BY THE BOOK: Tolu Daniel

Tolu Daniel is a writer and photographer from Nigeria. His works have appeared on Catapult, The Wagon Magazine, Nthanda Review, Expound Magazine, Elswewhere Lit Journal, Bakwa Magazine among others.

He is an editor with Afridiaspora and a nonfiction  editor with Panorama Journal and The Single Story Foundation Journal.

Tolu spoke to www.nation.co.ke about his literary favourites.

Tell me the three books that excited you the most in 2017?

I find this question a little disarming because of the number of books I found exciting in 2017. Interestingly, I limited my reading in 2017 to only a few books because I wanted to write more. I wanted

only to read from a place of learning and not leisure. As a writer, I had graduated from my fascination with narrative voices and patterns to someplace else. Now I don’t care much for remarkable

narratives or writing styles. What did it mostly for me then and even now, is the freshness of sentences, the creation and infusion of new metaphors and the attention to details that sometimes may not

be relevant to an average reader.

In terms of excitement, I must start with Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo, if not necessarily for anything else butfor the language. For me, I believe strongly in the accessibility of any narrative and usually, this accessibility is easured by how language is performed. In StayWithMe, the language was home-grown even though the book was written in English and this made it even easier for the narrative to delve deeper into central idea of the book itself. My second book will be The General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa which was translated from Portuguese to English by Daniel Hahn, a very remarkable narrative which tells the story of solitude and the making of a nation. My third book will be a poetry collection which came into my possession as year strolled to an end, Bone by Yrsa Daley-Ward. In reading Bone, I discovered how limitless and powerful poetry can be. I also found out how stories could be embedded inside poetry and vice versa.

Which two books do you hold so dear that they can’t possibly be lent out?

I hardly lend out my books because I believe in the enduring value of the books in my possession right now. But if I have to choose, I would say The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy and We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo.

Your favorite childhood books? Why?

I must have breezed through most of the books I read as a child because no favorite comes to mind at the moment. But in terms of books which awoke me to the possibilities out there in terms of stories I could relate to because of my age, it would be Enid Blyton’s FamousFive and SecretSeven novellas. I remember back then after reading the famous five series how I yearned for a narrative which was both local and familiar and then I wrote my own version of the series and titled it The Teenage Ten where I infused local nuances into the crime fighting skills of both the FamousFive and the SecretSeven with my characters bearing local names of course.

If you were to dine with three writers dead or alive, who would they be and why?

The first person and who by many indications I can also refer to as my favorite writer since 2016 when I discovered her is Lidia Yuknavitch, the other two will be Teju Cole and Chris Abani.

What sharing a room with any of the above mentioned writers’ would mean for me is that I would get an update on my knowledge of self and writing. Having experienced each in one form or the other, either via reading their works or being a part of master-classes taught by them virtually or in person, I have found them each to be walking reservoirs of knowledge that I surely won’t be able to get enough of.

Most unforgettable character from a book?

This is easy, Hassan from Khaled Hosseini’s KiteRunner. His innocence and loyalty still baffles me every time my mind takes me back to the book.

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

The Night Train To Lisbonby Pascal Mercier because reading that book awoke in me a yearning to tour Africa and write about it in the same manner as the book was written about Europe.

If you were sent off to Robben Island for a year, which three books would you take with you?

I’d rather travel with my shelf of books to be honest. But if I have to choose, I would take Teju Cole’s Known and Strange Things, Wole Soyinka’s Ake and Junot Diaz’s A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Do you think book festivals, literary prizes and writing workshops are important to a writer’s growth?

I believe attending book festivals and writing workshops are integral to the growth of any writer. But not attending them also does not make you any less of a writer. With regards to literary prizes, as one person whose work has not yet appeared on any long or shortlists, my reply to this might come off as rather self-serving. But the truth is that, sometimes it is better not to pay any heed to them but I am also aware of how almost impossible this is. Most young writers—and I was once guilty of this—instead of seeing prizes and competitions as what they are—the reward for excellence—we would rather view these prizes as some lottery given to some random writer like us. Hence the allotment of these prizes became a kind of validation to which everybody aspired to, even and especially young writers who have no business near them.

Writing is hard-work and naturally all kinds of hard-works deserve rewards, but I don’t believe these rewards should be your motivations to write.

Tell me about the last book that made you cry?

The last one that took tears from my eyes notably had to be Khalid Hosseini’s TheKiteRunner.

Among your contemporaries, who do you consider the most exciting newcomer in the writing world and why?

There are a few of them and it is even harder to regard them as newcomers any more. The extent of work these young writers are putting in every day is inspiring to say the least. If you had asked me about my writing influences, I am sure I would reel out their names unblinkingly because of how we have formed for ourselves an informal community where we have each become partners in our journeys to becoming, pushing each other and helping each other find the precise notes and structures to convey whatever it is we want to express. But to answer you in the simplest of ways, I would say TJ Benson.

Not just because he is one of my best friends but because of the extent of work I know he puts in. I have been privileged to read some of the materials in his drafts and I can say boldly of him that I am grateful for his gift and the fact that he works harder everyday to get even better. I am especially looking forward to the release of his first book.

What are you currently writing?

I am writing what I hope would become my debut novel. It is a narrative about identity and betrayal and I am far gone into it. As of now, I can’t say I know when I might complete it but writing it has been an incredible journey so far.

***

BY THE BOOK is a literary series that covers authors, bloggers, actors, academics and poets of note in the African continent. For comments or inquiries, e-mail: [email protected]