"Everyone has faced rejection one way or the other..." [Interview with popular writer Samuel A. Adeyemi]
Highlights with Samuel A. Adeyemi
1. Growing up in this part Africa, how was it for you? Particularly as a Nigerian child, right before you met poetry and became the popular writer you are now...
Well... Growing up in Nigeria was, and has always been, a closeted experience.
You know that one kid in school who watches other kids tell stories of the wild adventures they went on, and he just doesn't relate that much. That was me growing up. I wasn't exactly imprisoned, but I was restricted a lot. I would always wish I had more liberty like other kids my age.
It got looser as I matured, anyway.
Before I met poetry, I was inclined toward other art forms. I have always been a music person and I loved drawing as well.
I believe I was always pulled to poetry, but I just wasn't aware of what poetry was at first. I knew I had a thing for words and expressions that had some kind of depth and sonority. I used to love philosophical quotes and just random sayings that sounded cool and made me think. I would write some and edit them into a photo to post on Facebook as well. Terrible stuff. But that was the foundation, and I'm grateful I didn't neglect it.
2. Wow, you said once... I can't quite remember where and when, probably in an article or so (but correct me if I'm wrong), you mentioned that writers often express what they feel around them in writing, be it grief, bad government, etc.
"Whatever they see continuously finds its way into their writings...", you said. So I'd like to ask...
Is there one thing about your life and your works that growing up in Nigeria has shaped about you. If there is, could you mention one, at least.
Well... Asides from being restricted, growing up in Nigeria has always been depressing. It's not even about me now. Look outside. There's despair all around, thanks to the government and a thousand insecurities.
Writers express their experiences, so some of my works have been shaped by this despair. A number of poems express this; sometimes in the form of protest, other times through a confessional, personalised approach.
3. I'm not quite sure if you're done with school yet but I remember you were in your final year at a certain time.
So at the moment, is there anything you're doing that serves as a source of income?
Well, I have been in my final year for a while now, thanks to the always-dependable government.
I do freelance writing as a source of income. I take gigs in my free time. It's difficult balancing that with creative writing, but I have to stay afloat.
4. Your works have been published on several platforms and you've been nominated for certain awards.
I'm tempted to ask... Has your work ever been rejected? Probably you sent it, and it wasn't good enough.
Oh, of course. Certainly. Rejections are normal. Even the best writers receive rejection letters. Who am I? It's constant. The only thing that has changed would be my attitude toward rejection.
Beginner writers often think a rejection letter means their work isn't good enough. Well, many times, that may be true, but not always. There may be other reasons why a work was rejected. Sometimes a magazine rejects your work and another magazine, far bigger than the one that rejected it, accepts it. Different things work in the background. As you grow as a writer, you understand better.
Being an editor for a magazine also makes you see how these things work.
5. Hmm! So, beyond writing, have you ever faced rejection? In relationship circles, etc... ever felt neglected, somehow.
How was it for you?
Everyone has faced rejection one way or the other. It feels the same way most of the time. To be honest, I do not remember any recent rejections. I have stayed away from relationships for a long time now, so that one's out of the question.
I haven't gotten a rejection from circles, too. I believe you only get rejected when you attempt something, and honestly, I have been passive with a lot of things outside writing and work lately.
Except maybe in basketball. There's a move (pick-and-roll) where you set a screen for a defender to lock him away from your teammate with the ball. A defender may be able to reject a screen. I have experienced that, lol.
6. If you could go back to the past and tweak one incident in your life, what would it be?
I've thought about this and I concluded I would not want to change anything. I've made mistakes in the past. I could have done some things better. I could have not done some things at all. But everything has led to this moment, where I am now. Any tweak to the past will alter this present.
I wouldn't want to gamble whether that alteration would affect my current life in a good or bad way. Despite how imperfect I am, I am content with that. I haven't lived much anyway.
I read an article once where three people from different generations were asked a similar question. The first two, younger, concluded they wouldn't change anything. The much older person, however, admitted she would have done some things in her youth. Perhaps if you ask me this same question three decades later, my answer would be different.
Wow. That's a lot to take in. Thank you so much Samuel.
In closing, I'd like to share this poem written by Samuel A. Adeyemi. It's titled, Euphemism.
Listen to Samuel's audio reading
Euphemism
by Samuel A. Adeyemi
Murder by a scalpel is pronounced death,
not surgery. There is no intricacy
when the blade drowns in a body, whirling
inside like a wet threading of gut.
Whatever the instrument, do not hesitate
to call your suffering by its name.
It won’t soften it, but it will unshroud the
mystique. I have stared at my misery
for so long, it seems less oblique. How this
works—the fangs still terrify, but they
look just like teeth. The tissue, death-sharp
yet quite familiar in its whiteness.
Our prophets have always been about pre-
tending. They think calling a wound
a flower will taper its ache, sugar the poison
that mars the blood. But the first step
to wholeness has always been recognition.
It is a lie that the lie will be
the genesis of healing. The greatest miracle
lies within the same truth we are taught
to abandon. When you stare at the mirror, do
not invert the image. There, your open
chest. Gaze. Is that a nail where your heart
used to be? Wipe off the honey & tell
the wound as it is. Metal organ. Blood rust.
Why must we wait until our suffering
ends before we name it? What happens when
we are the ones outlived? I have chosen
to resist the ritual of time, to call every bruise
by its colour. For what is a scar,
if not a wound waiting to become? Come
unto me. I will show you where I hurt
on the river’s body. Look. I am touching
all over the water.
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