By Elvis Iyorngurum
The writers Sifa Asani Gowon and Molara Wood will share the spotlight in the June 28 edition of the Guest Writer Session, a long-running literary initiative by the Abuja Writers Forum.
The event which holds at Nanet Suites in Abuja’s Central District, runs from 4 – 7 pm, and features side attractions of poetry performance, a raffle-draw for books, and an exciting dose of live music.
Sifa Asani Gowon, a thirty something mother of two, lives in the raggedly beautiful and somewhat tortured city of Jos and spends most of her time between writing, doing wife and mommy ‘runs, and baking (for both business and pleasure).
She began by writing short stories sporadically as she was growing up- nothing serious. She never had a real desire to become a writer as such. She had other dreams, other pursuits. That and the fact that before she got a laptop she was just too lazy to pick up a pan and write in a book!
But then, that all changed when she turned 28 (and had a laptop) and decided to sit down and type out a short story that slowly became a book.
Her debut novel, Playing by Her Rules, is a love story set in Nigeria that incorporates aspects of faith, humour and easy going dialogue among characters. Readers will be able to recognize the nuances in relationships between these characters as well delve into issues ranging from mixed-race identity, tense family situations and clashes of personalities and core principles.
Sifa is currently working on short stories to be included in two anthologies (that will hopefully be published) and has just finished the first draft of the sequel to ‘Playing by Her Rules’. It is her hope that she will publish more of her work in the future.
Molara Wood won the inaugural John La Rose Memorial Short Story Competition, and received an award from the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.
A journalist, essayist and critic, and sometimes, a poet, she has lived and studied in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
She has lived in the what she terms the 3 Ls – Lagos, London and Los Angeles – with more life spent in the first two, than the third.
Her writings have appeared in a number of publications and for a while ran a popular literary blog. She maintained an Arts column in the Sunday Guardian; and later served as Arts and Culture Editor of NEXT Newspaper. She is currently Special Assistant to the President on Documentation.
Indigo,her first book, is a collection of short stories. From Nigeria to the Diaspora, joy, sadness, anxieties and triumphs fill the canvas with lush, vivid colours. Themes of loss and longing, past and present, home and away, mysticism and modernity, trauma and healing, truth and lies, masculinity and a woman’s place – all are deftly explored in this mesmerising, sometimes devastating collection of short stories.
In the words of Akin Adesokan, author of Roots in the Sky : “These stories announce a strong, distinctive voice, powered in equal measure by love and rage. They offer perspectives on life in all its messy multiplicity, mythical and real. Molara Wood writes with admirable sensitivity; her characters are a healthy mixture of the self-aware, the compassionate, the innocent, and the worldly-wise; and the variety itself is proof of a mastery of complex emotions. I read these stories with a genuine sense of gratitude.”
The Abuja Writers’ Forum is a community of writers and book lovers. The forum creates opportunities for writers to develop their skills, helps in promoting and celebrating established and upcoming writers and also developing the book culture among Nigerians. Activities of the forum are free and open to members of the public.
