Samuel Kolawole: On Being a Writer

Samuel Kolawole, author of a collection of short stories The Book of M, writes about what it means to be a published writer. He was at GCLF for the first time in 2009; since then, it has been an annual pilgrimage for him. We will publish an excerpt of his work-in-progress next week.

I am an enthusiast of the written word. I do not really enjoy giving readings, though flattered at the requests to do so. It’s one thing to write, it’s another thing to perform what you have written. That's what I think readings are, performances of the written word. Writing provides for me a way of hiding while concocting tales that will hopefully travel beyond my personal space; readings, on the other hand, take me out of that space.

I try to find the clearest, most engaging way of telling stories. I conjure up things and discard them. I toil. I fine-tune my sentences. I look for that missing thread, that magical connection that transforms a narrative into a delight. I am wary of giving too much credence to my work, but I can't but be fascinated by the idea that I have created a fantasy someone can live in, even for just a moment.

I am happy when things turn out well and my work makes it through the valley of rejection. When it doesn’t, I immediately begin making plans of a comeback. My goal as a craftsman is to develop a stronger and more confident voice. My better work is always the one I am going to do next.

It is said that writing is a solitary occupation but not really a lonely one. Truth be told, writing can be grueling. The writer's imagination is mobbed with characters, imagery, and language fighting for expression, waiting to be inked in the correct manner.

It is so easy to completely immerse yourself in the creative process that you forget there are other elements apart from the craft of writing responsible for a successful writerly vocation like embedding yourself within a writing community or standing before suspecting bookish fans and white-haired pundits at readings.

Over the years, I have learnt to invest my time in going to places where I would come face to face with others in the world of writing and get clearer sense of the demands of my industry. In 2009, I was invited to a fiction writing workshop as part of activities of a literary festival. I'd submitted a short story, as required, and months later received an email inviting me to show up in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, a place I had never been to before; and the rest, as they say, is history. This annual festival of words has become a pilgrimage of sorts for me. I have come to know Garden City Literary Festival as a one-stop literary event for readers, writers, publishers, and stakeholders in the book industry.

I have since published a story collection, The Book of M; contributed short stories to literary journals on three continents, and won a writing fellowship. A few weeks from now I will once again be thrust into the public glare. I have been invited to a talk show at a local TV station to talk about my life as a writer of macabre stories. Hopefully I will survive this one, although I can always use more of them. Passion is never enough. In the world of imaginative literature sometimes you need to wake up, make the coffee, and then enjoy the coffee.

Samuel Kolawole has contributed short fiction to Jungle Jim, Translitmag, Superstition Review, and Sentinel Literary Quarterly. His stories are forthcoming in Outcast, an anthology of African and Asian writers, and the ISFN anthology, a Canadian-based imprint. A winner of the Reading Bridges fellowship, Samuel lives in Ibadan, where he has begun work on his novel.