Lola Akinmade Åkerström
In Conversation
This week we spoke to Lola Akinmade Åkerström about her creative journey as an African author in the diaspora, and the story behind her latest novel, Everything Is Not Enough,.
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?
LAA: Fiction had always been my first love. I wrote dozens of short stories and novellas during my pre-teen and teenage years growing up in Nigeria. While in boarding school during those years, I was essentially running a mini library in my dorm room. I had my own sign-out sheets so my friends would check my handwritten books out and return them for the next reader.
Likewise, Geography had always been my favorite subject and I’ve always known I would be a storyteller of some sort. I just didn’t know which avenue it would manifest in at that time. Writing fiction was my way of exploring the world through characters. With stories, I was able to disappear into someone else’s world and walk in their shoes.
In essence, all of this was preparing me for a career as a travel writer who focuses on cultural connection through my work.
ZA: I love that. So you essentially were already writing books even as a student in boarding school, and later you would go on to start a career as a travel photographer, probably spurred by your early love for Geography. How did you eventually make that full circle transition from photography to writing books?
LAA: I actually went from programmer and system architect to being a travel writer. I worked in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for over 12 years before the pull of travel writing became stronger. It was while volunteering with an expedition race in Fiji that I realized I wanted to be a visual storyteller. After that, I would go on to write two notable books of nonfiction – Lowell Thomas Best Travel Book award-winning Due North and international bestseller Lagom, the latter of which currently has 18 foreign editions.
However, as an adult, I wanted to go back to that first love of fiction and try rewriting some of those stories I wrote as a teenager. When I first attempted this, I struggled. In hindsight, I realize this was because those stories were so far-fetched because I had no life experience yet.
That was when I realized that I needed to look closer to my lived experiences to write the book I was meant to write at this stage.
ZA: The result of this examination was your debut novel, In Every Mirror She’s Black, which was released in 2021 to much acclaim-Good Morning America Buzz Pick, featured in Essence. What did its success mean to you? Were you expecting it? And how has it informed Book Two and how you approached publishing your second book?
LAA: It has been incredibly humbling to witness the organic grassroots rise of In Every Mirror She’s Black, considering it got over 70 rejections (we simply stopped counting rejections at that point). Those accolades you mentioned validate what sticking to your true voice and purpose can look like.
I didn’t want to water down my story or hide its message behind flowery literary prose. I didn’t care that I wasn’t adhering to publishing rules to be taken seriously or celebrated as an African author in the diaspora. I didn’t mind being excluded because of this. I simply had a conviction that these stories of Black women in the Nordics needed to be told in a real and raw way, and as transparently as possible.
I am grateful I stuck with my convictions because now with Book Two, I get to write the way I’ve always wanted to write. Moving forward, I get to truly write the stories I want to write, and the publishing world has made space for my true voice because of In Every Mirror She’s Black.
ZA: 70 rejections! Wow, we are definitely grateful that you stuck it out because In Every Mirror She’s Black is doing so well in the world. That segues into my next question about this book, Everything is Not Enough. What is the inspiration behind the story, and in your own words, what is the book about?
LAA: The book essentially picks up where In Every Mirror She’s Black ends, in a “The next day…” fashion. Everything is Not Enough follows the lives of Kemi, a marketing executive, Brittany-Rae, a flight attendant-turned-trophy wife, and Yasmiin, an aspiring makeup artist. I wanted to show that the Black woman experience is so multifaceted and complex, and the best way to do this is to have three different Black women living side by side so you can see how their backgrounds, values, experiences, socioeconomic status, and personal views affect their lives.
This book is more about the reader than my characters. You meet the three women at difficult crossroads in their lives and as a reader, you’re thrust right into their mistakes. Now, are you going to process their decisions through a lens of unconscious bias and stereotypes, or are you going to start by giving them grace?
This is what Everything is Not Enough is about-giving space and grace to each other so we can do better and grow as individuals when we know better.
ZA: Grace is definitely the right word to use. I don’t want to give spoilers, but right off the bat, we are thrust into the messy deep ends of the lives of these characters. I particularly appreciate this straight-forward cut-to-the-chase approach you adopted, but it also makes me curious about why you chose to do a sequel instead of writing an entirely new book. Was there more you wanted to explore in that story?
LAA: I was already writing Everything is Not Enough before we ever sold In Every Mirror She’s Black for publication. In fact, I started writing this book as a way of getting my mind off the fact that we had a difficult time selling the first book. In an ideal world, both books would be one large combined 800-page book, but no publisher would be willing to take that risk on a debut novelist.
Plus, the way the first book ended on a cliffhanger; I knew I had to keep writing their stories. The women still had so much to say on the page, and I needed to let them continue to self-actualize. The first book gave them space to make mistakes. In the second book, they ran with those mistakes, but then they finally begin to thrive in their own ways.
ZA: That’s amazing. I think this is also a great way to inspire future authors. Don’t stop writing, even if you are not seeing any traction. In fact, you used that rejection phase as fuel for your creative process, which leads me to my next question. Can you talk us through your writing process? What does it look like in a practical sense, and how do you balance it with your daily life?
LAA: I am an early bird when it comes to writing. I get my best work done between 4-6am in the early hours of the morning, whether it’s writing an opinion piece for the likes of The New York Times or simply chugging along on my manuscript. I’m also a mother so that is really the best time to work before my kids get up or they tire me out by the end of the day.
Apart from that, I also write anywhere when inspiration hits. It could be on long plane and train rides or in the back of a taxi using my smartphone. I particularly love writing to music or some kind of background noise.
When it comes to building a framework for the book, I do a mix of outlining my characters and free-flow writing. Personally, I like to spend a lot of time just fleshing out the characters. The actual writing is a lot easier when they’ve materialized as actual human beings in my head.
ZA: 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?
LAA: I’m writing my third novel with the working title The Deepest Well. It’s historical fiction which mostly plays out between 1970s-early 2000s. It follows the life of Nancy Ndow who moves to Stockholm in the late 70s for college and how her life expands from there. The dual timeline follows her daughter Tina, a popstar turned activist.
I’ve also got other novel ideas as well as nonfiction proposals and photography books I’m working on, so I’m really excited and grateful I get to do what I love.
ZA: That sounds so interesting already and I can’t wait to read it. Finally, if you could give one piece of advice to aspiring authors, what would it be?
LAA: Write what your soul wants to write, not what you think the publishing industry wants. Doing this will mean your journey to traditional publication might be rougher, but if you trust the process, the people who connect with your storytelling and unique way of navigating the world will ultimately come.
Nigerian-American and based in Sweden, Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström is an award-winning author, speaker, and photographer. Her work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, BBC, CNN, Guardian, Sunday Times Travel, Daily Telegraph, New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Slate, Travel Channel, Adventure Magazine and Lonely Planet, amongst others. In addition to contributing to several books, she is the author of the following books: 2018 Lowell Thomas Award winner for best travel book Due North and bestselling LAGOM: Swedish Secret of Living Well, available in 18 foreign language editions. She has been recognized with multiple awards for her work, including 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Bill Muster Award, and she was honoured with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture in 2018.
You can read an excerpt of Everything is Not Enough here.
