WORKING TO GIVE BIRTH TO CHINUA EZENWA-OHAETO’S THE TEENAGER WHO BECAME MY MOTHER

Hello world, I have been absent from here for a bit and my health has been a part of the reasons but there are some conversations that need to keep on being had. So, let’s get to one of them…

It is no news that the SEVHAGE chapbook series is coming back in full, or is it? Okay, maybe. But I am sure it is no news that Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto won our SEVHAGE/Angya Poetry Prize 2019 (supported by Eunice Spring of Life Foundation). I guess the news is that we are releasing the winning poem, ‘Every Month a Year’ alongside other poems from his entry and others into a chapbook, ‘The teenager who became my mother.’

It has been a fascinating process working on the book alongside a brilliant team led by our phenomenal poetry lead, Innocence Silas Sharamang, a multiple award winning poem, Oko Owi Ocho aka Afrika and the rest of the team. There’s a forward by Olisa Oloka, the editor of The Question Marker and Chinua’s associate. Then the cover, ooohh, the brilliant cover was executed from concept to finish by our design lead, Eugene Odogwu.

I sit down to an interview with Chinua on the book in commemoration of World Lover’s Day. You can find the full interview at HERE.

In case you do not know, Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto (@chinuaezenwa) is from Owerri-Nkworji in Nkwerre, Imo State, Nigeria and grew up between Germany and Nigeria. He has won the Association Of Nigerian Author’s Literary Award for Mazarriya Ana Teen Poetry Prize, 2009; Speak to the Heart Inc. Poetry Competition, 2016. He was a runner-up in Etisalat Prize for Literature, Flash fiction, 2014. He won the Castello di Duino Poesia Prize for an unpublished poem, 2018 which took him to Italy. He was the recipient of New Hampshire Institute of Art’s 2018 Writing Award, and the recipient of New Hampshire Institute of Art’s 2018 scholarship to MFA Program. He was also the winner of Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize, 2018. In 2019, he was the Winner of SEVHAGE/Angya Poetry Prize and second runner-up in Singapore Poetry Contest. Some of his works have appeared in Lunaris Review, Poet Lore, AFREADA, Rush Magazine, Frontier, Palette, Malahat Review, Southword Magazine, Vallum, Knicknackery, Salamander, Bakwa Magazine, Strange Horizons, One, Ake Review, Crannog Magazine and elsewhere.

Chinua is also the son of the famous Ezenwa-Ohaeto, multiple award winning poet, scholar and author of Chinua Achebe’s definitive biography, Chinua Achebe: A Biography. Lovely to see this one, named after Achebe too, growing in his own stead and gaining his own accolades.

I have said it often and will keep on saying it, that Chinua will keep going places and even as we countdown to the release of his chapbook at the end of August this year, we know we shall be toasting to many more victories.

Happy Book Lovers’ Day people and please read the interview at Sankofa mag by clicking THIS LINK.

Cheers!

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