Nosakhare Collins is a poet, editor, documentary photographer, and founder of Libretto Publishers and magazine. His chapbook A Pilgrimage of Songs (published by Sevhage Publishers) was released in 2018, and his most recent, A Song of Endless Flames co-authored with Usman Karofi, was unveiled in January 2021. Here, he talks about his journey as a creative, and more.
Libretto Publishers and magazine has done a lot for writers, especially poets, within a relatively short time. As the founder, how would you describe the experience so far?
It’s quite encouraging to know a lot of writers across the globe are more interested in sharing their works with a larger audience of readers, and with this in mind, we are more than happy to help them amplify their creative voices through our magazine.
The motivation to start a magazine and publishing house came to me around 2016. I had completed my first full-length poetry manuscript, but when I reached out to some publishing houses for consideration, I received a lot of disappointing responses. Then I decided to go through the self-publishing route, but the cost of publishing a book was huge, and it was like the system was rigged against writers on the lower rungs of the pyramid. I wasn’t financially stable at that time, and I soon discovered that the inability to get published was a situation a lot of other young writers were experiencing. So, I reached out to Ehi’zogie Iyeomoan and Dhee Sylvester, and through their support and good counsel, the magazine was launched in March 2019 and later evolved to a publishing house in January 2020. Since then, it’s been one success story to another, and we hope to do more in publishing new and established writers.
You recently released A Song of Endless Flames by Usman Karofi and yourself for free download. You have done this with about eight works. How do you make an income from what you do?
One of the primary objectives of every business is to make profit, and that is something we would like to do at Libretto because we believe in the capacity of art and literature to generate commercial value. At the moment, we are able to fund most of our projects through personal contributions and donations. Going forward, we plan to generate profit through sponsorship, advertisement, and book publishing, either through digital or print. That said, we need support for the upcoming chapbook and anthology prizes.
How challenging has it been running an online publishing platform and how are you able to overcome them?
It’s been quite challenging, but we have an excellent team at Libretto, and that makes things a whole lot easier. We know what we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it, and even though certain unfortunate situations do come up from time to time, threatening to derail us, we find a way through it because we are determined and united in our desire to succeed.
Would you say your primary reason for establishing Libretto has been met?
When I started Libretto, the goal was to reach out to writers across the globe who want their works to be read appreciated. I wanted to contribute to the literary world by promoting writers across the world through the magazine and also through an independent publishing company. I want to push writers to be better. I want them to have full confidence to write and to have their, while offering them a free chance to publish their dream book. Doing this actually makes me smile and provides me with a wholesome sense of purpose.
How did your journey as a writer begin?
I started as a singer and song writer at about age five. All I wanted was to sing like Sunny Nneji, Fela and the other artistes I admired. My writing journey really began in high school, although I stopped for some personal reasons and later continued while I was an undergraduate at Ambrose Alli University in my year two. I was studying accounting. In the early days I experienced a lot of rejection, and at some point, I lost confidence. But then, as a writer, doubt and rejection are obstacles you get to deal with, and you must believe enough in yourself to rise above them.
Besides writing, I also have interest in photography, so I merged both together in documentary photography and teaching which later inspired more of my writing. I find solace in writing and documentary photographing. It makes me want to embrace sanity and more of what nature brings my way. Yet, I believe writing makes one see the unseen. I believe the only solution to all the problems we carry is by writing down our memories, which is actually a labour of perseverance and comfort. So, writing has been my source of confidence, happiness and comfort.
How are you able to juggle writing and publishing? Does one end up taking the upper hand?
Not exactly. I do many things aside writing. I am a content editor and publisher. I am also a studio photographer, tutor, academic researcher, amongst other things. And so, I get to read lots of good books on my desk and also find time to work on them. I’m grateful to my wonderful team at Libretto Magazine and Libretto Publishers who make everything possible.
What are you working on currently, whether as publisher or writer?
Presently, we are working on the forthcoming Libretto African Anthology Prizes, as well as partnering with other literary groups and institutions. We are building relationships across Africa, Europe, and North America, through the magazine and our publishing service. We just finished work on a collection of comic short stories, titled ‘Twitter Street’ by Obiageli A. Iloakasia, soon to be released by Libretto Publishers. I also intend publishing my full-length poetry collection this year through Libretto.
