Critically acclaimed fiction writer Uwem Akpan, S. J., shared his love of stories, storytelling and some the challenges of creative writing during his appearance Nov. 19, 2009, at the William H. Hannon Library on the Loyola Marymount University campus.
Akpan, a Jesuit priest, is the author of “Say You’re One of Them,” a critically acclaimed short story collection recently named an Oprah’s Book Club Selection. The book, which is currently No. 3 on the New York Times paperback best-seller list, contains five short stories, each told from the point of view of a child from a different African nation.
Janet Maslin, New York Times film and literary critic, called the book “a startling debut collection.” Akpan “fuses a knowledge of African poverty and strife with a conspicuously literary approach to storytelling, filtering tales of horror through the wide eyes of the young,” Maslin wrote.
“Poor people have incredible humor,” Akpan told the audience in explaining his choice of subjects. “You are startled by their level of poverty but they have a unique view of life.”
Akpan said his love of storytelling began in his home village in southern Nigeria. “I grew up around people telling stories. Every Sunday after Mass, someone among the villagers would bring wine,” he said, “And around the calabash, people talked about how their week went. People fictionalized and told a story so that everyone was laughing.” His mother also inspired his storytelling, “My mother was always telling us folktales and Western stories like Shakespeare.”
“About ten years ago,” Akpan said, “I found out I had a gift for observation.” He was so overwhelmed by the things he saw in Nigeria, he wanted write a column for the newspaper, but after submitting several pieces that were never published he called the newspaper and was told they weren’t good enough.
Not one to give up, he began reading the paper more carefully and discovered they had a fiction page, “where the stakes were so low, I decided to try… I remember how excited I was to try something new,” he said. After six months he had his first short story, which he took to the paper on a Wednesday. It was printed three days later.
Akpan was born in Ikot Akpan Eda in southern Nigeria. After studying philosophy and English at Creighton and Gonzaga universities, he studied theology for three years at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Kenya. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 2003 and earned his M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Michigan in 2006. In 2005, his first short story, “An Ex-Mas Feast,” was published in The New Yorker’s Debut Fiction Issue. “My Parents’ Bedroom,” from “Say You’re One of Them,” was one of five short stories chosen as finalists for the Caine Prize for African Writing 2007.
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