(upbeat music)
- Well, first, I just wanna give my condolences to you
and say, I'm sorry for your losses
and thank you for your work.
And I wanna know how are you right now?
- Thank you, that's very kind.
I think I'm okay, no actually, that's not true.
I think 'cause one of the things I'm learning from grief
is to be, how important I think it is
to be honest about grief.
I am not okay,
but I also don't think I should be okay
because something just too catastrophic
things happen in my life too soon, one after the other.
But I'm also, I have good days
and I have days that are not good at all.
And I'm just learning that grief is such a complicated,
multifaceted, difficult thing.
I was very close to my parents
and when my father died last June,
it's interesting 'cause I just wouldn't, nothing,
I would never have imagined that my mother would die
a few months later on his birthday.
It just, and so I think it's sort of that idea
of having two types of grief to deal with
making peace with one to an extent and not with the other.
- Right, you wrote that.
"How does your heart break twice?"
Yeah, how are you, through the grief,
how are you keeping their memories alive
for not just you but for your daughter?
- Yeah, so I feel so grateful that she knew them
and that they knew her, and so she's almost six,
and so she has very clear memories
and I talk about them with her all the time.
And I just often will say to her,
what does grandma call you?
What does grandpa call me?
And we had names for her.
My mother called her Asama, which means beautiful child
and my father called her Isboma, which is good child.
And so we do that a lot.
And so what I want to do is to just try
and make it sort of organic and ordinary,
that they're always there as part of the story of her life.
And she still has clues that, she says,
"Well, grandma got me this."
And she said the other day,
"Mama, my underwear is too small now,
"that's the one that grandma got me."
And so even that I really just treasure
and I keep wanting these conversations
to continue to happen.
- I wanna talk about the title of your book.
Why did you name it "Notes on Grief?"
Is there any, what did you mean by notes?
- I think I kind of wanted to have a sense of,
well, first of all, something incomplete
and something, I guess maybe kind of ongoing,
but because when I started writing it,
it's not as though I had a particular structure
or that I knew what the hell I was doing really,
I was just trying to find language,
trying to make sense of what I was feeling,
and I think calling it "Notes on Grief"
was sort of, I think it was my way of trying
to just, I guess, capture the feeling
of something unfinished,
in some ways even unformed.
So in the way that I have a habit of taking notes
about everything, about the world.
So I used to do that in a little notebook,
but since the advent of the iPhone,
I now do it on my notes app
and it's quite random, I mean, just whatever,
observations, thoughts, ideas.
And I think maybe that's kind of the sense
I wanted to get with this book as well,
but it's not at all a finished thing.
As in flat, I don't think grief is ever finished.
- Do you think that you will write more about your mother?
- That's an interesting question, I've wanted too
and I haven't been able to, yeah,
But I think because writing is what I always,
writing is what I used to try and make sense of my life.
So I'm sure that I will at some point.
- One of the things about the book
is you just really did not care what people thought
of how you were grieving.
You were angry, sometimes you were biting when people
and understandably, so, that's not a judgy statement,
but, oh, he's in a better place.
Oh, you have these...
All the platitudes that people say or think
that you wanna hear
and you weren't always polite in those situations.
And I wonder how friends and family have received the book
that now maybe they have a better window
into how you grieve.
- It's interesting about just thinking of politeness
in the face of grief.
I don't think that one, I don't think,
I think and I say this of course,
only just learning it now because I'm in it,
because the thing is that I'm as guilty
as really everyone else
in kind of the result into platitudes
in the face of somebody's pain.
And so I kind of understand how people then say things like,
oh, he's in a better place
or well, he's an angel watching over you.
But in the midst of my pain, I found it just bearable.
And I also, in some ways found it too simple,
too easy, too deep.
And so I've just get so angry,
except I think, in a better and how would you know that?
Now, I'm kind of learning that.
I mean, and even at the time,
even in the middle of my anger,
I knew that people meant well,
people, I think death is such a...
It's such an unknowable, such an unknown thing,
and it's so final,
that I think we don't know how to deal with it in general.
I think it's just really difficult
because in some ways to be alive is to be in denial of death
in some ways.
And so I think there's something about us human beings
that we just, it's difficult to deal with.
And I think that's why we result to platitudes
and we result to euphemisms and talking about death,
which increasingly I also don't like at all.
So, I find myself feeling better when I just say died,
they didn't pass on to a different existence,
I don't, they died.
And I think it's also my way of trying to force myself
to acknowledge this thing that has happened.
That's still difficult for me to acknowledge.
The people close to me, I think understand.
I think, you also learn while grieving.
You learn about love you.
You learn about the people who love you.
And sometimes you're surprised
that the people who you think love you, maybe not,
and the people who you don't know care about you
actually really do.
It's also been a very clarifying period for me.
And so the people close to me kind of gets it,
and I think reading the book,
I had a few friends who sent me messages to say,
"oh, I'm so sorry,
"I know I'm guilty of saying this thing
"that you called out."
And that made me feel bad,
because it wasn't about calling out,
because I just want it to be true
about what I was feeling.
And so I will then write back and say,
no, I know you meant well.
It annoyed me, it absent me,
but it's not really a personal,
it's not like an indictment of the person.
If anything, it's an indictment of this larger way
that we deal with grief and death
and mourning in our culture.
- It didn't feel like a call-out,
it felt like you were being honest and maybe articulating
what other people feel,
I had found on my own that it's just good to say,
I'm sorry for your loss.
And also give room for silence
and not telling people it's going to be okay.
- Yeah.
- And I think that it's uncomfortable
for the other person to watch someone grieve
because the instinct is to fix,
instead of letting the person cry, vent,
sitting there in silence.
- I really love that about the silence,
giving room for silence.
I think it's so true, but it's also,
in some ways, like you said,
it's, I think silence can be very uncomfortable.
So I get that people want to fill up that silence.
But sometimes, I just want to hear I'm sorry,
and I just, and that's fine,
that's because nothing can fix this.
- Did you find that you started writing,
so you wouldn't forget memories of your father?
And I'm curious about the timing of the book
because it was published pretty quickly.
- I started writing it really,
I think maybe days, I'm not even sure how accurate I am
because the whole period is just a blur now.
I mean, I kind of remember very clearly
hearing that my father had died.
My brother saying that he's gone.
And I really don't remember much else.
I think maybe days after, I really just, it's all a blur,
but I think I started in maybe like,
I don't know a week maybe, two weeks, after my father died.
And it was really, I wrote,
I started writing because that's what I do.
Because I always turn to writing to make sense of things.
And so I think it just seemed really natural
that I would start writing.
But I think sort of the decision to publish
was something I made a bit later in the process,
because I think when I started writing it,
I was thinking, maybe I'll send it
to my brothers and my sisters,
because obviously it's something that's shared.
But at some point I thought,
I actually want this to be published.
And I think that's where this idea of wanting to,
it's like memorializing my father,
just refusing to let go.
And also just wanting to tell the world,
I wanted to tell the world that I had been so blessed
to have been raised by this just lovely, decent man.
- How is death treated in Nigeria?
And I also wonder if people have that same uncomfortability
that we're talking about,
are there any cultural differences
between the U.S and Nigeria?
- Yeah, I mean, certainly, I think in the U.S,
I think there's more discomfort about death, right?
I think, and in some ways it's that interesting thing
about American culture that I sometimes wonder
if it's also linked to that kind of youth worship.
In the American culture is so geared
towards the youthfulness and youth and the young,
and I'm sure you can tell from my tone,
it's not something I necessarily admire.
And in like, well, I should talk about Igbo culture
because obviously Nigeria.
So Igbo culture, which is mine,
age is revered, age is still,
even though obviously everyone's become westernized
and everyone, but I think age is still revered.
And so because of that,
I don't think there's as much for discomfort
with just acknowledging death
as the reason the U.S.
And I think both can be,
I mean, I had trouble with both well,
especially in the early months after my father died,
because I sometimes feel that Nigerian friends or relatives
or even acquaintances could be a bit too,
maybe a bit too much of a fact.
I had a huge fight with a friend of families
who no, actually, no, it wasn't my dad, it was my mom,
who a few days after my mother died
and I was just completely broken,
I just would not see anyone,
just, and he sends me a message to say,
important people are coming to your house,
you must come out and see them.
And I remember thinking, my mother just died,
I do not have to do anything,
but that to me is a very Nigerian and this guy meant well,
so his point was, you have the important,
government dignitaries coming, you must come out,
because that's a proper thing to do.
And it's that kind of in Nigeria
when your mother is gone,
it's happened, so you might as well come out and be a host,
which I just did not get from American friends
who were sending good wishes,
I think, but also I felt that American friends
were often more tentative.
And so even that sometimes made me think,
just say my mother died,
don't say, I mean, this kind of resulting to euphemism
and not saying it directly, yeah.
- What's the response you've gotten from other readers,
people who aren't in your family or acquaintance circle?
- I should be very moved
because honestly, one of the things I hope
that this book would do
would be to help other people grieving.
Because I found it very comforting to read
other people's honest accounts of grief.
And I took a lot of, I don't know, strains from them.
I went through a period
of just wanting to read everything about grief
and then went through a period of not wanting to read
one word about death or grief.
And when I was reading about grief, I found that the more,
just really honest stark accounts, just really comforted me
I just, I felt I'm not alone.
And I think that's the most comfort one can get.
So I've actually been really happy to hear
from people who've said that it helped them
and actually a friend of a friend,
so someone I don't knows, sent a message through my friend
to say that she lost her parents years ago,
but reading this book suddenly gave her language
to articulate how she had felt,
and she hadn't been able to do that.
And I was very moved by that.
- It probably gave people, a lot of people permission
that maybe they didn't think that they had,
I have a five-year-old daughter also.
And do you feel like the industry
or other outsiders have changed their view of you
now that you're a mother,
changed their view of you as a writer?
In terms of expectations,
or I'm almost reluctant to ask this question
because it gets so gendered with mothers
in talking about motherhood and their careers and writing,
but if there's been any shift
in how you have been perceived or treated.
- I think that's a really interesting question.
I feel like these are things we should talk about, Moore,
because mother who does affect women's lives
and I don't see where we should protect.
And obviously I also understand
what the potential drawbacks are
because it's kind of it's,
this is the thing that often is used to hold women back
when they want to work outside the home.
And then, so sometimes one wants to just ignore it
so that it doesn't become a bigger problem than it is.
But my view is that,
motherhood just profoundly changes you forever.
And how can you not change everything else?
I think when I got, I remember when I got pregnant
and actually before I got pregnant,
I wasn't sure that, I've always loved children,
I've always loved other people's children.
So, I'm very much, I'm such an auntie,
like I'm completing the business
of all my nephews and nieces.
But I remember thinking that
my writing was so important to me that I wasn't sure
that I could be the kind of mother that I wanted to be.
And so that maybe I really had no business having children.
That's what I used to think.
Obviously now with my daughter,
I cannot imagine life without her.
But I also realized that things have changed,
it's not just about the expectations and needs,
it's also about my own,
things have changed for me internally.
I feel as like I lost two years of brain ability
from pregnancy and I was just woozy
the whole time I was pregnant.
I felt like I couldn't think straight.
I have the baby and breastfeeding,
everything was just very woozy and just,
I just couldn't create, right?
And it was such a hard time for me
because I think I had convinced myself
that, of course, yes, you can do it all,
you have the baby,
and the next minute you're finishing the next novel,
and it just wasn't happening.
And I realized as well that the physicality of pregnancy
had affected my creative output, it really had.
So, it's the pregnancy, it's the early months
when everything is new and strange,
like my gosh, it's not latching on,
and then I'm reading all of these books about pregnant,
about mother who had been like,
if you don't breastfeed, you'll be a terrible mother.
And so it was such a difficult time for me.
And it's also one of the reasons
that I want to talk more about what,
the ways in which women's bodies and what women's bodies do
affect women's lives.
And I also remember a man who is a writer saying to me,
"Don't you feel bad that, how,"
and it was sort of like,
"Oh, how terrible your pregnancy is,
"sort of stealing writing time
"and creative time away from you."
And it's not as if what he said was false,
but somehow I just did not take it well.
And I said, maybe it has, because one has to be honest,
but at the same time, pregnancy and childbirth
has opened me up to so many emotions.
So many, there's a new ability to understand human gains
that actually, I feel really lucky and blessed to have.
And that in fact, in the end,
I think we end with creativity.
So, it was sort of my way of saying,
well, yeah, so I lost two years, so you can't get pregnant,
but guess what?
My pregnancy gave me material, thank you very much.
(Chimamanda laughs)
But I also think, I mean, I don't know about,
I mean, I think my publishers are still sort of,
I don't know that much change with that,
I think, I'm just, I've become a very slow writer.
I find it frustrating.
I'm not sure how much of that
I can still attribute to my child.
I think I'm just slower now, I just am,
but I can say sure that the physicality of having a child,
it's not even about other people's expectations,
it's about what it did for me internally
and make creative space, and that was significant.
- During the pandemic,
my husband would create these little Ted Talk sessions
with our teenage daughters.
And one of them was on you.
- Really? - Yeah.
I'm not a part of it, that's their thing,
which I think is great in talking about feminism.
And where do you, there's a certain commodification
that I think is happening with feminism right now,
although it's also being more widely embraced,
what do you make of where feminism as an ideology
and its popularity stands right now?
- I feel it's, and I hear you about both.
I think it's not quite,
I mean, there is of course a kind of,
I guess the cool elements to an extent
so that if you're a famous celebrity,
it's kind of cool I think,
to maybe wear T-shirt that says feminist.
But I sometimes, I do think that we may be,
that we over emphasis,
I think we give it more power than it deserves.
I guess my point is that there's still in the real world,
an incredible amount of resistance
and backlash to the idea of feminism,
just fundamentally the idea
that women are equal human beings, there's still a lot.
I know, for example, how,
when I put on quote came-out as feminist,
my perception, particularly in Nigeria changed.
So I had been this writer who, we love her books
and she's, and then the minute
I start talking about feminism,
I become what they call controversial.
And really when you sit back and think about it,
I'm thinking the only thing that changed
is that I gave a Ted Talk saying
that we should all be feminists.
And suddenly everything,
in some ways I'm now covered as this controversial figure.
And so I like to joke and say that if I take a sip of water,
somebody in the Nigerian press will say,
"She'd sip water like a feminist."
And then lots of people will be like,
feminists are terrible, they want to kill men,
they, and I've been accused of things
like destroying marriages,
because they say young girls listen to her,
and then they don't want to get married.
And I've been at the airport where parents come to me
and say, "My daughter loves you
"and I'm very worried about that,
"'cause I'm worried that she'll never get married."
I mean, it's--
- Well, like, what do you say when someone comes up to you
and says something like that?
- Oh, I actually, usually, if I'm in a good mood,
I'm already happy to engage.
Because there's a part of me
that just, I want to convince people.
So I'll say, no, I think you've misunderstood.
And I'll say, well, why do you think she can't get married?
And then I'll say things like,
let me tell you what feminism means.
Do you want your daughter to have access to education?
Do you want your daughter's clutches
to be cut off forceful and disgustingly
in the name of FGM?
Do you want her to have a choice
to leave a marriage that's bad?
Do you want her to have access to a job
that she deserves and she's qualified for?
Do you want her boss to grab her breast
when she walks into his office?
I mean, I sort of list things.
Do you want her to be greeted
when she walks into a restaurant with a man?
Do you want her to be allowed
to walk into a restaurant alone?
Because actually in this country, in Legos,
which is so cosmopolitan, there're parts of Legos,
where you still cannot walk into a bar,
if you don't have a man with you.
And so, I say things like that,
and suddenly they're like, well, yes, but it's just that,
and often they create a boogeyman,
they say, but you know that all these other feminists
that say that we should, that men should be killed.
And I'm thinking, no, nobody actually says that.
And even if somebody did,
feminism seems to be the only sort of justice movement,
which is what I like to call it,
where we pick up a few extremes
and we then try to pretend that they represent the whole.
So that happened actually quit a bit.
And then, I meet young women who say things to me
like, oh, I went out on a date
and then I have an opinion that's stronger
and then the guy says to me,
you must be follow of Chimamanda.
And that was the end of the date, it's so...
(Chimamanda laughs)
Oh, it's actually,
and then I meet people and people are like,
oh, I'm surprised, I'm so surprised that you are nice.
I'm like why wouldn't?
And they're like, because you're a feminist.
So there's just so much.
And I find that, and sometimes it's exhausting.
But then on the other hand, I keep thinking to myself,
if it's making a difference
for one young woman in this country,
I'm going to keep talking about it.
And I feel as though they're young women now in this country
who have language and who have more confidence
and who most of all know that they're not alone.
I was actually talking to a woman in Germany,
she's Nigerian, and she said to me,
she grew up in a very traditional household.
She said her father had dinner.
They would have conversations,
her father would ask her first brother,
do you have anything to say?
Second brother, do you have anything to say?
Conversation is over.
And they're three sisters, they just did not matter.
And she says that at the time, she knew something was wrong,
but she did not know the name for it.
And she says, "So I listened to your Ted Talk,
"and I was like, oh, so that's what it is.
"That's your name for all of the issues I have with my dad."
And just hearing that,
which she just told me about a week ago,
just, I felt so, I don't know,
it's that thing where you think, my life's work, right?
I'm like, this young woman suddenly doesn't feel as alone
because suddenly she's like,
oh, this thing actually has validity
in this feelings that I have,
these objections that I have to my being reduced
because I'm a girl.
So yeah, I mean, yeah, I think I've rambled for a bit--
- Yeah, so this is another example of giving permission.
- Yes, and that makes me so happy.
She really, I mean, just hearing her say that,
just made me so happy.
- This year, you also published a lengthy essay
on your website about the riff between you
and two other Nigerian writers
and accusations that you're anti-trans,
oppressing queer people.
What has been the fallout since that essay was published?
And where do things stand?
- Oh, the fallout, I guess the fallout,
I guess the fallout, I mean,
I should say that one of the things that's good,
but I think for me at least, is that I don't criticize,
I'm not on social media, I'm not on Twitter,
and it's a decision I made years ago
because I just don't think it would work for me,
because I'm not a person who...
Because yeah, I mean, it just wouldn't work for me.
So I think because of that, I don't, I cannot,
I mean, I know obviously that
it was widely read, widely discussed,
there're people for, there're people against,
and you know honestly, I have absolutely no regrets.
I would completely write that again today.
And it's because, and I should also say
that I think it's a consequence of grieving.
That I suddenly just that I do not have time
for rubbish anymore,
just my patience for nonsense is gone.
And I just feel like that the things that are wrong,
that one should be able to call-out as wrong.
And there's something, there's a larger problem, I think,
that I feel very strongly about,
which is, I think that there's a thing
that's happening on the left in the U.S,
and I think it's being transferred, it's being,
kind of in the way that America sort of exports everything
and the rest of the world, just greedily imports everything
that even this discourse is not being exported
to Europe, to Africa,
where this is also toxic of language,
you have to say something in particular
when you cannot question,
and particularly if you're a woman.
And so I'm a person who I've always asked questions,
that's the person that I am.
And if I don't get answers that make sense to me,
I will not accept it.
And so the problem really is,
and in some ways it was hurtful
because in Nigeria, I'm actually often accused
of, as the parent and other parents of a young person said,
"You're responsible for encouraging gay people,
"that is why so many young people
"are coming out as gay in this country
"cause you're encouraging them."
To which I said,
that's something that I will wear with pride.
The point being, I'm known,
and I, and it's something that I'm very proud of,
to speak out for gay Nigerian citizens.
This is a country where it's actually illegal to be gay.
And so somehow to,
because I have rejected a second language
about transgender ideology
and I continue to reject that language.
I just feel like, one cannot then say to me
that I am anti-LGBTQI people?
Because I'm not.
but I'm just not going to use language
that doesn't make sense to me, and I feel--
- And what language are you rejecting?
- I'm rejecting the language,
so if I see that I think that there's a difference
between trans-women and women that are born female,
and I'm told that you cannot see that,
I just find it absurd.
Why do we have to deny difference
in the name of inclusiveness?
Actually the whole point of inclusiveness is difference.
And part of the reason that I reject that,
is it just makes me think, it's like saying I'm color blind.
I just feel like it makes no sense.
And it makes it difficult to talk about the particular needs
of each group.
The health needs of trans-women
are fairly different from the health needs of women
who are born female.
So if we're going to pretend that there's no difference,
how do we talk about that?
I mean, just, okay, I think it was sort of new to me too.
So anyway, the question was what's the fallout.
I don't, I mean, the fallout is that there are people who,
there's a woman who was supposed to interview me
and then she says,
"Oh no, the magazine council,
"because they see you're anti-trans."
And I was just like, that's fine.
The fallout is that I'm giving a talk in South Africa,
and then I hear that the people
are being very insulting online
and saying they'll boycott it, and that's also fine.
I mean, I really think that,
I don't need to be listened to by everyone, right?
I don't, and we don't have to agree.
And I just feel like that there's something lucky
and it's not even compassion.
There's a kind of good faith lacking.
I just find it so, I mean,
to be told that I am killing trans-women.
I mean, I just find, it's just ridiculous.
And I kind of think that,
I sometimes think that there are a lot of people
who could speak out who are not speaking out.
And so there's a culture of fear,
and I think it's so unhealthy for everything.
And it's often people who are on the same side,
so this is actually my tribe,
but then it's the people who are supposed to be with you,
who are your tribe, that turn around
and just make very easy targets of you.
I mean, the end, actually leave the people
who I in fact, the actual trans-phobic people,
nobody talks about that.
But instead it's women who are feminists,
who actually are all for inclusivity and difference
and who then turned out to be the monsters,
and I just think,
I think there's a lot of misogyny there as well.
- You're pretty critical of celebrity culture.
And no, okay. - I don't.
I don't think, I mean,
I guess it depends on what that means though.
- Well maybe the way social media plays with it?
I could be wrong, so I can take--
- I actually think a lot about celebs.
I mean, it's really not a thing that I spent.
I mean, I think it's being,
I think celebrity culture is part of,
is not something I really pay a lot of attention.
That's it, to be honest.
- You said you made a decision not to be on Twitter
because it's not for you.
- Yeah.
- What's your relationship with other,
do you have relationship with other social media platforms?
- I have Instagram,
which I like because I think it appeals to vanity
and I have a very healthy day inside.
Actually the reason I started doing Instagram
and also Facebook, but I don't really do it myself,
it's not all the time.
But it's also because I realized
that if you do not tell,
to a certain extent social media is here to stay,
it's, this is it, right?
This is our reality.
And there's a sense
in which if you completely remove yourself from it,
what you're doing is you're opening the door
for other people to tell your story.
So kind of participating in Facebook and Instagram,
putting up things that I'm doing,
I just kind of, I think it's a way of,
yeah, telling my own story.
So, yes, that I do,
but I think Twitter is a different platform.
- So do you feel like you have more control
over messaging in Instagram,
or maybe it's just not the same kind of feedback
that you might get it on Twitter?
- Yeah, I think Twitter has,
there's a lot more performativity,
there's a lot more,
you're supposed to be having conversations
in this very short snippets of words
and it's invariably going to be about people
kind of trying to one-up one another.
And it just, I don't see how necessarily
one can tell one story through that medium,
in a way that sort of really,
it's not about, so Facebook and Instagram,
and putting up things that I'm doing, right?
So you kind of see what I'm doing from my own point of view.
So in a way, it's just really
the ability to tell one's own story.
I don't want to be on Twitter because I don't want to tweet.
(Chimamanda laughs)
- What are you doing for joy?
- Family and friends,
and also really learning to let myself feel what I'm feeling
and in a strange way,
it might not often actually results in tears,
but I think ultimately it's a joyful thing.
And it's still hard for me because, yeah.
So yeah, so family, friends,
learning to just let myself feel what I'm feeling.
- What stories or writers are you reading right now
or who is exciting you?
- What am I reading now?
I'm reading lots of things.
I'm re-reading a lot of Holy Shrinker
because I'm writing a piece about him, his recent book.
Trying to, see every time
I'm asked what I'm reading I forget.
Well, here we have "Collected Poems of Audre Lorde"
- Audre Lorde.
- Yes, and, this I just started reading,
it's a history book about Nigeria,
then I'm reading showing translators book again.
But really what you think about,
I'm reading because I'm trying to write fiction,
I'm reading a lot of poetry.
I read a lot of poetry when I'm writing fiction,
because I don't like to read fiction
when I'm writing fiction,
because I'm terrified that I will start
to sound like whoever I'm write, or reading,
especially if I like who I'm reading.
So I'm just reading a lot of poetry,
just actually reading this book by me like Alexander
called "Birthplace with Various Stones."
Also reading this essay collection,
that's edited the Tracy K. Smith and John Freeman.
That's called as a "Revolution outside my Love."
It's just a bunch of essays that are actually quite good.
So I just, I think in general, I just,
I read too many things at the same time
and this period
that's being just emotionally difficult for me
there're times when it's hard for me to escape in the book,
because, so then I just find myself reading.
I read a bit of this, I read a bit of that.
I'm just switching things off like him, so that's happened,
that's actually been happening much more since last June,
and it's not necessarily a good thing.
- Can you tell us anything about the novel
you're working on?
- No.
- Okay, when will it possibly be out?
And I think there's no writer,
so you may not have a date.
(Chimamanda laughs)
- No, I cannot, I mean, I'm so superstitious,
and was talking about being a slow writer,
I really am, it frustrates me to no end
and so even talking about process
can sometimes make me very panicky
because I'm thinking,
all right, you're talking about the process, are you okay?
That means you're not going to be able to write
for the next week.
Nothing will work, so then I get very superstitious
and then I missed when I was younger
when I was just so, I mean, it was just sort of,
I just couldn't wait to have free times
so that I could write.
And now, now I have all this freedom, I'm sitting here,
my bloody study and just nothing has happened,
and it's just the most...
- What is your writing process?
Is it silence, solitude, music?
- No, no, it's certainly silence.
Not music, when I'm writing music is noise to me.
I need silence, I need solitude also space.
So it's being alone in the house.
Just feed something in me.
And even if everyone is quiet, I still know I'm not alone
and that gets in the way.
So not only do I need the solitude I also just need,
and I just need to know that there're empty rooms around me
and that nobody is in them.
But I don't really have like a, I don't have a set time,
I wake up by eight and I'm at my desk
and I wish I did, but I don't.
So I'm just kind of walking when I can, when it happens.
And then when it's not happening
I'm reading hoping that wards will come to me.
- I teach creative non-fiction to MFA students
at Northwestern and class starts next week.
And like I did last year,
the first day of class,
I also share a Ted Talk from you about the singular story.
Do you think there've been improvements
since you released that Ted Talk?
- I think so, a little bit, yeah, I think so.
I'm also generally, I guess I'd like to be,
yeah, I think there's a greater awareness
that this idea of that you cannot judge a person
by one story that we all, most people,
and a place as well.
And also, I think there's a bit more of an awareness
in media about power
and how power really affects storytelling,
especially of places,
that if you're a journalist from New York
and you swoop into Legos
and write a piece about Nigeria,
Nigerian cannot swoop into New York
and it's just that the part is a part difference.
I think there's a bit more of an awareness of that,
but obviously there's so much more that can be done.
I think, and I think even in television,
which can be very guilty of a single story of coverage.
I feel as though there's just a bit more of an awareness,
I think so.
I feel like I'm certain, so?
- No, what were you gonna say?
- No, I was going to be kind of silly and say that,
I think maybe there's this a little bit of an improvement
with me and my single stories of people and places.
- Well, it's been wonderful to talk to you,
thank you so much for your time and sharing your stories
and your journey with us.
- Thank you, it was really lovely.