Chibundu Onuzo: 'The more I write, the better I get at it. The more I submit, the less I fear rejection.'
BY Discoveries
4th Jan 2023
CBC and Curtis Brown are proud to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run Discoveries, a unique writing development prize and programme, which offers practical support and encouragement to aspiring female novelists of all ages and backgrounds, from across the UK and Ireland.
This week the Discoveries team talk books and writing advice with author Chibundu Onuzo. Chibundu started writing novels and short stories at the age of ten and less than a decade later became the youngest woman ever signed by Faber. Her debut novel, The Spider King’s Daughter shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and won a Betty Trask Award. Her most recent novel Sankofa was published in June 2021 and was an October 2021 pick for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club. Chibundu is on the Discoveries 2023 judging panel – she will be joined by chair of judges and founder of the Women's Prize Kate Mosse, acclaimed author Kiran Millwood Hargrave, CBC’s founder and director Anna Davis and Curtis Brown literary agent Lucy Morris.
You sold your debut novel The Spider King’s Daughter when you were 19 years old, and it went on to win the Betty Trask Award. Can you tell us a bit about your experience of writing your first novel and your initial path to publication?
I was seventeen when I began writing what became The Spider King’s Daughter. It wasn’t my first attempt at a novel but it was the first time I’d actually been able to finish one. I found my agent, Georgina Capel, through the Writers and Artists’ Yearbook. It is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to get traditionally published. I signed a two-book deal with Faber and Faber when I was nineteen, which was both exciting and daunting. Getting a book deal isn’t the end of the journey. It’s just the beginning.
When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?
I started my first novel when I was ten. At that age, I don’t think I believed writing could be a full-time profession. I always imagined I would have a ‘real job’ and write. My real job was going to be law or medicine, and then I would write on the weekends.
Setting plays a crucial role in your work. In your second novel Welcome to Lagos, Lagos itself feels like a character and your latest novel Sankofa is set in London and the fictional West African country of Bamana – which you build and portray so vividly. Do you have any advice on how to evoke a specific sense of time and place?
View the setting through a character’s eyes. What would the character notice about the place that someone else wouldn’t notice? It’s those details that bring a place alive.
When inspiration first strikes what comes to you first – the setting or the characters?
Definitely the characters. Also, I find inspiration doesn’t really strike. It just meanders up to you and if you don’t grab it, it meanders away again.
Sankofa was partially inspired by your PhD research into the West African Students Union – a group formed in Camden Town, London in 1925 and formally dissolved in 1970. Can you tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind the novel and how you approached researching it?
I wasn’t researching the novel per say. I was researching my PhD, which involves reading hundreds, if not eventually, thousands of primary and secondary sources. I read letters, business accounts, autobiographies, speeches, magazine articles, and on and on. I didn’t really have to do any specific research for the novel. I just sifted my PhD material for interesting facts.
I was fascinated by these young West African men who came to London to study and said they would be the future leaders of their home countries. By and large, their prophecies came true. I loved their ambition and idealism but I was also disappointed by how many of them didn’t live up to their student ideals. Anna’s father is a composite of these men that were members of the West African Students’ Union.
You wrote the novel alongside studying for your PhD. How did you balance the two? What tips do you have for writers who are working on a novel alongside studying or working?
I didn’t balance the two very well. I left the write up of my PhD thesis very late and had to conjure up tens of thousands of words in the two weeks before submission. So don’t do that. Part of why I procrastinated was because I preferred writing fiction to writing in the academic style of a historian. Doing a PhD helped me realise that academia is only for me in small doses. I really do hate footnotes.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
My favourite fictional character that I’ve created is Francis Aggrey/Kofi Adjei. He’s quite complicated and probably needs therapy. My favourite fictional character someone else has created is Anne of Green Gables. I loved those books when I was a child. In fact, I think I’m going to reread them now I’ve thought of dear Anne.
Which books do you always recommend to others?
Everything Good Will Come by Sefi Atta. Segu by Maryse Condé and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.
We’re delighted to have you onboard as a judge for Discoveries 2023 – do you have any advice for aspiring authors getting ready to submit to the prize?
The first point of a prize is to win but the second and more important point is to practice getting your writing out there. I’ve submitted my work for many prizes and never made the longlist but the act of writing is its own reward. The more I write, the better I get at it. The more I submit, the less I fear rejection.
What will you be looking for from entrants when reading for Discoveries?
I like a compelling writing voice. One sentence pulls you on to the next.
Best of luck preparing your submission to Discoveries 2023. We’re so excited to read your work!