A flick through next year’s pages
In the last Saturday supplement of 2007, The Irish Times‘ Arminta Wallace previews the literary year 2008 with a mention of a Jesuit writer, Nigerian Uwem Akpan.
Conflicts in Africa are seen through the eyes of children in Say You’re One of Them (Abacus, June), the debut collection from young Nigerian Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan.
Akpan has had stories, My Parents’ Bedroom and The Ex-mas Feast, published in The New Yorker in 2005. They give an idea of Akpan’s particular style of writing in which he uses the voice and perspective of the child to bring a new light to bear on Africa.
The 13 June 2005 edition of The New Yorker carried an interview with the Nigerian Jesuit. He reflects on his life Between two continents, commenting on contrasts between living and studying as a scholastic in Africa and in the United States of America.
