Uche Uwadinachi Opens Up...

I am Uche Uwadinachi also known as 'Flames'. I won the 2006 ANA Poetry contest, Lagos State Chapter. Am a graduate of the Department of English, Lagos State University (2006). I've worked as an Editor for AJ City Express Newspaper. I belong to a music group called Kamazaiah with a first album released titled “Lifted” (2007). I'm also an actor and have featured in several top Nigerian home movies such as Real Love, Adam and Eve, You broke my heart, Haunted love, Missing Angel, among others.  I am a performance poet and the author of SCAR in the Heart of pain (2009).

Your approach to writing

Writing has always been a means of expression to me. I started with music which when I voice, I always had to write down the lines. At my early stage, I used to forget things easily, so writing became a companion to remind me of the events, the past, the future and others. The University opened a professional avenue for me to write, to learn more and also my poetry became the compulsory essence why I had to write to live and be happy.

What is the first impression you would like you reader to have of your work?

I want them to see the human heart as the spirit, which determines the fate of any person. So as to overcome any SCAR–the inner difficulties (s)he faces.

Why such title Scar in the Heart of Pain?

The “Scar” and the “Heart” are two sensitive and popular issues that people will always give audience to. And moreover it was most suitable for what I was trying to describe.

Has your work been misinterpreted before?

Yes. Some people see the image and first think it’s a book on medical heart complications but when they see the title they recover from such misinterpretation.

What is your muse?

Loneliness.

How long did it take you to write the book?

Since most of the issues raised are real, it has been since my teenage years but professionally five years.

What challenges do you face as a first-time author?

Getting audience to read my work as a first time author is quite uneasy.

What is your assessment of the Nigerian publishing scene?

It’s like a “Better bookshops movie” and it’s not their faults since there is no market or good reading habit in the country.

What career are you pursuing at the moment?

I am looking up to be a Director– for music videos, movies and media events.

Where are you working presently?

On my personal literature project title “Save the Spoken Word”. It out to preach and teach poetry in the streets. And also my music video with maylucky Obi Justice.

Any advice for budding writers?

They should find forums to learn more and expose their works to the world.

Can Creative Writing be taught?

Yes at least the basics of English language, then they can experiment to communicate.

Comment on the dying reading culture

Obviously, it’s serious but if there can be more focus on the literature in Nigeria by the Government, Private institutions and Individuals, it would gradually wake up. By focus – I mean through seminars & workshop, programmes, scholarship, contest, awards, shows, etc.

Final words on your epitaph

I refuse to fall.

Read the concluding part of this interview next week...

A sneak peek into Bookaholic with Bella this week.

Scar in the Heart of Pain by Uche Uwadinachi will be reviewed this Wednesday on Bookaholic with Bella sometime between 7.30am and 8.30am on Silverbird Television. We will bring you an interesting Q & A later this week. In the meantime, below is a poem from the collection.

Hunt me
Below clump prairie in the forest,
Scourge me
On ridges of tallest hills,
Taunt me
In my cramped dark burrow,
Scare me
Behind leaves of crooked trunks,
Shoot me
In this tranquil flight in the sky,
Chase me
Through hazy streets of the slum,

But don't dare me
On WATER!

CAVALCADE: Call for submissions

Are you an upcoming writer? Then you should read this...

CAVALCADE, a literary journal, devoted to publishing original stories, poems, one-act plays, reviews, critical essays and art from an African perspective, debuted in November 2008 with a special edition. The tri-annual journal, a project of the Abuja Writers' Forum (AWF), is now seeking submissions for the third and subsequent editions

All works must be submitted by email in the form of a single Microsoft Word compatible attachment or pasted in the body of the mail. Be sure your name and email address appear on each page. Please put "Fiction," "Poetry," “One Act Play”, "Essay", “Review” or “Art” in the subject line of the email. Submissions that do not follow these guidelines risk being unread.

Fiction, essays and reviews must not exceed 5,000 words. Please do not submit more than one work of short story, one-act play, essay or review, and send ONLY three poems and five art works per submission. Art submissions must be in jpeg format.

You may submit works that have been previously published as long as you still own the copyright and all reproduction rights. Check with the previous publisher before submitting such works to CAVALCADE. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but please notify us if work has been accepted elsewhere. All rights revert to the author upon publication, though CAVALCADE expects to be credited when the work is republished.

Contributors will be notified if their materials are selected and will in turn indicate their willingness to have the materials published in CAVALCADE. Contributors will not be paid for their works but will receive a copy of the edition in which their works appear.

Submissions are welcome all through the year except for a special edition when the specifics will be announced including a deadline for submissions.

Send submissions to cavalcade@bigstring .com. The genre editors will notify contributors if their materials are selected and will in turn indicate their willingness to have the materials published in Cavalcade.

Is the Curriculum Everything?

The Curriculum is Everything

Is it true that the curriculum is everything? Where is the place of creativity in curriculum? Does it make, mar or restrict us? What does it teach us, to be intelligent or become mere stooges?

History is replete with people that were considered academic failures yet they blazed trails by following their passions: Bill Gates, Les Brown, Mark Zukerberg, etc. Or you wonder how our forefathers exuded great intelligence (check out local proverbs, stories and wise sayings) even without a curriculum...Is the curriculum everything?

In our world where acquisition of degrees is paralleled with knowledge; our world where in Ikhide Ikheloa's words (paraphrased) 'a monkey can stay behinde a computer; connect to the internet and buy off a degree and become 'Mr. Obolagido(Phd.) that is Mr. Monkey (Phd.) Our world where titles (academic or otherwise) determines your acceptability in the society; where ignorance is celebrated garbed in awards and titles. I ask again: is the curriculum everything and is everything in the curriculum?

Let us know on Bookaholic...

Chimurenga Online also wants to know these and more in the next online issue...

Details here

Airport sounds from a distance, blurred, incomprehensible, then suddenly loud and clear. "Flight sixty-nine has been..." Static ... fades into the distance ... "Flight..." Standing to one side of the desk are three men, grinning with joy at their prospective destinations. When I present myself at the desk, the woman says: "You haven't had your education yet."
- William Burroughs, My Education: A Book of Dreams

Who be teacher, I go let you know...
- Fela Anikulapo Kuti, "Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense"

Bookaholic's Add: -Bantu 'No more 'No Vernacular' teacher no teach me nonsense'

Afrigrowth Essay Competition

Are you eligible to participate or do you know anyone who is?

Theme: Mentorship

Age group: 18 and 25

Deadline: May 30, 2009


Details BELOW

Topic: Mentoring: A Panacea for Sustainable Growth and Development

Write a 2,000 word essay on how mentoring could be a solution for sustainable growth and development for Youths, How mentoring could build a better society, How mentoring could aid character development and good leadership, the role of mentoring in national development.

Prizes
• Grand Prize: Laptop and N50,000 cash
• 2nd Prize: IPOD and N35,000
• 3rd Prize : DVD N15,000

Supported by Omatek and FINBank

Click here and here for more information

Story Time with Toni Kan

Toni Kan is our friend at The Bookaholic Blog and we really loved his new collection of poetry entitled Songs of Absence and Despair published by Cassava Republic Press and can't wait to hear him read from it this Saturday, April 18 2009 2pm at Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage, Victoria Island, Lagos.

For anyone that might be new to his writing, below is an excerpt of a review of his recent short story collection Nights of the Creaking Bed.

Nights of the Creaking Bed is like poetry; Toni Kan uses the minimum amount of words to tell all 14 stories with just the right amount of detail that you, the reader, feel that you were right there with the characters.

The collection of stories opens with the eponymous story ‘Nights of the Creaking Bed'. From the first line: "My mother was a kept woman," the tone of the piece is set. We go on to hear about this mother who has been ‘f***** somebody's husband'.

The language is very realistic and easily reflects the ages and the generations to which the characters belong. This natural voice is evident throughout the collection, whether it is from a parent or a child in ‘God is Listening': "His young, pink tongue touching his pink palate screams: ‘Please, please, please,"' or the audio pulse of the hustle and bustle of ‘under-bridge' life in the city of Lagos captured in ‘The Devil's Overtime': "Carry this JJC waka. Make you show am way. If anybody worry una, tell dem say this JJC na my person." Or the slowed down tempo of the rural areas experienced in ‘Ahmed': "He loved watching the sun come up through the branches of the trees. He loved the gentle touch of the wind on his face." In general, Kan chooses his words to effectively mirror societal stories and happenings in such a way the reader comes away not only identifying with the characters and themes but also believing the ‘realness' of the stories and in some cases are able to draw parallel personal experiences.

Read the rest of Story Time with Toni Kan by Isabella E.C. Akinseye here

Bookaholic with Bella: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

An epic story of love and civil war set in Nigeria during the 1960s, Half of a Yellow Sun recounts the lives of three characters caught up in events larger than themselves: Ugwu, a young houseboy working for an idealistic university professor; Olanna, the professor’s mistress; and Richard, a British expatriate in love with Olanna’s twin sister Kainene. Their relationships are thrown into jeopardy when Richard spends one drunken night with Olanna, and as the war escalates.

With Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie firmly establishes herself as a most powerful storyteller and humanist, “the 21^st century daughter of Chinua Achebe,” according to The Washington Post Book World. The book has won numerous awards and accolades worldwide, including the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007.