stories are usually based on creatures that I’ve personally encountered or that I have read about.
Can you share with us your experience with paralysis?
I’ve always been very athletic. I was always the kid who was chosen first during playground games. Both my parents were athletes, my three siblings were all athletes.
From the age of nine I focused on the sport of tennis. All through grade school and high school, I played semi-pro tennis. I also was exceptionally good in track and field. Up to the age of 19, my life revolved around two things- sports and books (reading them).
Starting at the age of 12, I developed scoliosis that progressively grew worse as I grew up. When I was 19, after my first year of college (I was on the tennis team), I learned I had to have spinal surgery or I’d definitely be severally crippled by the age of 25. There was a one percent chance of paralysis. Which gamble would you make? Yeah, even today, I’d still choose the surgery option.
May 18th. I went into the hospital walking and woke up a day later paralyzed from the waist down. I spent the rest of that summer learning to walk. I returned to school using a cane. It was awful.
However, this incident also made me turn inward for a while. It also forced me to give up sports. Though all my strength remained, I’d lost my agility and my balance was terrible. You can still knock me down pretty easily.
So, I had a tragic sense of loss, hints of rage, a creative mind, and a lot of unspent energy. The conditions were right for the discovery of fiction writing. I discovered it that very semester when, upon a friend’s advice, I took a creative writing class. The rest is history.
Did it have any impact on your writing?
My experience with paralysis IS why I started writing.
One thing I took from the experience was a sense of urgency. I basically had one great talent snatched from me and then another took its place. I remain plagued by a need to write as much as I can before this gift gets snatched from me, too. It’s part of why I write so much and so fast.
Secondly, what I learned from sports, what is a large part of why I was able to walk again, was a very strong sense of discipline. I use that same discipline when I write novels. It’s another reason why I write so fast.
Lastly, being paralyzed forced me to disregard the physical for a while and travel inward. That’s where I found much of the weird stuff you find in my work. That’s where I discovered the storyteller within. Friends of mine say that the whole paralysis thing was fate. Maybe, but it still sucked.
When did you decide to pursue writing seriously?
It was more of a gradual thing. After my first creative writing class, I didn’t stop writing. I just fell in love with it. I started knitting novel and I didn’t even know it. I had no intention of getting published. It was purely for the love of story. I did this type of continual writing for about five years. I wrote three novels. Then somewhere along the line I started getting short stories published. When I wrote my fourth novel, I started thinking about getting it published. I think when I got my first agent, I realized that I was writing seriously.
What is it about fantasy or science fiction that attracted you as a reader? As a writer?
I see the world as a magical place. I believe that was why I was attracted to fantasy and science fiction as both a reader and a writer. This kind of literature also seemed to address issues of otherness in ways that really resonated with me.
You’ve mentioned in an interview that among many things, you’re a horrible speller and didn’t do so well in English. How has this affected your writing or what steps did you take to overcome them?
In high school, my best subjects were math and the sciences, especially geometry, calculus, and biology. I excelled in grammar, too. Plus I had always read voraciously. However, when it came to the subjects of literature and writing, I was pretty bad. Maybe I didn’t have the best teachers or maybe it was all just a matter of time or maybe the books we focused on didn’t spark my interests. I think it was a combination of all these things. Eventually, I got it together by college.
As far as spelling, there’s no hope there. Ha ha. I think it’s genetic. My mom, who has a PhD in health administration and was at the top of her college class, is also a terrible speller. My mom and I also both have weird issues with knowing our left from our right. I have to really think about it. Thank goodness for spell-check.
Can you elaborate on the importance of formal education in your development as a writer?
I learned about structure during my masters and PhD (English with an emphasis on creative writing). Point of view, character development, theme, form, these are what I took from academia when it comes to my writing. Fiction writing requires creativity and no university can teach that. However, it also requires craft, and that a university can teach very very well.
Is incorporating Nigerian elements into your stories a conscious decision on your part or does it fall more along the lines of “write what you know”?
Nigeria and the greater Africa are where my muse resides right now. Maybe someday that will change. I don’t see that being soon. It’s not a conscious choice, it just is what it is.
It’s not always writing what I know. I’ve never been to Niger (where The Shadow Speaker
If I’m doing anything conscious it’s that I’m filling in blanks. I’ve always wanted to read fantasy set in Africa that is about Africa and Africans, that’s set in the now or the future.
Do you foresee yourself as the “next Octavia Butler”?
There will never be another Octavia Butler.
. But she is a great influence on my own work. She showed me that what I was doing was possible and publishable. I just want to be “Nnedi the Tall Nigerian American Woman who Writes that Weird Stuff”.
Is there a shift for you when writing adult fiction vs. young adult fiction?
I write YA and adult fiction in the same way. I don’t figure out what it is until it’s done.
How about your short fiction vs. your longer fiction?
Usually my short fiction is just the start of my longer fiction. Only once in a while do I really write a short story that is a short story. I have a story in a science fiction anthology called Seeds of Change
What in your opinion are the elements of your writing that distinguishes your young adult from your adult fiction, if any?
When it’s all said and done and I look at my YA and adult work, I see that my adult fiction is significantly darker and far more graphic.
You’ve mentioned that you’re both a feminist and a womanist. Could you define for us what each of them means for you and how they sometimes clash with each other?
To me, to be a feminist is to believe in the equality of men and women, despite differences. It also means that you acknowledge that there is inequality and seek to right that wrong in your own way. So I’m a feminist. Womanism is feminism for people of color, feminism that actively incorporates the complexity of race into the equation. Yeah, I’m that, too.
What was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome in becoming a writer?
My family and, I guess, culture. In my family, and amongst Igbos as a whole, the most respected careers are in medicine and engineering. Writing is a hobby.
I remember my father scoffing at the idea (he was a cardiovascular surgeon and a Chief of Surgery in Chicago). I definitely had to prove myself. So when I decided I was serious, I knew I had to do more than just get published. I had to get a PhD in writing (Nigerians love degrees) and get published by a top publisher, amongst other things.
What projects are you currently working on?
I just sold a YA fantasy novel to Penguin Books titled Sunny and the Leopard People. It’s about a Nigerian albino girl who discovers some serious strangeness in her neighborhood and eventually becomes a part of it. I’ll be editing that soon. And this summer I wrote a sort of part two to the Shadow Speaker tentatively titled Stormbringer. Then there’s also my adult novel, Who Fears Death, that is currently being shopped around.
Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu is the author of The Shadow Speaker
(Houghton Mifflin). Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, magazines and journals, the latest being “Spider the Artist” in Seeds of Change
(Prime Books). Nnedi is a 2007 NAACP Image Award Nominee and the recipient of several literary awards including the 2008 Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa. She is currently a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Chicago State University.
Charles Tan is a speculative fiction fan from the Philippines. He has lots of online doppelgangers, including a Singaporean politician and a Filipino basketball player, but people should be warned that the “real” Charles Tan is a bibliophile who stalks his favorite authors. His blog, Bibliophile Stalker is updated with daily content including book reviews, interviews, and essays. He is also a contributor for SFF Audio.
via nebulaawards.com
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Nigeria: Nnedi Okorafor on Nnedi Okorafor
Part one of an hour long discussion with fantasy-sci-fi writer Nnedi Okorafor. Here she touches on race, paralysis and plant worlds. Thoughts on her earlier thoughts on a proclivity for enjoying "nonsense and weirdness".
>via: http://bombasticelements.blogspot.com/2011/01/nigeria-nnedi-okorafor-on-nnedi...