My poetry explores endless individual and universal experiences – Othuke Umukoro.
By Seye Fakinlede.
Brunel International African Poetry Prize has over the years aimed at celebrating, promoting and developing African poetry . In this interview, Seye Fakinlede speaks with Nigerian Poet
Othuke Umukoro, the 2021 winner of the 3k Brunel International African Poetry Prize, as he answers questions as regards his winning entry, writing career, even as he also provides tips for the African writers’ community. Excerpts.
The Polity Tv: How long did it take you to write your winning entry?
Othuke: The oldest poem in the winning collection, “The federal constitution,” was first published at Eunoia Review back in April 2019. I wrote most of the other poems in the winning collection in the heat of the coronavirus lockdown last year.
The Polity Tv: What was the most challenging thing about writing the poems?
Othuke: I don’t find my writing process challenging, really. What I do find in it is this constant, endless exploration of our individual and universal experiences. But again that’s the beauty of creativity: it offers us a room to share in the burden or beauty of ourselves and that of the ‘other.’
The Polity Tv::: Where, when, and how often do you write?
Othuke: That depends on where the idea or line meets me. I have never had to edit anything I wrote on the toilet seat. I try to give myself a target per month. Three to four poems usually, and if the muse is kind enough to me then I might end up with five or six. I write mostly in a notebook on my phone. These are mostly drafts that will later go through a rigorous rewriting and revision process later on my laptop.
The Polity Tv:: What are you reading right now?
Othuke: I am very much intrigued by the early 20th-century poetic movement—imagism—and currently reading “The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams,” Volume II • 1939-1962, edited by Christopher McGowan.
The Polity Tv:: Which author, in your opinion, deserves wider recognition?
Othuke: The brilliant Ugandan poet and novelist, Okot p’Bitek. Song of Lawino is an extraordinary classic.
The Polity Tv::: What is the biggest impediment to your writing life?
Othuke: I teach in a school currently and having to balance the weight of that with my writing career can be really difficult sometimes. Poets cannot survive on poetry alone because we know how dry the poetry market is, especially on the African continent.
The Polity Tv::: What is one thing you might change about the writing community or publishing industry?
Othuke: There are very few poetry chapbooks or full collections coming from publishing houses in Nigeria and that’s really sad. I hope, with poetry getting the popularity it deserves in this country, things change soon because poetry offers us a space to talk about issues that we would otherwise not talk about.
The Polity Tv:: What is one thing that your agent or editor told you during the process of publishing that stuck with you?
Othuke: Read the piece out loud. According to Yusef Komunyakaa, ‘the ear is a good editor.’ Syntax matters. Line breaks matter. Pay particular attention to the ‘voice’ of the poem, the war and the peace of it.
The Polity Tv:: Who is the most trusted reader of your work and why?
Othuke: Me. Really. I am my own greatest critic. I look at my work with a butcher’s knife close by and ready to chop off every line/word/stanza that doesn’t deserve to have a place in a particular piece. Good poetry feeds on ruthlessness, mostly.
The Polity Tv: What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever heard, and what’s your advice to any writer reading this?
Othuke: Yusef Komunyakaa, one of my favourite poets, speaking on what young poets should not do had this to say: “to not be afraid of surprising oneself.” That has stuck with me for many years now. I leave a door open whenever I am writing a piece, a door of surprise, of every possibility in imagination and creativity. Read wide, too. Read essays, interviews, books on climate change, politics and not just poetry collections. Pray, too, if you believe in its power. Do not take rejections personally. Support other poets. Be kind. Write like you’re famished. Write from your heart. Take a break from social media and write. Revise. Submit your works to online journals: there are a plethora of them out there. Take a walk in a park. Listen to some cool music. Breathe. Be consistent and have faith in your work. One day the world will hear you.
