In Conversation

We spoke to I.O Echeruo about voice, identity and the art of telling a short story.

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? What was the special thing about writing that captured you at that stage?

IOE: Very early, in childhood. I loved to read and I was fortunate to live in a house filled with books.  My father is an academic and I grew up on a university campus.  Then, in many ways, I lived inside my head and writing things down was a way to articulate and hear what was floating around in my mind. Beside the conventional companionship and play of childhood, I was always conscious of this inner, ethereal world. It was a world that I processed through writing. Later, when I was turning sixteen and completing the JAMB application form for university I struggled to make a choice between literature and law.  My father was at the table and thought I could study literature, with law as a graduate degree if things didn’t work out.  My mother, who is a medical doctor, overheard this from an adjacent room, flew in, admonished my father for encouraging this silly idea and then insisted I enter law on the form while she was still standing over me.

ZA: Haha, spoken like a true Nigerian parent.

IOE: Of course, I understood her point.  I also have a strong practical side. It is a sort of survival instinct.

So since early childhood I have written, and I have continued to do so –through school and in my various jobs and careers.  That inner, floating world removed from, but always observing, daily life has also stayed with me.

ZA: Seems like you got the bug early and it stuck ever since then. I’m curious about how you went from just being interested in that observatory state to “I want to become a published author”? What was the journey to publishing like for you?

IOE: I don’t think there was a moment. I didn’t have, and still don’t have, a goal that I would articulate in that way. I love writing and it is a deeply satisfying, personal space focused on contemplation and creation. However, about twelve years ago or so, I shared some of my work with my friend Ike Anya and he encouraged me to have it published. That's probably when it started.

Ike introduced me to Ellah Wakatama who published His Excellency, one of the short stories in the Jalada/Transition magazine joint issue. Discussing my work with Ellah, an astute editor and critic, was an inflection point. I sent the collection Expert in All Styles and Other Stories to two Nigerian publishers. I did not hear back from the other but Muhtar Bakare at Farafina agreed to publish it almost immediately.

ZA: There is something so serendipitous about how that all came together. That brings me to my next question. Can you talk briefly about your book Expert in All Styles ? What core themes did you set out to discuss while writing this short story collection? Why were they important to you?

IOE: In Expert in All Styles my goal was to set out through different voices, varying settings, story structures and styles exploring the flavour of Nigerian life at the turn of century, roughly between 1980 and 2020. It's primarily middle-class Nigerian life and some stories include elements of the immigrant experience.

I would class it with James Joyce's Dubliners; Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies and Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. Like these books, Expert in All Styles is a collection of short stories that dwell on the tensions of post-colonial (and related immigrant) identities. Most of the stories (like those in Joyce, Lahiri, and Mueenuddin's collections) therefore revolve around children, matrimony, and family dynamics.

These themes matter to me because they are also at the core of my identity. In contending with the characters in the book, I am also exploring and questioning myself.

ZA: You definitely selected some very potent themes. Personally, I think those are the most germaine details on middle-class Nigerian life, especially today. What I’d like to know is why you chose to write a collection of short stories rather than a full length novel. What do you find most fascinating about the short story form and how do you know when a story is a short story versus a full length work?

IOE: I love short stories!  There is something about its brevity that forces you to really hone your craft. They are almost delicious when done well.  Because I wasn't initially writing with a view to publication, I gravitated towards short fiction. When the idea of the collection came to me, it was a continuation of what I had been doing.  So that became my first book, although it took almost ten years for me to finish it.

ZA: Well you know what they say, good things take time! When Expert in All Styles was newly published last year, we featured an excerpt from our personal favourite story in the collection, Communicable Disease. Aishatu’s Dinner, another of the stories, had also been published in Eclectica Magazine back in 2012. What story did you enjoy writing the most in this collection?

IOE: I enjoyed writing each of them, and for different reasons.  The story The Place at a Bend in the River, for instance, was caused (there is no other word) by re-reading V.S. Naipaul's novel A Bend in the River. I finished it just as I was coming off a flight and I got home and started writing immediately, in a sweet heat. Your favourite, Communicable Disease was enjoyable because of the challenge I set myself as I conceptualized the story of having two narrators, husband and wife, in a single short story. In one of the drafts I even ensured the word count for each narrator was exactly the same, to signify balance. I can’t say there is any one I enjoyed writing more.  They each gave me something. 

ZA: I suppose picking a favourite story as a writer would be similar to having to pick a favourite child as a parent. My next question is about technique. What does your writing routine look like in the practical sense? How do you balance your writing with daily life and your other commitments?

IOE: It took me a long time to get to my present routine. Before, it was a jumbled mess and sometimes I would go months without any serious writing at all. Now, I write one day in the week. That day is dedicated entirely to writing. I physically remove myself from anyone or anything that might have some call on my time. I usually start at about 7am and continue until I can go no further. Sometimes that is well into the night. I am religious about it. Nothing is allowed to intrude on my writing day, and I do it no matter where in the world I might be, whether I am traveling, whatever. That day is mine.

Daily life and the other commitments can keep hostage the other six days.

ZA:  I love that military-esque discipline, I should take a cue from you. I have two more questions. First, 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?

IOE: I completed my first novel late last year and I hope that it will be published soon.  I don’t believe there is much more that I can say at this point about it.  There are other novels in me so I hope I continue to write and produce meaningful work.

ZA: Finally, if you could give one piece of advice to aspiring authors, what would it be? 

IOE: I don’t think I am qualified to advise anyone on being an author.  Perhaps what I tell myself might be useful to someone else:  Focus on what you want to say; write that intangible thing sloshing within you; write the feeling that made you bother to lift a pen.

I.O Echeruo is a writer. He spends his time between Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana. His short stories have appeared in Transition Magazine and Eclectica Magazine. His short story “Aishatu’s Dinner” was selected as one of Eclectica Magazine’s Top Thirteen Stories of 2013.