Ask the Author: Chigozie Obioma
Answered Questions (19)
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you, Uche!
Chigozie Obioma
My brother, simply by reading, and reading, and reading. And then carefully studying what makes fiction work. What is it in those great books that makes them strong? I think these things will lift your writing in general.
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you for saying this, Marvin. You can find the best answer by reading any of the interviews listed on this: https://www.chigozieobioma.com/, especially this one: https://electricliterature.com/chigoz...
Thank you for helping spread the word about the book!
Thank you for helping spread the word about the book!
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you, Andrea. I'm so glad you liked the book and appreciate your encouragement! My second novel just came out in Croatia and was the subject of your morning show: https://magazin.hrt.hr/520338/sto-cit...
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you, my friend. I really appreciate. Your question is one I'm trying to understand myself. I feel it's up to the reader. I feel sometimes that it might be a self-fulfilling process, at other times, I think the prophecy might have its own potent power. What, in your heart of hearts, do you think led to Ikenna's death? Curious to know.
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you, Barbara!
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you, Andrea: In no particular order, my favorites and influences were William Shakespeare, Chinua Achebe, Thomas Hardy, Amos Tutuola, Arundhati Roy, Knut Hamsun, Kazuo Ishiguro amongst others.
Chigozie Obioma
Long ago, but here, Paulami: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Chigozie Obioma
Hi Michele, this is two years old now. But I will teach here this summer: https://imagejournal.org/glenworkshop/
But, if you send me a note to [email protected] (I will hope to remember your name), I will give you any advice/Guardian you may need. Best wishes.
But, if you send me a note to [email protected] (I will hope to remember your name), I will give you any advice/Guardian you may need. Best wishes.
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you, Vaughn. Although this is coming late, I still want to answer :) I wanted to let the Benjamin simulate how the mind of children work when they are in the act of trying to understand something that is not easily apparent to them. They often associate that phenomenon to something they are more familiar with. This is why you'd find a child saying something like this big guy who beat me at school is like a superman.
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you for the compliment. The language I speak and write in though is English.
Chigozie Obioma
I have never been asked this question before, but it doesn't feel like that's the case. I think the father simply gets caught up in the hustle for a new job. Karen, thank you so much, hopefully you will be interested in https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Chigozie Obioma
This is old now, but I'm grateful you asked. We are currently considering a few offers from movie producers, but the stage play premieres this July in Manchester, UK https://homemcr.org/production/the-fi...
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you very much!
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you, I haven't been here in a long time, but I hope to visit Kenya when the new novel, An Orchestra of Minorities is released in January next year!
Chigozie Obioma
Dear Wendy, I believe Benjamin is trying to describe the terror that comes with bad memories of past events (relating to June 12s). For some reason, on the anniversaries of that a
high-wired political event, people often marched in protests and sometimesrioted until 1999 when MKO died. The "surgery" done to the people's souls is simply a metaphor for the panic and anxiety that siezes them because of the fear of yet another eruption. It us a core Igbo thought that the soul temporarily leaves the body of a person who--seized with great fear--anticipates death.The northerners leave Akure (in the west) and those who stay pray for the safe passage of the day.
high-wired political event, people often marched in protests and sometimesrioted until 1999 when MKO died. The "surgery" done to the people's souls is simply a metaphor for the panic and anxiety that siezes them because of the fear of yet another eruption. It us a core Igbo thought that the soul temporarily leaves the body of a person who--seized with great fear--anticipates death.The northerners leave Akure (in the west) and those who stay pray for the safe passage of the day.
Chigozie Obioma
Both, Saima. It happened that the period I wanted to set the novel in was the period in which all of the upheaval actually happened, but then those dynamics are symbolic in various ways in the novel.
Chigozie Obioma
Thank you so much, Barbara for saying that! It means the world to me. Yes--it's a novel titled "The Falconer." It is slowly coming together. Can I ask you to keep spreading the word about THE FISHERMEN? Thank you!
Chigozie Obioma
The Fishermen was foremost an attempt to tell the universal story of family bonds and what happens when they are severed. First, it was intended as a sort of tribute to my siblings, especially my brothers—a love letter. I am from a family of twelve children: seven brothers and four sisters. In 2009, living in Cyprus, and homesick, I began reflecting on something my father had told me some time before, about his joy at the growing bond between my two eldest brothers who, growing up, had maintained a strong rivalry that would sometimes culminate in fist fights. As I began pondering what was the worst that could have happened at that time, the image of the Agwu family came to me. Then I created Abulu as the facilitator of conflict between the brothers.
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