Writers need money for their hard work – Yewande Omotoso

Bookshelf: Chatto and Windus, an imprint of Random House, same publisher of 2013 Man Booker Prize shortlisted author, Noviolet Bulawayo, are set to publish your latest novel, ‘The Woman next Door,’ with world rights in all languages. How did this happen and how do you feel?
Yewande Omotoso: The manuscript was submitted by my agent, Elise Dillsworth, and Chatto and Windus chose to buy it. I am very pleased.
Bookshelf: In the novel, Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are sworn enemies. Some readers may easily expect these two central characters to be younger. What triggered your making them into eightyish women?
Omotoso: The ages of the characters weren’t a second thought. The intention was always to look at people at the end of their lives versus the beginning or middle. I was interested in this because I had been thinking a lot about feelings such as regret. This is a feeling familiar at all stages of life, but surely the regret of an 80 or 90-year-old carries with it the knowledge that you no longer have much time to fix things. I think when we’re younger we can fool ourselves into thinking we have time to make-good. I wanted to work with characters that didn’t have that luxury and were even resigned to their regret and sadness.
Bookshelf: These two characters are of different races and in a country such as South Africa which has experienced apartheid. What did you hope to achieve?
Omotoso: I was interested in exploring shame as well, particularly the shame of someone who had lived through apartheid but done nothing, however small or quietly defiant, to challenge it. I wanted to see if we could examine racism, not a blazing kind, but a deceptively subdued kind. A ‘willful’ ignorance, if you like.
Bookshelf: You were born in Barbados and grew up in Nigeria, before moving to South Africa in 1992. How did you start writing?
Omotoso: Reading is really where it begins. My parents were great readers and they simply inculcated the habit of reading into my brother and I. As young children we were always writing things, poems, plays, little stories with pictures and songs. That was regular and not seen as particular. So writing was always just a part of life. I studied Architecture and it was only after working for several years that the idea of actually trying to write a book, or several books, formed as a clear want. It was probably there all along but I never admitted it to myself, at least not loud enough to have to do anything about that longing. At this stage I decided to do a part time Master’s in Creative Writing because I had no clue where to begin in writing a novel and wanted the structure and guidance such a programme could offer.
Bookshelf: How has your birth place, growing up in Nigeria and your present location helped your storytelling?
Omotoso: I can’t really say. If you want to tell stories almost anything could help it along – I don’t think there is any particular formula. The biggest influences on me remain my parents and brothers. They, to a large degree, shaped my childhood. In terms of the places I’ve grown up and lived, I draw on my life experiences. I won’t phrase it as ‘helping’ my storytelling. It feels more accurate to say that these things inform it.
Bookshelf: How has life as a writer been since your debut, ‘Bom Boy,’ published in South Africa in 2011?
Omotoso: It’s very exciting to have your work published and then read more and more widely. It is also scary because you are exposing yourself and your creations. I think what helps is just staying focused to the main goal at hand – writing well.
Bookshelf: Your blog has a catchy name to it ‘1of6billion.’ What role or roles do you think running a blog plays in developing Nigerian literature?
Omotoso: I can’t claim that I am running a blog. I post irregularly, which is apparently a deadly sin in the world of blogs. The purpose of 1of6billion was not to become a blog-guru. I just wanted a space where I could practice. I think other bloggers have much more refined reasons for starting their blogs and would probably be better placed to answer this question. As a lay person, I can simply note that the ability to push a button and publish your poem, story, opinion, both have advantages and disadvantages for any nation’s literature. As a blogger you can easily end up being a writer, editor and publisher, always a tricky combination. Not all blogs are created equally. However, I appreciate the sense of anarchy the blogosphere provides in terms of access.
Bookshelf: You won the South African Literary award for First-Time Published Author and was shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize. In 2013 you were runner-up in the pan-African Etisalat Fiction Prize. What relevance do you think awards have in African and Nigerian literature in particular?
Omotoso: I’ll make it broader. Awards for writing, anywhere in the world, are good for two main reasons I think: They usually involve money and writers need that for their hard work. Such payouts go a long way to writing the next work. They also provide some prestige and recognition which is a great thing to receive after much slog. That said, I think it is healthy to consider awards as a kind of lottery. You can play. It is fun for its own sake, you are not at all surprised when you don’t win the $25 bill and you are absolutely beside yourself with joyous disbelief when you do. And again, when you do win, you don’t interpret this as anything other than extremely good fortune in particular and this might be controversial. I don’t use prizes and awards as my primary measure – of myself or anyone else – for quality or talent.
Bookshelf: How do you joggle between your profession as an architect and writing?
Omotoso: When I have architectural work I focus on that, when I have writing work I focus on that. So far, it has been manageable.There haven’t been too many times when I have had lots of both architectural and writing work at the same time. My company is not a conventional one; there is room, with the blessing of my partners, to balance my time between both activities.
Bookshelf: What are you writing presently?
Omotoso: I am working on a novel about a mother dealing with the disappearance of her adult daughter.