Always laughable seeing Nigerian writers adding titles to their names in books covers or in flyers for their events. See, we really don’t need to know if you’re a Professor, Doctor, or kini. You don’t have to tell us. In fact, most readers aren’t exactly interested in knowing 🤷🏾‍♂️

🙏🏿

When I e-mailed them for blurbs, I was unsure. Would they like the book or just shelve my request? Surprisingly, I got more than blurbs. I got kind reviews from these icons. I’d never been so honoured. Lifelong thanks to Profs Ainehi Edoro-Glines, Phd, Uche Peter Umezurike, PhD, and Ikhide R. Ikheloa 🙏🏿🦅

All Art is political, again.

“I think that poets who decline to deal with the real world and who exclude politics and everything else that happens in life from their poetry do themselves a disservice. Nothing that is human is alien to the poet.” — Dennis Brutus.

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I’m very excited to announce that I will be serving (again) as a mentor for this year’s Sprinng Sprinng Writing Fellowship. Visit sprinng.org/writing-fellow… to learn more and apply by April 15!

#2024SprinngMentor

Facebook reminds me these days of things I’ve long forgotten. I facilitated scores of literary classes/workshops during the pandemic, four years ago. This was one of them. In May 2020, I started rejecting “Harry” as my name. This flyer’s one of the last you’d see with that name.

Some contracts are just absolutely weird. Which one is “…if author does not die in five years or before”? The Nigerian in me is casting and binding as I’m signing, because…

Are you ready?

Are you ready? For At Night Men Take the Lonely Way Back Home’s magnificent work?

🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿

Niggas just come on podcasts and open their mouths wahhhhhh.

Writers, take advantage.

And so it goes….

Two years ago, we gathered the best poets, essayists and novelists from across Africa to get this done after the reading. Facebook reminded me we made history. It’s the little things that make everything worth working hard for. 🦅

Getting your poem published on Okoto non-paying mag versus having it plagiarised serially on Adda.

Why plagiarise art when you can simply end your career with honour? Tbh, if you ever get to that stage where you can’t push out stuff anymore, it’s best to quit, or wait till you can again. But then no one said honour was cheap.

'My advice to poets is to write from the centre because you are the centre. Read a lot […] Read what you dislike, too, because sometimes there’s this tendency, at least for me, to be content with your finely curated obsessions.' — Momtaza Mehri (momtaza mehri 💆🏾‍♀️).

Mpa m ukwu, thanks so much. This is great testimonial!❤️❤️