Ayodele Arigbabu: The Future of Social Media and Publishing

Ayodele Arigbabu is the publisher, DADA Books. In this interview, he shares some really interesting futuristic ideas on publishing and social media which go beyond now. Get ready for social media and publishing, the sci-fi version, Arigbabu's version. 

Publishing goes digital

The things that I see, many of them are not here yet. Just me, imagining. It is possible for me to design some things and post a digital file on my website and different people around the world can download and print on a million different machines around the world. I am interested in seeing what the implication of that will be. It will come back to being able to print the book in bulk; it may not be in the same way that we know the book to be today. Or it might be. But what if, it is possible to just do a digital file for a book?

What if the model changes so much and it does not matter if it is being pirated because the more popular it is, the more money you make. What if that model that works for blogs, also works for books, what if the model changes so much, as such the more people that download your book, the more money you make. The more popular it gets, the more money you make somehow. For example, Google ads, what if what you print carries ads and the more you print, the ads are synchronises somehow because the more people print it, the more they can make money from it. So, that means that you are now going to make money from people pirating your book, so to say.

Whoever comes up with that idea, it will change the game of publishing. There will just be no point selling; imagine someone locking up a blog and saying that you need some access code before you read, unless there is a serious need for it and then, the person won't make that much money. If this happens t traditional publishing, there will be a pyramid: a few people at the top,  a few more people in the middle, and lots more people below.

Why are Nigerian programmers not tapping into the opportunities in the publishing sector?

There is a potential of technology. If you work with programmers, you will understand what is going on, many of them are doing copy and paste and they are not entrepreneurial. It is hard work. I can also understand why they are like that: this place is not like that place. So, to code for six months at a stretch, he will use his small generator, when there is no power; if your father is not rich, you have to fuel your gen yourself. I am sure that after the first month, you will ask yourself serious questions. Before long, you are tempted to take on the next job; you can only do one project at a time. The environment does not create that space for them to work.  These guys are usually about cash and carry and it usually affects the quality of their skills, and they keep building replicative things that are easier to make, they don't code for innovative stuffs.

The hologram and publishing

The first game changer is the printing idea but the real game changer is the hologram. What we have right now with the Kindle and all that is that you must have the device, you must be on one ecosystem or the other but the beauty of the traditional book is that you can take it anywhere and everywhere, you don't need to be on any platform before you can read your book; you just buy it. You can carry it anywhere to read so that's where the holographic book comes in: you don't need a device to read and you don't need an object. You need a device but you are interfacing with the book, not as a device but as a hologram.

The hologram projects an object that is just a manipulation of light. You are just seeing something that looks like a book but it responds to your touch. Meaning that you can flip it as you read; everything that you do on your device you can still do with the hologram. Maybe your device can be small and you don't need to carry something bulky. Once you have that, it means that your films, your music can also be on it. It is like carrying a flash drive that contains all your files. You can beam it on the wall and read. That's the one I look forward to. 

I know they do holograms of people. Like at teleconferences, a hologram will appear at the other end, and talk, instead of just seeing the person's face. Though it is still in the early stages. They did a Tupac show with Tupac on stage, where he was performing and interacting with the other performers on stage. However, it was just an actor somewhere, they did a 3D model of Tupac; the actor wore the motion capture stuff, they had rehearsed it perfectly, so he was doing his own thing somewhere and it was hologrammed on stage.

The Challenge

The problem is that I think up these things before they happen because I don't have the money to make it happen. So many of them. When I look at the trends in technology, I see where the logical end could be and the way it is, maybe somebody would have done that calculation, five years ago before me and the person has the capacity to do the coding and put a team together. We are working on all those things as well.

--The interview was sent in by Temitayo Olofinlua

Favourite Five: Lara Daniels

Lara Daniels is a a published author of African romance suspense novels The Officer's Bride and Thorns with Roses. She is a registered nurse by day and an avid romance writer by night.  Lara lives with her family – a husband and three precious children in Texas where she remains true to her passion of all time: writing.  Read an excerpt of her upcoming book Lessons in Love

Intuition by Allegra Goodman

A page turner that had me reeling as the drama unfolded, the story is thought provoking – a clash of ethics and science, and how much scientists sometimes need to let go and let intuition guide them. I loved this book for so many reasons. As a nurse working in a country where I am daily bombarded with ethical issues, I strongly related with the story. 

Daughters Who Walk this Path by Yejide Kilanko

Let me start by saying I love this book. This book is more than the story of young girl's sexual abuse. For me, it exposes two huge cultural flaws: one, the lack of communication within Yoruba families; two, denial as a form of coping mechanism when faced with challenges. Both flaws are detrimental not only to adults, but to the children. 

The Glass Case by Kristin Hannah

The Glass Case is a short story of a woman who grew up, got married and had a child-- all in the same small town. She feels stuck and even worse, feels that she hasn’t lived up to her mother’s expectations. One day, something tragic happens that helps her to understand that she already has what really matters in life: a family that loves her. As a working mother with three young children, this story helped me re-prioritize, taught me one lesson: I may not be where I want to be in life, but I have every reason to be grateful for where I am. 

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

My Sister’s Keeper is an emotional book that narrates the story of a family who brought another human child (Anna) into the world for the sole purpose of becoming a bone marrow match for her older sister, Kate who has leukaemia   This is another book that deals with ethics in medicine, but beyond that, it took me on a journey of deep reflection as I examined what it meant to be a good parent: Is it right to save your child’s life even if it means sacrificing another child? 

Fifty Shades Trilogy by EL James

And now to the romance genre. Many would describe the series as erotica, but I’d say that underneath Fifty Shades is a beautiful love story of two flawed people dealing with self-esteem issues. These two fell in love and found a way to make their relationship work. I love this book so much, it truly destroyed my ability to enjoy any other romantic fiction. I’m bad with reading reviews so when I bought it, I never knew what I was in for until I’d reached the fiftieth page or so. The downside was the choice of expletives used by Anna, the heroine, but even then, it was a page turner. Yes, it could have used some more editing because of its repetitive use of certain words; yet, in my opinion, no other romance book - because of its unique story- tops this. 

RBC Celebrates World Poetry Day

On March 21st, the Rainbow Book Club joined the rest of the  world to celebrate the World Poetry day. The event held at the poolside of Le Meridien, Ogeyi Place, Port Harcourt and featured a discussion of Mr Ogbonge Poliktisan an anthology of poems in pidgin English by Chief  Anthony Abagha. 

            

Dr A. Abagha, an Engineer by training described himself as a teacher and politician who branched into literature when an interesting literature teacher in secondary school.           

            

The evening was a blend of poetry, jazz and games with poets-- like Dr Obari Gomba, senior lecturer University of Port Harcourt, Joy Esku Sec. PEN and Treasurer ANA (Rivers State Chapters), Annah Dornubari and  budding poets like Tokoneh Kalango --thrilling the audience with their poetry. The event also had representatives from British Council, members of the press and The University of Port Harcourt community.

Another highlight of the evening was the presentation ‘Port Harcourt UNESCO World Book Capital 2014, our City, our Project’ by Mrs Koko Kalango, Founder of the Rainbow Book Club. In her address, she explained that the World Book Capital was an initiative by UNESCO where a city is designated on the account of the quality of their programmes to encourage books, to represent the world as “Book Capital” for one year. Rainbow Book Club put in a bid for Port Harcourt and beat cities like Oxford to win the title for next year. She called on everyone to get involved with the Port Harcourt World Book Capital programmes as there would be events for different groups of people; schools, individuals, communities, organisations, etc. She concluded by saying that 2014 will be a year of learning, reading, fun and promoting Nigeria and Africa through books. 

While this celebration of poetry and literature was going on in Port Harcourt, news came in, that miles away in America, one of Nigeria’s greatest literary exports, Prof. Chinua Achebe had died. Achebe was an honorary member of the Rainbow Book Club.

The Reading ended with the announcement of date for next month’s event,  Friday April 26th, and in honour of the late Achebe, the RBC Book of the month for April will be Things Fall Apart.   

--Report was written by Daniella Menezor and Maxwell Masi, Rainbow Book Club

Poster&Short Story Contest for Children

CATE (Children and the Environment) has been a part of the GCLF from the beginning. They are organising a competition for children. Encourage children around you to enter. More details in the image below.

PHWBC Team Welcomed in Bangkok

The Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014 team is honoured to have been presented with a welcome gift from the Deputy Mayor of Bangkok at the opening of a series of special events to mark the launch of the Thai city’s tenure as UNESCO World Book Capital City for 2013.  

Bangkok will formally accept the WBCC baton on April 23rd - World Book and Copyright Day - from the Armenian city of Yerevan which has had a successful run in 2012.  UNESCO confers the title of World Book Capital on a city in recognition of its dedication to promoting books and reading. Port Harcourt was recently nominated as Bangkok’s successor thanks to a bid put forward by the Rainbow Book Club who are working in conjunction with the Rivers State government. 

The Port Harcourt team has been focusing on promoting the city’s plans for 2014 and networking to form strategic partnerships over the past few days. Fresh from a successful run at the London Book Fair, they are set to participate in the Bangkok opening events alongside delegates from a number of countries including Armenia, Russia, Brunei, Sri Lanka, Singapore and China. 

Delegates will be treated to cultural displays and literary exhibitions and they will witness the launch of a number of initiatives that will run throughout the year.  Rainbow founder Mrs Koko Kanlango, is set to contribute to an international conference entitled ‘Reading for the Future, the Future of Reading’ on Sunday 21st as part of the inaugural events. The Port Harcourt team will be learning from Bangkok’s experience as the countdown to 2014 begins.

Poetry Talent Event Holds in Ibadan

EGC in partnership with Eternal Order presents a Poetry and Sundry Talent event.

The second season of the event will be held in the Zoo of University of Ibadan. Now, imagine the poetry of humans, the melody of animals, perfect blend right? What melody!

This event will feature  known and upcoming poets such as Efe Paul Azino, Dolapo, Jumoke Verisimo, Funmi Aluko, Street Poet, Tade Ipadeola, Ajankoro, Eriata Oribhabor, Enigmatic Olumide, Yommy Bishop, Femi Amogunla, Servio Gbadamosi, Tofarati GT, Chris Eleri, Femi Fairchild Morgan, Clementina, Opeezy Mr Money, Tola, Dee, Yommy Akinlaja, Bukkie, Gbenga, Olayinka, Kayode Taiwo, PTA, and a host of others.

Venue: Mini Gazebo, Zoological gardens, University of Ibadan.

Date: 27th April 2013

Time: 1:00 pm

RBC Remembers Chinua Achebe

‘The Rainbow Book Club stands to contribute immensely to Nigeria’s intellectual development and burgeoning democracy’ Chinua Achebe.

The Rainbow Book Club this month will pay tribute to the late Chinua Achebe, who passed away on March 21st 2013.The Tribute evening which holds on Friday April 26th at 5pm; it is being hosted in partnership with the British Council and will take place at the council’s office in Port Harcourt. The event will be attended by the likes of Gabriel Okara, Cpt Elechi Amadi,  Mr. Obinna (ANA Chairman-Rivers State Chapter), among others, who will contribute to the conversation on the life and times of the literary icon. 

Chinua Achebe, best known for his novel Things Fall Apart, had recently been in the news because of what turned out to be his last book There Was a Country. TWAC, Achebe’s personal account of Nigeria’s Civil War which caused an uproar when it was released; was Rainbow Book Club’s  book-of –the month in January. 

Due to Achebe’s special relationship with the book club--he was an Honourary member of the club and also gave the keynote address at the 4th Garden City Literary Festival titled: LITERATURE AND ETHNICITY:  Is literature shaped by the cultural contexts of the authors? Which was read for him by his son--the club is dedicating this month to him. Things Fall Apart will be the book in focus.

On Friday, members of the book club, writers and lovers of literature will come together to celebrate one of Africa’s finest writers whose work transcended borders, languages, cultures and this work will continue to speak long after he has gone. 

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf: Social Media and Publishing

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf is the co-founder of Cassava Republic Press. She moderated the event on publishing at the Social Media Week, 2013 tagged "Publishing in the Age of Social Media." In this short interview, she reacts to some issues related to social media and publishing. 



Social media and the book form
Social media is a medium for shorter attention spans. People are increasingly consuming information in sound bites so the time frame within which they are able to digest information is shorter. This lends itself to certain forms of fiction, for instance, flash fiction is on the rise as is haiku poetry. Now, does that mean that these shorter forms will fully displace the long form? I’m not sure.  It might mean that the long form may end up being broken up and we will see a return to Dickensian times when stories were serialised in newspapers. In other words, long form writing will survive, but broken down into bite sized chunks. On the other hand, I think there will continue to be people who just want to get lost in the long form and have an immersive experience. The novel form allows for some form of escapism; short form writing restricts that because it is not sufficiently immersive.

Do you think that Twitter has led to the rise of "lazy writers"?
Twitter hasn't created lazy writers; writers on Twitter will mostly focus on their updates. Many of them (so-called writers) are not really writers, they’re just commenting and tweeting. I think the people who are serious about writing will continue to write regardless. Social media will be used as an avenue to present their work and to create buzz about what they've written. I think people tweeting as their main form of writing is inherently lazy, but it's just one form among others and it is okay. I don't see any problem with it.

We need all of these forms to emerge and develop; people will gravitate towards what they find suitable. Some people are comfortable with Facebook updates, others prefer Twitter because it is an even shorter form and immediate.  However, there will always be those who prefer a long form reading experience, whether online or in print.

Do you think that social media can help in solving the book distribution challenge?
Social media is not going to solve our distribution challenges. What social media can do is to raise awareness about a book and create desire for more books to buy and to read. Whether we can meet that hunger returns us to the same distribution challenge. Digital media however can help to break the ground in terms of access to e-books. But we have to be mindful that not everyone in Nigeria has access to these devices, or will for a long time to come

--This interview was sent in by Temitayo Olofinlua

The Worst Thing That Happened: A.Igoni Barrett

Here is a short story to make your Sunday. Read. Enjoy. Have a great week!

For the fourth time in almost as many years, Ma Bille had to go in for eye surgery, this time to have her cataracts removed. She was not afraid: at sixty-eight years of age she had been in and out of the operating room so many times that the antiseptic reek of hospital walls was as familiar to her as the smell of baby poop. The thing that worried her, that made her wake up this morning with her heart hammering in her ears, was the suspicion that she was all alone in a world that had seen the best years of her life.

While she waited for sensation to return to her legs, she ran her mind over the tasks for the day. Her domestic routine, established after her husband’s death and perfected in the years since the last of her five children had left the house, was the cogwheel of her existence, the real reason to live. After the last operation she had shuffled around the house for five days with a blindfold of surgical gauze over her eyes, condemned to do nothing but eat, bathe, sit on the toilet bowl, and listen to the sounds of the street outside her window. She had emerged from that invalid’s limbo with a renewed zest for workaday duties, but since she noticed the fog creeping in again from the edges of her vision, she had begun to wonder if she was fighting fate.

At first, glaucoma—two failed operations, and one success. Now, cataracts, which, the doctors said, was a complication they had expected. Next time, God knows what else. She was tired of the hospital visits, of the countless eye tests, of the segments of her life that were stolen by anesthetics. But, especially, she was fed up with the troop of jeans-wearing surgeons who attended to her, who reassured her of complete recovery in happy-go-lucky tones, who declined to describe her ailment in comprehensible language and dismissed as inconsequential her complaints of blistering headaches, of the nausea that was triggered by the flash of bright lights, of the pain that seared her eyeballs night and day. After three operations, all that remained of the worst symptoms were the memories of how she had suffered. Now, quietly, without the theatrics of physical discomfort, her eyesight was fading.

She could feel herself slipping back into sleep, so she pulled aside the duvet and looked down at her legs. The sight of her stumpy, varicose, bunion-knuckled legs never failed to shock her, always seemed to mock her, to impose on her—at the start of each new day—an intimate image of decay. Mr. Bille used to say she had the finest legs in all of Ijoland, and sometimes, God forgive her, she thought it a good thing that he died before he could see what arthritis had done to her legs. The worst thing to happen to you, she said to herself, then dragged her legs to the side of the bed—huffing from the effort and wincing from the shocks of pain that shot through her knees—and edged them over.

When she opened her bedroom door Cardinal Rex loped over to meet her with his tail raised. He rubbed his sides against her ankles, purring and flicking his tail; then he padded after her as she went about her housecleaning, shining his yellow-fever eyes at the back of her head and resting on his haunches to lick his charcoal fur whenever she stopped too long at a spot. After she wedged open the kitchen door and swallowed her morning dose of Celecoxib tablets and cod-liver oil capsules washed down with two bottles of lukewarm spring water, she scraped the leftovers of last night’s cooking into his green plastic plate. She sat on a shortlegged stool in the center of the courtyard and with a chewing stick cleaned her strong, yellowed teeth. While the morning air washed over her naked, collapsed breasts as she waited for the water on the stove to heat up for her breakfast and bath, Cardinal Rex ate at her feet.

First published on Guernica; read more. This story is from Barrett’s short collection, Love Is Power, or Something Like That (Graywolf, May, 2013).

Igoni Barrett at NYU Africa House

A. Igoni Barrett will read from his new story collection, LOVE IS POWER, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, on Friday, May 3rd at 4:00 PM at NYU Africa House. 

Tagged "Perspectives from African Writers" it features writers like Mukoma Wa Ngugi, NoViolet Bulawayo, and Olufemi Terry. Part of the PEN World Voices Festival and Literary Mews mini-festival. For more information, visit www.worldvoices.pen.org

RSVP the event here

Adulawo: (Re)presenting the Black Race

KiNiNso-Koncepts is an art ensemble/dance-theatre company. It was established with the sole aim of making statement of relevance with a deep root in researching our culture and tradition. Kininso make use of different performance styles and story-telling techniques that will not only entertain, inform and educate but challenge our audience towards nation building.

Through dance, drama, music, movement and poetry, we create stories, infuse visual elements,  with a strong sense of creativity and aesthetics. Our belief and adoption of the physical and experimental theatre technique is a means of portraying Africa as a centre of social and cultural integration. We think just beyond a theme, a venue and an audience.  At KiNiNso-Koncepts, our vision is to have a standard repertory theatre just like our foreign counterparts whose government believe in the arts as a tool for reconstruction. 

The Play

Adulawo: The Black Race (written and directed by Joshua Alabi)

Alongside groups from Georgia, Italy, Egypt, brazil, Sweden, Greece, iran and Romania. Kininso-koncepts was chosen to represent Nigeria and west Africa at large. Adulawo (the Black Race) is a dance-theatre piece which creatively and artistically discusses and portrays the challenges; problems, day to day activities, occupation, culture/tradition, and general way of life of the black people using Nigeria as it focus point. It’s a total theatre piece with an infusion of poetry, dance, drama, drums, chants and songs to create an excitingly new but contemporary performance art which would be acceptable by global audience of different age groups. 

At different points, playwrights, dramatists, directors and scholars have written about the black race at large. It must be pointed out that the story of the African race is a wide topic to be treated in just a dance/drama performance rather picking out the major and significant parts which relates to the growth and development of the region today. The play highlights not the entire slavery process and the colonialist intrusion but the pit which the white masters dug for us which is ‘democracy’ which apparently means nothing to them. The performance projects more of aesthetics in the African set and the boundless communal traits. 

DATE: 22ND APRIL, 2013

VENUE: UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS, MAIN AUDITORIUM

TIME: 4.00 PM

Favourite Five: April Laugh

April Laugh is a graduate of English Studies.She just completed a journalism course with a specialisation in Creative Writing at the London School of Journalism. Her flair for journalism landed her reporting jobs with Silverbird Television and BattaBoxTv, Nigeria's first online television channel. Her landmark reporting jobs include live reports from the 2012 Fuel Subsidy Protests at the Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos. She is the brain behind Aprillaugh.com, a lifestyle website where she encourages people to live life to the fullest. April Laugh has written a couple of short stories, poetry and is currently working on her first book. She currently works with Hudson Petroleum as an Executive Assistant & Trade Operator where she displays her excellent organizational and communication skills.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I can relate with this writer: her journey, her irresistible love for food and desire for self-discovery. Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught of mid-life crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed by panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the destruction of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be. To recover, she took a break from work; got rid of her belongings and travelled for a year- ALL ALONE! In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion with the help of a native guru. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way—unexpectedly.

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert 

This is a sequel to Eat, Pray, Love. The memoir is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love with all the intricacies and consequences that real love, in the real world, actually demands.  She fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who’d been living in Indonesia when they met. The couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. Both were survivors of previous horrific divorces.They were forced by the American border to be sentenced to wed so they could live together in America. This book was everything I wanted to know about being committed and being in love irrespective of my society.

Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

Maria, at a  young age, is convinced that she will never find true love, she believed that "Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer ..." By chance, a meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Instead, she ends up working as a prostitute. She got fascinated with the art of sex and its pleasures for its own sake. This book gave me my first orgasm at 24; it was everything I needed to know about my body and pleasing a man. 

On Writing by Stephen King 

I have a thing for authors with fine memoirs. On Writing simplifies the basics for me as a writer, how to deal with rejections and how to be consistent. It’s so clear, so useful, and so revealing. King next turns to the basic tools of his trade -- how to sharpen and multiply them through use, and how the writer must always have them close at hand. He takes the reader through crucial aspects of the writer's art and life, offering practical inspiring advice on everything from plot and character development to work habits and rejection.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L James

I bought this book when I was planning a holiday. It was a perfect companion during my trip; I have to admit that I devoured the entire Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy in less than two weeks! Its sex, bondage, love and more sex, were a total escape, and I enjoyed every minute of reading it.

PHWBC Team Hits the Airwaves

As the London Book Fair draws to a close, the Port Harcourt World Book Capital City team has been working hard to spread the word about their 2014 project, about Nigeria's literary achievements, such as the Garden City Literary Festival, which was the brainchild of the Governor of Rivers State, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi.

The Rainbow Book Club is the driving force behind the bid for the UNESCO title and they are coordinating the project with the backing of the Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Engineer Tele Ikuru. 

Rainbow Book Club Founder – Mrs Koko Kalango, was interviewed by the BBC World Service Radio program, Focus on Africa. Speaking to presenter Paul Bakibinga, Mrs Kalango outlined the significance of having a sub-Saharan African city as World Book Capital. She further talked about the importance of reading and how parents play a fundamental role in giving children the tools they need to read and in instilling a love of books in young people. Young people are a key focus of the World Book Capital City events as empowering the youth through education will have concrete knock-on effects on the country’s development. Asked about the recent passing of the legendary author Chinua Achebe, Mrs Kalango said that while his passing is a huge blow to the nation, his legacy lives on in his rich body of work and in the institutions he helped to create such as the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and was a founding editor of the Heinemann’s hugely popular African Writers Series.

Mrs Effie White of Rainbow Book Club in an interview with Jacqui Grant of Colourful Radio

Professor Achebe’s work was also a point of discussion when Rainbow’s Communications focal point, Effie White paid a visit to the studios of London’s Colourful Radio. On Jacqui Grant’s popular arts and culture show, Effie spoke of the timeless quality of the great author’s work and also highlighted the impressive works of the new breed of writers coming out of Nigeria such as Chimamanda Adichie, Adaobi Nwaubani and Lola Shoneyin. Touching on the fact that the World Book Capital City project falls during the 100th anniversary of the creation of Nigeria, Mrs White said celebrating Nigeria goes hand in hand with developing the youth who make up 70 per cent of the population.

Port Harcourt World Book Capital’s successful outing in London has raised the profile of the 2014 events and of this year’s Garden City Literary Festival which takes place from 21st to 26th October. Keep following us on Twitter and Facebook as we visit the opening ceremony of the 2013 World Book Capital City – Bangkok.

Crown Troupe at Freedom Park in April

After a successful run staging Zainabu Jallo's Onions Make Us Cry at Freedom Park all through the month of March, your award winning dance-theatre company- The Crown Troupe of Africa is moving on to the next one in the line-up of performances planned for the Pop Theatre series.

This time around, Crown Troupe is taking you back to their favourite genre- the social commentary infused dance drama skits so well loved by their fans.

Crown Troupe will be presenting two brand new skits every Sunday in April starting from the 7th of April. 

Can you guess what these two new skits will be talking about? Find out if you guessed right at  Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos Island on Sunday 7th April (and every Sunday in April) from 6.00pm. 

Muri Amulegboja will also be thrilling the crowd with his enigmatic dance movements and the adorable Footprints of David (Children's Dance Theatre) Academy will also be in attendance to sweeten your Sunday.

Gate fee? Pay as inspired. Yep, you read right, that's why it's called Pop Theatre... theatre from the people, for the people!

Free copies of Crown Troupe's Ariwo Oja music album for the first 3 seated guests.

Come one....come all!

The Pop Theatre series is produced by Dream Arts & Design Agency in partnership with Crown Troupe of Africa and is proudly supported by Freedom Park.

RSVP the event here

PHWBC is the Talk of London Book Fair

The team behind Port Harcourt’s triumphant win of the World Book Capital City title is making waves at the London Book Fair as they draw the world’s attention to the exciting events being lined up for 2014.

The London Book Fair holds from 15th to 17th April; press, publishers, writers and literary enthusiasts from all over the world have been flocking to the Port Harcourt stand. Excited attendees have expressed their admiration for the work of the Rainbow Book Club (RBC) – the group behind Port Harcourt’s historic bid. The positive reception has come from both industry insiders and the reading public. One astounded British fan of Nigerian literature was clearly surprised to learn that Port Harcourt had been given the prestigious title of World Book Capital City and stated that she hoped the effects of promoting literacy in Rivers State would have a ripple effect on other parts of the country. This is of course the aim of the 2014 initiative - to impact not just Port Harcourt but Nigeria and the African continent. In the words of another visitor, Mr Isaac Jaiyeoba, an IT consultant who writes, “this is exciting because it is exactly what Nigeria needs, a positive story.”

Mrs Effie White of Rainbow Book Club in an interview with Jacqui Grant of Colourful Radio

Our positive story has also been picked up by the media – with the founder of RBC, Mrs Koko Kalango spoke on the BBC World Service’s Focus on Africa program. Another team member will outline the impact we hope to have on reading and development in the Garden City in 2014 in a special arts and culture segment on London’s popular Colourful Radio this Wednesday afternoon.  

The Port Harcourt World Book Capital City team is dedicated to improving the country’s image on the international scene and the wealth of literary talent coming out of Nigeria has been a key focus of their discussions with visitors to their stand. The stand showcases some of this talent with books produced by local  publishers such as Bookcraft's new illustrated coffee table version of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Introducing Nigeria by Farafina. Also on display are samples of Rainbow’s soon-to-be released anthology of 50 great Nigerian writers entitled: Nigerian Literature: A Coat of Many Colours.

The team continues flying the Nigerian flag in London over the next couple of days; fans can stay up to date with us by following us on Twitter and Facebook.

Ore Somolu: Social Media and Booksales

Oreoluwa Somolu

Oreoluwa Somolu is the Director of Patabah Books, a bookstore in Shoprite, Surulere, Lagos. She tells us about how social media helps their work as a bookstore, and what publishers can do to make book sales better.

How does Patabah Books use social media a book store?

Our website is still in progress. We use mostly our Facebook page as a form of promotion. When we have new items, we put it on Facebook so that people will know that we have them. We also host regular book readings, and we use Facebook for pre-event and post-event publicity. We create events, we let people know that we are having a book reading; we also share the pictures on Facebook, and more recently, we upload videos also from the readings. We really use it to create a lot of buzz about the bookshop. I don't feel that we've tapped into it enough because of staffing issues. I have a lot that I am doing so I am not usually focused on it but we are getting someone that is dedicated to social media person so we use it to promote ourselves and the products we sell, and our book events.

Publishers, Social Media and Book stores

I will have to say that the role of the publisher is important. The content of the book is important, what the book is about, the topic, the relevance to people is key and I think that's the most important thing. And who the author is because some books are going to generate more buzz than the others because of the personality of the author and of course, the role that the publisher plays in generating buzz. That could be on social media and it could be off social media.

For instance, the book that was published by El-Rufai, The Accidental Public Servant, it generated a lot of buzz before it was published because of who he is and what people expected the book to be about, the content. He is also very active on Twitter, tweeting about it. He may not be tweeting about the book, but he may be tweeting about different national issues or issues raised in the book, so people know that the book is coming. So, for us, that was an easy sell because we just didn't have to push or promote it, we only had to say that we had it. Many times, people would call us, do you have the book? So we could hardly keep that book on the shelf, as soon as we got it, it was bought. In fact, the last copy that we had, two customers came into the bookshop almost at the same time to buy the book, and were dragging it from one another. We had to beg one customer that we were going to have more tomorrow. So, the role of the publisher is important, whether the buzz is created on social media or not, as long as there is a buzz.

Social media should be used in tandem with traditional forms of publicity like TV, radio, newspapers, though those cost money and not everybody can afford that but people can just do it and generally get people to talk about it.

Social Media use translating to book sales or a reading culture

I think that it can help. I think that a lot of people who tend to be on social media, I think that they are literate, educated and they are interested in seeking knowledge, now whether that knowledge is in a book form or just online, they are interested in knowledge and that's a good starting point and what social media does is that it brings information to their attention. So when a book is out they know about it: it has won this prize, it is about these issues, if they are active on social media, they are likely to hear about it.

Secondly, if there are discussions that are going on about the book, so even if they may not want to get it but because of the discussion that social media promotes, that may spark their interest further more and get them interested in getting it.

Do you think that reading online affects the attention span?
In terms of reading short pieces, I think so, I see that, even in myself, that my attention span is not as it was when I was younger. And I find that I read every night, I could be on my Ipad and I am reading articles on blogs and online newspapers. I do that a lot to the neglect of more traditional forms like the printed novel. I think that maybe we do need to think less about reading books but more about the fact that people are gaining knowledge.

On the book business
People will come all the time into the bookshop and say "you people you are still in business." One guy told me actually that when he saw that it was a book store that opened that he gave us three months that we will be closed because he was like Nigerians don't read. And I was like "Sir you are wrong. The first day we opened our shelves were almost stripped to bare because people came, picking, picking, picking, buying, buying and buying. I think that number one we serve a need that exists in the area where the bookshop is located. And then we found out that when we interact with people, we find out that they do read. People have their things that they like to read so for some people it is religious, some it is self-help, some it is business, for some people it is newspapers, so they are reading. So, we should not be hung up on reading in terms of a book, a novel, fiction; there are also other forms of reading, or art or literature that exists.

Social media and  the future of book stores

As a bookseller, I hope and pray that books remain. I think that they will, especially here in our part of the world. Though we have mobile phones, you can download books, you can read stories written in tweets but number one, it is not the same. Let us think about how many people in proportion to the population have access to those tools. It is still very small. We think about electricity issues as well. We need internet access to download. Those are still constraints.

I think that getting a book, paper copy, is the easiest because you don't have to plug it in, you don't have to download, you don't have to charge. It is the easiest. Then, for good or bad, there are pirated books out there, so people are able to find what they are interested in. Though some may be harder to get while there are others that are more than readily accessible. I personally think that books are going to be around for a long time. There is something about a book, about carrying a book, you have a book in the bag, you bring it out when you are not doing anything; even how it makes you look, you are carrying a book. The way people think that this person must be smart but maybe it is because I love books and I started reading books from when I was small.

I love to go into bookshops. Though I own a bookshop, I still love going into bookshops, and people are always like how can you go into your competition's book store? I don't care. I love books. I will go in. So, I don't know if I am saying it from a sentimental point of view. There are times you go into a book store where the staff are interested in what they sell, you may go in, maybe not wanting to buy anything  but when they engage you in a conversation, before you know it you are buying the book. That is the pleasure of physical book that you may not get elsewhere. Though with social media, people can refer, people can do book reviews. I think it is just a different space, different format and medium. I think that for those constraints that I mentioned earlier, books will always exist, therefore book stores are here to stay.

--Interview sent in by Temitayo Olofinlua

Desi Writers Lounge: Short Story Competition 2013

Desi Writers Lounge is always on the look-out for talented writers  to encourage and promote. Their short story competition, now in its  second year, aims to unearth new fiction talent from all around the  world. Three winners will receive a copy of How to Get Filthy Rich  in Rising Asia, the upcoming, highly anticipated novel by Mohsin  Hamid, and one of these winners will be selected for the Dastaan Award - a new prize that DWL is offering in partnership with a benefactor. The winning entries will also get published in the next issue of Papercuts.

Submission Guidelines: 

• The stories may follow any theme, but should not be more than 5,000 words.
• Only one entry per person will be accepted.
• Entries should be in English.
• Please only submit original stories.
• Please do not submit previously published material.
• Please send your entries only as Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) attachments. Each story must have a title.
• Each document should be named clearly with the title of the story plus the name of the author. No page numbering, headers or footers, please. Text must be received in the following format: a single-spaced, left-aligned document with Georgia size-12 font.

Deadline for Submissions: July 15, 2013

Please send your entries to editor.papercuts@desiwriterslounge.net with "Short Story" in the subject line

Learn from past winners by reading their stories here

GCLF At the London Book Fair 2013

Having recently been named UNESCO World Book Capital City 2014, the Nigerian metropolis of Port Harcourt is set to unveil plans for a series of events that fall under the theme; Books: Windows to Our World of Possibilities. The team behind Port Harcourt’s historic bid for the World Book Capital City title will be at this year’s London Book Fair to share their vision of literary programmes and interactive activities designed to celebrate Nigeria’s literary culture, promote reading and broaden the horizons of the nation’s young people.

Referred to as the ‘Garden City’, Port Harcourt was best known as the hub of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry but in recent years, it has emerged as a significant literary destination in sub-Saharan Africa, partly due to the success of the annual Garden City Literary Festival which draws writers, publishers, academics and the reading public from around Africa and further afield to a week-long celebration of literature and the arts.

The World Book Capital is a title conferred on a city by UNESCO in recognition of its initiatives to increase interest in books and reading and to promote cooperative links between all sectors of the book industry. Chosen cities hold the title from World Book and Copyright Day (April 23rd) of one year to next. Port Harcourt is the first sub-Saharan African city to hold the title and the first African city to win by public bid. In the first three years of the UNESCO initiative, cities were nominated by a panel. Since 2004 however, nomination has been by a public call for bids and Port Harcourt was one of 11 cities around the world to bid for the 2014 candidature. The judging panel, made up of representatives from UNESCO, the International Publisher’s Association (IPA), the International Federation of Library associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Booksellers Federation (IBF) said of Port Harcourt’s selection:

“Port Harcourt was nominated World Book Capital City 2014 on account of the quality of its programme, in particular its focus on youth and the impact it would have on improving Nigeria’s culture of books, reading, writing and publishing to improve literacy rates”.

Port Harcourt will be the 14th World Book Capital City when it takes over from Bangkok in April 2014. As 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the creation of Nigeria, the city will be celebrating with a range of events including initiatives to inspire young writers, engaging the community in literary and arts exhibitions, promoting the publishing industry, building capacity for the running of libraries and book clubs and the creation of collaborative publications such as “The Walking Book” and an anthology of 100 Nigerian writers entitled “Nigerian Literature: A Coat of Many Colours”.  The emphasis is on empowering Nigeria’s greatest resource – its youthful human capital.

Representatives from Port Harcourt will be at the London Book Fair from Monday 15th till Wednesday 17th April 2013 and the media are invited to a special presentation of the 2014 World Book Capital City program entitled “Introducing Port Harcourt” which will take place on Tuesday 16th April at 10 am at Stand EC2 X305 opposite the Literary Translation Centre.

For further information contact: Daniella Menezor: +234 8023187731 or Effie White: +44 7981 794247 or send enquiries to info@portharcourtworldbookcapital.org.

Favourite Five: Fego Martins-Ahia

Fego Martins Ahia was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He is a two-time finalist of the Litro & IGGY International Short Story Award. In 2011, he won the Ugreen Foundation’s Short Story Award as well as a bronze award in the Commonwealth Essay Competition. He is currently working on his first book. 

He had this to say about his favourite five stories. "I’ve read scores of amazing pieces of literature, and whittling the best of them to five is more of a daunting task, than pleasure, itself. These five have had varying influences on my person, and are few of those I would live to remember." 

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This breathtaking debut traces recent Nigerian history through Kambili's crystal-clear eyes. What fascinates me is the powerful voice that sweeps through the pages, sentence by sentence. The coming of age story gradually becomes a mirror to the final years of Nigeria’s military lifetime, while addressing a major conflict within a small Catholic family. It skillfully touches sensitive subjects, including religion and political activism in a way that appeals to readers, irrespective of cultural background. 

Interpreters of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

This well-crafted collection of short stories bordering on Indian-American existence is one of the most illuminating books I’ve read in my short life. The stories literally breathe fresh air on the reader’s face, translating one to the streets of Calcutta and Cambridge, the trams that carry dust with them, the stairwells of apartment-buildings where life happens. It is a pleasure to re-read these stories as if to absorb the life present on every page. Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories are beautiful, but serious, and I like them that way.

The Empty Family by Colm Toibin 

This is another ground-breaking short story collection written by the master, who published an amazing novel, The Master, years ago. Colm Toibin tells powerful stories in way that is both stunning and intentional. Here, he travels the paths of sadness, memory, burgeoning romance and most importantly, emptiness, itself. Not only does he address these subjects as if to draw us into a world where loneliness triumphs; he also reminds us that escape is not always the best way to experience life to its fullest. Toibin is a maestro of the form.

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

Disgrace is an exquisite contemporary novel that chronicles the life of a fifty-two year old South African literature professor, David Lurie. Having lost his job – and in part, his high life – to a secret affair with his Romantics student, he finds refuge with his daughter, Lucy in faraway Eastern Cape even though he detests the path she treads. The drama ends with a disaster and a coming-to-life-again sort of resolution. In short, this Booker-prize winning novel set in post-apartheid South Africa reads like a shocking all-time classic not easily forgotten. 

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li.

This is a startling debut collection of short stories by the US-based Chinese novelist. It comfortably draws a tightrope between China and America and poignantly showcases Yiyun Li’s confidence as a writer with a difference. This is evident in her use of English – a second language, by the way – and her portrayal of original tragedies spanning several decades and age ranges. Reading this masterpiece is one of the most enlightening decisions I ever made. Yiyun Li is, by far, one of the most amazing voices in today's literature.

Love is Power, Or Something Like That

The Writer 

Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria in 1979. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short fiction has appeared in Kwani?, Guernica, Black Renaissance Noire, and AGNI. He will be part of the World Voices Festival, 2013. 

The Book 

These are vivid, powerful stories of contemporary Nigeria, from a talented young author. When it comes to love, things are not always what they seem. In contemporary Lagos, a young boy may pose as a woman online, and a maid may be suspected of sleeping with her employer and yet still become a young wife’s confidant. Men and women can be objects of fantasy, the subject of beery soliloquies. They can be trophies or status symbols. Or they can be overwhelming in their need. In these wide-ranging stories, A. Igoni Barrett roams the streets with people from all stations of life. A man with acute halitosis navigates the chaos of the Lagos bus system. A minor policeman, full of the authority and corruption of his uniform, beats his wife. A family’s fortunes fall from love and wealth to infidelity and poverty, as poor choices unfurl over three generations. With humor and tenderness, Barrett introduces us to an utterly modern Nigeria, where desire is a means to an end, and love is a power as real as money.

Reviews

“Brilliant, unforgettable, violent, compassionate. The range of people Barrett makes us care about takes the breath away: wife-beaters, rapists, drop-drunk mothers, yearning evangelicals, coddled international businessmen, depressed policemen wielding cow-legs against the innocent. Whole lives contain less relentless, exquisite detail than this.”—Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution

“Here is a singular voice in African writing: urbane, unapologetic, as harsh as the truth, as tender as love, an old subject that A. Igoni Barrett refreshes by beaming the precise and searing light of his language into the darkest corners of its territory. A masterful accomplishment.”—Doreen Baingana, author of Tropical Fish

“A. Igoni Barrett has a big heart. His portrait of modern-day Nigeria, like the country itself, is a bewitching juxtaposition of the grotesque and uplifting, rotten and humane. He makes us wince in sympathy for his characters, struggling to give their lives meaning in the toughest of cities, even while—in many of these stories—we fervently hope never to cross paths with them.”—Michela Wrong, author of It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower

"Love, life, revenge, survival, and compassion all figure into this bighearted, daring collection of stores from a gifted Nigerian writer. . . . Barrett shares as much with Raymond Carver or Amy Hempel as Chinua Achebe. . . . Electrifying tales of vibrant urban nights and acrid, desperate days."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"While most of the nine stories in [Love is Power, or Something Like That] have Nigeria as their backdrop, the emotional turbulence they capture should strike any reader as universal."—Publishers Weekly

Azafi Omoluabi-Ogosi: Social Media and Publishing

Azafi Omoluabi-Ogosi works as a managing editor with Parresia Publishers, a publishing outfit based in Lagos, Nigeria. She responds to some issues around social media and publishing; some of the issues raised by Chiagozie Nwonwu last week.

What do you use social media for at Parresia? 

Social media is basically used as a marketing tool, we break into the groups of literary people on social media. So it is used as a merging ground where writers, readers, authors, from anywhere, in Nigeria or anywhere in Africa are aware of our products and the books we have to offer. We use them to create buzz for the company and the books.

Are Parresia Books available online?

Yes. Our books are available via Amazon, and they are are not for Nigerians living in Nigeria because we expect that if you want to buy our books from an online portal, you can go via Konga or Jumia.com which cater for Nigerians and for the Naira.  Amazon  does not cater for Nigerians here. There is no online payment that we can use from here for Amazon, except you have an online account or something. So, it is Nigerians living outside or anybody in the world who will buy via Amazon. So far we haven't gotten any complaints. Sales are fair. The social media helps so we have had people reading and talking about our books. We have had response from people we don't know from anywhere coming and saying that they bought the books via Amazon; some have actually taken pictures. Yes, things like that have happened so far, the response is good.

Do you think social media is changing roles, experiences, and terms in publishing?

Basically, one thing that I have noticed about social media is that it has given people more confidence to write, people who otherwise would not have written or who would have hidden away their works can now make posts, and have other people who like, comment; who give you some form of encouragement whatsoever.

Now, does that translate into publishing? No, I don't think it does because it still means that there are two sorts of writers. First, the one who will post stuff on Facebook--write a poem, a short story or do the blogging. I personally separate that from those who will go all the way and take their time to write an actual book.

I don't think I will publish an author based on his/her postings via social media because I have learnt to separate that: I don't think it is the same thing. There was a girl who recently published a short story online and it was shared all over social media, her writing was interesting, and we asked her to send her work, the first three chapters to us, for consideration, she didn't have anything to send in. In fact that was her first story and first writing ever. So, it gives the buzz, gives you the confidence and all that but actually writing and writing well, is another issue.

Social media and Parresia's call for submissions

We have gotten over fifty submissions so far and I am definite that all of them came via social media because that is the only means that we used to call for submissions. Now, the quality of writing is not tied to social media but it's there, in fact I don't know what to say about that because there are people who write and do not understand what writing is about and I get a lot of people who don't understand what writing is, who still need help. So, there are people who still need help with their writing and social media won't play that part for them...

Do you think that social media affects the reading culture in any way? 

For me, social media is an interactive thing. It is also very distracting. So, in terms of reading. I can say for instance, in the past few weeks, I had to shut myself out of social media because it personally affected my own reading, it affected my own work because I am always going there, always trying to see what I can do to promote one book or the other. So, in terms of using it as a marketing tool, for people around you to be aware of your work, it works, but in terms of the nitty gritty of publishing and reading through manuscripts, it is a distracting tool, for me as a publisher. You are there, you are thinking of other things rather than thinking of work at hand, It serves its suppose rather than create the balance at hand.

In terms of reading, I don't see how it has improved the standard of reading. It affected mine as a consumer of books.

Picture from: www.3dissue.com

Hard cover generation vs Social Media Generation

I was with my brother recently and he has always belonged to the school of thought that think that books will be completely phased out; that it will come to a point where you will only buy books in cover as special editions, everything else will be digital, especially textbooks. He believes it will start with textbooks, move to fiction and what we know as books will be generally phased out. I do not have that opinion at all even though we belong to the same generation of readers.

Reading from a tab or from a phone or other digital device is not going to replace the experience of reading from a real book. It is a different experience all together. First, the eyes are  affected. Reading on a digital device is distracting: you have to tap for the light to stay on; you have a call that will come in; you have Facebook messages to attend to. I am always wondering how people enjoy reading off a device like a phone. I owned a Kindle for some time, really I did not like it. I'd rather still have the book, put a bookmark in it, and not something I have to turn on. I just cannot see the future in digital e-book formats taking over. It is a fad, it will happen but it is a fad, it cannot last.

It is a visual thing. It is like this. I use my laptop. I read in front of it; I am not comfortable with the fact that I continually read text on my laptop. When I am editing for instance, there are times, that I print out the manuscript. I concentrate more that way, instead of reading on the computer and my eyes are skimming through and I am not catching what I should catch. So, there is that thing of the visual, the head, what the eyes have been designed to actually do, and digital does not actually capture it. This digital thing has come from watching movies or so but you watch a movie for an hour and a half and that is all. It is different from reading text and which is a funny thing for me when people say that maybe flash fiction will work, maybe shorter stories will work; we are now translating it into the fact that what is attention grabbing text-wise should be shorter, you are making accommodations for it. So, what will happen to full length books, are you going to say that will phase out to?

Femi Morgan poses with a Parresia title

Do Nigerians read? 

Nigerians read and it is very annoying to hear that Nigerians don't read. I have had a second hand book customer for the past ten years. All I have known him to do is to import books to sell; that's his sole means of livelihood. He brings in containers of books, each container has over 100, 000 books and he sells them in two months. So, when people say that Nigerians don't read, I don't understand it; I can excuse us to say  books made in Nigeria by Nigerians are  expensive in that people don't want to put down that N1,500 to buy a book but they'd  rather put N200, N100, N150, and those books sell which means if our dynamics were all in place and we could sell a brand new author for N500, then you will know that Nigerians read. I think that it is our own pricing system that's faulty which is as a result of our production challenges.

We have There Was A Country that's being pirated now so maybe we should do the research to see how much of that book has sold and based on that you should be able to tell whether Nigerians read at all. So Nigerians do read and another thing that's our challenge is that does a regular Nigerian on the streets know that our books exist the same way they know Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham--do they know Helon Habila?

If a magazine can do a print run of over 20, 000, even at the price of N1,000 and sell, who buys those magazines, in the scenario that Nigerians don't read? 20, 000 people to the Nigerian population is still minute but it's a monthly thing, and is still being sustained and it still sells. You cannot say for instance that they survive on advertising. No. Some of these magazines actually do well on sales too.

Plans for cheaper versions of Parresia titles?

It's an avenue we are exploring. We call them the student editions. There are two versions. The regular versions with the nice paper and all, and the student versions which is the regular paper that will be sold at the cheaper price. And another thing that we want to explore is street sales, so we actually have vendors carrying these books, it all boils down to PR, it boils down to marketing.

--This interview was sent in by Temitayo Olofinlua