Welcome to the June edition of Creative Spotlight, an interview column featured monthly in the Writers Space Africa (WSA) Magazine.
In this edition, I had a chat with Stephanie Chizoba Odili. She is the Second-place winner of the Wakini Kuria prize for Children’s literature, poet, novelist, and school teacher.
Do read along. – PPBlessing
Stephanie Chizoba Odili
PPBlessing: Can you give us a brief introduction of who Stephanie is?
SCO: Stephanie is a poet, novelist and school teacher. That is my most recent LinkedIn headline and I think it best describes who I am and how I want to be known currently in my life. As a poet, I love poetry. It was my first love. I started writing poems before I started writing fiction. I also love performing arts, I love music, dance, and theatre. I think I am an introverted person but I can be very eccentric.
PPBlessing: Are you a teacher by profession?
SCO: Yes, I am.
PPBlessing: What made you begin writing fiction?
SCO: What made me begin writing fiction was that I stammered a lot when I was younger, a lot more than I do now, and people did not have the patience to hear me finish my statements. So whenever people asked me how was my day, or how was school, I thought it was better to write these things down. I noticed that I just started adding a bit of my things and I would just write imaginary things and then create characters and create scenarios and create a setting. I didn’t know what it was then. I just liked writing stories. That’s what I used to say, I like writing stories. Because they all were stories, and before I knew it, I realized that oh! Wow! This is fiction. I am writing fiction. By then I was already ten but I actively started writing at seven because I needed an outlet to tell stories that I couldn’t say or that I couldn’t speak properly about.
PPBlessing: Seeing that you started writing so early and being a novelist, have you published books?
Stephanie at the book launch of her debut novel “Deafening Silence”. (Photographed by Ojomo Best)
SCO: Yes I have. Three of them. ‘Deafening Silence’ my debut novel won the 2019 1st runner-up of the Association of Nigerian Authors Prize For Fiction; ‘22’, a collection of poems and short stories; and ‘The Lean Wedding: How To Get Married With As Low As N100,000’ a non-fiction finance book for young, starting, fiancées.
PPBlessing: How has winning the Wakini Kuria prize for Children’s literature impacted you as a person and your writing?
SCO: The prize has impacted me as a person because first of all, I was already transitioning to writing and teaching children. Everything I had done so far was for young adults and adults, and I think writing that story and coming second place just made me realize oh my God!! I could actually tell more children stories. My aunty being a prolific children’s storyteller as well, that is Dr. Akachi Ezeigbo, it felt like full circle for me. As a person, I felt like okay I am drawn. I’m currently teaching year two and I used to teach secondary school before so it feels like I am leaning towards children. And impacting my writing, I wrote other stories alongside the prize-winning story. I have put them into a document and it’s like my manuscript now. I am hoping that I could actually start pursuing a career, or a dream of releasing a children’s storybook. It has really impacted me. It actually set the scene, a confirmation from God that this was something I needed to do.
PPBlessing: Interesting. Does this mean you’ll concentrate solely on writing children’s literature going forward?
SCO: No not solely but it’s “sharing” a front seat with poetry. I’ll concentrate on it until I publish my first children’s book.
PPBlessing: When are we expecting this Children’s book to be published?
SCO: I’m still looking for agents and publishers for this. The book is ready.
PPBlessing: Godspeed in your search. Being a multi-genre writer, what inspires your writings generally?
SCO: Thank you. Everything and anything but it depends on the genre. For poetry, I realized that I am inspired to write poetry as non-fiction. Every poem I have ever written was based on someone’s story or my story or just something I could relate to. It’s like an outlet to release the things I need to say and so I say them in poetry. The things I think about, random thoughts, I write them in fiction. All my actual feelings come out in poetry. For children’s stories, that’s where I do my most technical work because when I think of the age group, I think of who will be reading, the parents who will also want to have that book, how easy it is to read, values I want to instil, and word formation. There’s just a lot to think about so it is my most technical work. I am not as inspired to write children’s stories in my day to day. Children’s stories come more from life experiences and then how you would explain it to a child or how you want them to know of the experiences.
Stephanie at the Burj Khalifa (Photo by Wole)
PPBlessing: What do you hope to achieve with writing generally and Children’s literature in particular?
SCO: What I hope to achieve with writing is to definitely be internationally read. I do want a lot of kids to read my children’s books, a lot of people to read my poetry and my fiction and feel like I am speaking to them. I am really big on impact, and not like societal impact but like impact on human lives. I still remember the books I read. I know nothing about the authors, I know nothing about what they have done. I don’t want people interested in my personal life or in who I am and what I believe in. I just want them to read something I have written and it helps them in their lives in their own way. And if they are going to know me, they should know me for that. With children’s literature in particular, what I want to achieve is, first of all being a teacher for kids and eventually, I also hope to be a child psychologist. So being a children’s writer as well I think it will be the wholly trifecta; writing for children, teaching children and being their doctor as a therapist. It feels I will really get to understand and it will make me a better person, better teacher and a better psychologist in the future; writing about children and children’s literature and just being in that position. I was telling a couple of my friends and family how teaching in this generation is so different, you are so weary of the things that they know. I feel like I am one of the children’s writers who does not just write anything. I am not writing to entertain. I am writing to teach, just in a fun way. So, this is what I hope to achieve.
PPBlessing: That’s quite a lot. How soon till we add the Psychologist tag to your achievements?
SCO: I hope to resume my master’s next summer.
PPBlessing: What themes do you centre your writings around?
SCO: Grief, family, love, feminism, religion, society, abuse, history, and anything didactic.
PPBlessing: Seeing that writing children’s literature demands so much from you, why do you still write it?
SCO: I won’t say that it demands so much, maybe it’s that it’s more technical and it needs to be. Children are delicate.
PPBlessing: What would you tell a person who wants to write but does not know how to start?
SCO: The answer is right there. If they want to write but don’t know how, they should learn.
Stephanie at The museum of the Zinsou Foundation (photo by Aisha)
PPBlessing: What’s your greatest fear as a Children’s literature writer?
SCO: To write dreamy stories that kids read to sleep off but not to digest the meaning and learn.
PPBlessing: When should we expect another book from you aside from the Children’s book?
SCO: I also have a completed manuscript of twelve short stories. So that’s one I want to publish too.
PPBlessing: Wow! When?
SCO: Currently I have the children’s book manuscript and this collection of short stories manuscript. I have been applying to publishers and agents. I am in my rejection phase right now. I have put that on pause because I resumed this job last month. When I go on break this summer I am thinking to resume again, I know summertime is a good time for writers; July to September. So, I am hoping to get as many opportunities as I can. But I have two books ready to be published and what a dream it would be to be able to do that real soon, at least to find someone who is going to do that.
PPBlessing: We wish you the best.
This brings us to the end of this month’s interview, until next month when we bring you another renowned African author, keep reading Writers Space Africa Magazine.
Read – A Chat with Ammar Somji
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