In Conversation

This week we spoke to Adorah Nworah about her creative journey and the story behind her debut novel, House Woman.

Interviewed by Zulaikhah Agoro.

ZA: I would love to start from the very beginning. When did this whole writing thing start? When was the seed planted, and what was the special thing about writing that captured you at that stage?

AN: This is the most cliché response, but I have been writing for as long as I can remember. As a child, I was a voracious reader who loved to sink into new worlds, so mine was a natural progression from reader to writer. My earliest stories featured stick figure characters who lived colorful but troubled lives. In secondary school, I ditched the stick figures for handwritten novellas that my friends read and pleaded with me to complete. I never completed those projects, but the positive feedback from my friends and classmates forced me to take my rambling paragraphs seriously. In turn, the plots of my stories grew sharper, and my characters’ voices became less stilted. But what kept me returning to the page was the belief in my own hype. I loved knowing that I was good at something I enjoyed, and that if I kept at it, I could be dangerous. That sense of wonder at the sheer effrontery of my words, is what keeps me returning to the page.

ZA: Believing in your own hype, that is very powerful. Speaking of self-hype, we are very privileged at AFREADA to have published your earliest piece, Our Wife. How did you make the transition from the short story form to writing and publishing a full length work?

AN: It wasn’t exactly a transition because I knew I wanted to be a novelist from the jump. Short stories are an important part of my process. I like to think of short stories as multivitamins for novelists like me. Need to take a break from your full-length novel? Write a short story. Need a quick primer on the basics of a story? Here’s a short story. Want a fun writing project without the extensive commitment of a novel? Start a short story. Want some street cred that may land you an agent or publisher? Why, here’s a short story competition for you! All of which is to say, I love a short story, and I love that platforms (like AFREADA) that champion short stories exist.

ZA: That’s a very interesting perspective, and of course, we love that you love us. We live for moments like this. Digging a little deeper into this story, in your conversation with Brittle Paper, you mentioned that the decision to name your main character Ikemefuna was a nod to Chinua Achebe’s notable work Things Fall Apart. What has had the biggest impact on crafting your unique style and voice? How did you decide, “this is what I want to sound like”?

AN: A little bit of this and that. In the earliest years, I attempted to recreate my favorite authors’ literary quirks, but it felt inauthentic, so I gave it up. Now, I am less inspired by an author’s voice or style. What stays with me are the feelings a novel pulls out of me. The euphoria or discomfort. The quiet thrill and wonder. Sometimes, I read a novel and I grab my laptop and type as quickly as I can. Those raw, ravenous minutes color my literary voice and style. Everything else is secondary.

ZA: I definitely agree, the best art is the one that makes you feel something. Now, about this book, House Woman, what is the inspiration behind the story, and in your own words, what is the book about? What did you want to explore with it?

AN: The Maya Angelou quote, ‘no one of us can be free until everybody is free’, perfectly sums up House Woman. For the longest time, I couldn’t stop thinking of the freedoms that are routinely denied women in patriarchal societies. So I went the literal route by writing a novel about a woman who is trapped in her in-laws' home and must claw her way to freedom. During edits, I quickly realized that Ikemefuna wasn’t the only prisoner in the novel. Patriarchy imprisons every single one of House Woman’s central characters to varying degrees. Each character is trapped in an endless loop of rash decision-making, and as the novel approaches its crescendo, both families are too busy micromanaging Ikemefuna’s life to realize that the walls of their world are caving in on them.

ZA: In your short stories that appeared in AFREADA (Our Wife) and adda (The Bride), you explore a similar theme as in House Woman; young women in fairly new and slightly unconventional marital relationships. Why are you interested in this subject? What do you find intriguing about it?

AN: I grew up in Nigeria where young girls are constantly assessed for marriage-worthy traits. Growing up, it wasn’t uncommon to hear whispered threats of “is this how you will behave in your husband’s house?” or “who will marry this one?” whenever a girl refused to follow gendered scripts. Marriage was a thing that women were supposed to pine for, and yet, many women I knew harbored private longings that stretched beyond the confines of marriage. Women who did not care to share a bedroom with a man for the rest of their lives. Women who flinched when their husbands reached for their waists. Writing about these women felt cathartic, because my stories acknowledged their existence and validated their frustrations.

ZA: I can definitely resonate with that and your writing is very illuminating on that subject. That’s probably why you have all these accolades too! The Bride was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2019 and in the previous year, your story Broken English was longlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize. My next question is, how do you do it? What is your writing process? What does it look like in a practical sense, and how do you balance it with your daily life?

AN: My process is still very much a work in progress. I find that I’m the most excited about writing when I don’t have to edit my words. Editing is a key part of the process, but it tames my writing. I love to sit with the earnest, messy energy of a first draft. The shameless typos in the middle of half-baked paragraphs. The jarring revelations woven into run-on sentences. I try to preserve bits of rawness from the first draft during the editing process.

I don’t balance my creative writing with my daily life. I just throw myself at both things, and hope for the best. I’m a real estate finance lawyer, so my writing is entirely dependent on sacrifice. I’m either sacrificing sleep or work to get the stories out. It’s not the tidiest solution, but it works for me and I am grateful for the journey.

ZA: This has to be the first time I have heard this answer; just throwing yourself into it. I guess it’s true that there is no one-size-fits-all when it come to writing. So, what does the future look like for you as it relates to further books down the line? What are you working on now, if you can talk about it?

AN: I hope to write as many novels as I can. I don’t care for timelines because I want each project to be its own special process. I hope my novels feel like small batch ice cream, made with love and care.

I am currently working on a novel set in Nigeria. I’m especially excited for this one because Nigeria is a lush setting for a novel. The story follows a woman who gets an unexpected call from her childhood best friend, inviting her to Lagos for the launch of a boarding school-themed resort. Problem is—her best friend is supposed to be dead. This has been my slowest project yet, but I am loving every second of the journey.

ZA: Oh wow! That plot is definitely something! I hope this batch of the ice cream doesn’t take too long because I personally want to read that as soon as possible. Final question. Adorah, if you could give one piece of advice to aspiring authors, what would it be?

AN: Write first. Edit later. It’s so easy to be swept into a vortex of never-ending edits, so get your thoughts on paper first and worry about perfection later.

Adorah Nworah is an Igbo writer from South-East Nigeria. Her stories have been published in AFREADA and adda magazine. Her short stories, “The Bride” and “Broken English” made the shortlist for the 2019 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize and the longlist for the 2018 Short Story Day Africa Prize respectively. She lives in Philadelphia, where she practices real estate finance law.

You can read an excerpt of House Woman here.