By: Uwem Akpan
PUBLISHED ON JUNE 23, 2014
Image courtesy of Flickr/Shawn
The PEN Ten is PEN America’s biweekly interview series curated by Lauren Cerand. This week, Lauren talks to Nigerian writer and Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan. His story “My Parents Bedroom,” from his short story collection Say You’re One of Them, was one of five short stories by African writers chosen as finalists for The Caine Prize for African Writing 2007. Say You’re One of Them also won the Commonwealth Writers™ Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region) 2009 and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
When did being a writer begin to inform your sense of identity?
It was when I crossed the line between poetry and creative nonfiction into fiction. It was after college. I was about 28/29.
Whose work would you like to steal without attribution or consequences?
There are so many wonderful writers out there. I love any work that raises my adrenaline while helping me to see.
Where is your favorite place to write?
On my bed, facing up, knees drawn up to prop up laptop. Even when I’m in an office, if it is possible, I still love to lean back on my swivel chair and prop my legs on the table and write. Please, don’t ask me where I got such a lazy pose from