AustLit

'‘‘I was always a really voracious reader. I loved any stories – I’m a very immersive person, and I would immerse myself into each reading. I grew up reading Margaret Ogola’s ‘How’ and ‘Why’ stories – a whole series of them with titles such as ‘why the zebra has his stripes’ or ‘how the crocodile got to live in the water’. I was a typical girl then, reading ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Snow White’ and ‘Rapunzel’. I also read a lot of Chinua Achebe – for literature in school we did Things Fall Apart, so I’m very intimate with Achebe’s works. I loved Camara Laye and his book The African Child. I read Wole Soyinka, and I also read a lot of folk tales. My father understood my love for reading, so if I did well in school, he would buy me a book. I also loved English composition in school. My compositions were totally exaggerated – I would write all sorts of stories, and that’s when I realized I really love writing. Much later when I grew older and got to know more writers, I loved Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and I adored Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I discovered Ray Bradbury and totally fell in love with him. Later I read Jeffrey Ford. Before I stumbled into speculative fiction, my biggest affection was literary fiction, so I loved Michael Ondaatje and his book Divisadero, and I was enchanted with Toni Morrison the minute I read Beloved – after that I went out and bought every single Toni Morrison book I could find. I have them all – I’ve read Sula, I’ve read Jazz, I’ve read Tar Baby, and if I lend one you one of my books I’ll be very rigorous to make sure I get it back. They’re my most prized possessions.' (Introduction)