I got acquainted with Chika Unigwe when I met her as my thesis advisor at Georgia College, where she teaches Creative Writing. That meeting prompted me to read her books, such as Better Never than Late, a collection of stories, and The Middle Daughter, a novel. Both works deeply influenced me, particularly in the way she weaves her narratives. Her lucid prose showed me how writing, using short sentences, can effectively and evocatively tell a powerful story in an engaging manner.
Most of her works reflect on mother-daughter relationships, sisterhood, race and patriarchy, cross-cultural identity, poverty, and feminism. As an academic, researcher, and writer from Nepal with a deep interest in marginalized narratives, I was drawn to her stories, which ultimately prompted me to reach out to Chika for this interview.
A Nigerian writer, Unigwe’s fiction explores themes of migration, identity, and the complexities of womanhood in African and European societies. She is the author of On Black Sisters’ Street, which won the 2012 Nigeria Prize for Literature, and The Middle Daughter (2023), a reimagining of the myth of Hades and Persephone set in contemporary Nigeria. The book was also nominated for the Townsend Prize. She holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Leiden and currently teaches Creative Writing at Georgia College.
In this interview, I have attempted to explore who Chika Unigwe is beyond being a writer—her writing process, how her work engages with cultural identity and marginalized voices, her sources of inspiration, her craft, and her message for aspiring writers
TA: How would you see yourself— a fiction writer, a feminist, a professor of Fine Arts…? Who are you besides being one of them?
CU: Who am I? I am all of those things, all at once, but also a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a catholic. I navigate the world as all of these things, and they all influence my writing.
TA: How closely do characters interact with you as a writer? How does your upbringing or background inform your writing? Can you please elaborate on that?
CU: My characters tend to surprise me, and I like that. I give them freewill , I allow them to use me as a conduit , but I am also aware that that freewill they have, and the decisions they take, and the consequences of their actions are influenced by my own experiences, beliefs, upbringing.
TA: How challenging or adventurous is it to include or exclude yourself in writing?
CU: I have written characters vastly different from me. I actually can’t recall writing a character who’s very much like me. I live with me everyday, it’d be boring to write versions of myself. Where’s the fun in that? I can’t even recall a character who talks like me.
TA: The book On Black Sisters’ Street was originally written in Dutch and translated in English later, what was the process? Didn’t it put you in the situation of in betweenness? How would you handle that?
CU: It was written in English, but published first in Dutch. I can’t translate my own books, because translation is its own skillset, and I don’t have that. It’s not just transcribing words, it’s approximating the world of the novel in a new language/culture. I write differently when I write in Dutch than I do when I write in English.
TA: Jessica Gelt in her review published in the Los Angles Times writes, “On Black Sisters Street” is not an uplifting book; instead, it mirrors life itself, where bad things happen to good people… Is this a story of female empowerment or about how the factors forced women into prostitution? Do you have any rebuttal to Gelt?
CU: I have never read that review. I tend not to read reviews of my novels because whatever it says, good or bad, the novel is already out. I think she’s right. It does mirror life, we don’t always get what we think we deserve, good people suffer, bad people get away with evil. A book can mirror life, be about female empowerment, and also about how women are pushed into situations they ‘d rather not be in. There’s an Igbo proverb that says that emergencies test the strength of a warrior, but it is in emergencies that true strength is revealed. In other words, it’s not the fact that the women of OBSS are forced into prostitution— that is the point of the book, it is how they deal with it. Having read it, do you think they act as victims? Or do you think that they rise above victimhood?
TA: There are different kinds of feminism emerging; for example, some claim the burka is empowering while others rail against it. There is a question of Feminism, with a small “f” or big “F.” How does this resonate with you? What is the meaning of feminism to you?
CU: Feminism means only one thing: women having the same rights as men. That means that they are able to choose.
TA: In your novel The Middle Daughter you have retold the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone with some alterations. What drew you to this myth? Don’t you think the use of myths complicate writing?
CU: I have reimagined it in a cultural space and time that matter to me. What drew me to it? The myth of Hades and Persephone has versions where Persephone’s tricked into eating the
pomegranate seeds that keep her bound to Hades, and versions where she eats the seeds
willingly out of love for her abductor (Stockholm syndrome?), but I wanted one where she never accepts that her marriage is a sham, and refers to what happened to her as rape. Why would myths complicate writing? All the stuff that Greek myths are made of: desire, revenge, oppression, lust for power, love are things that humans—since the beginning of time— have grappled with. There’s nothing new under the sun. Life doesn’t complicate writing.
TA: In your writing and descriptions, Nigerian food, culture is enriching. However, as a writer you have been living in different places, how do you balance the overlapping of food and culture in your writing?
CU: I write about things that my characters experience, live, are interested in. These characters are living beings to me, so everything I use to build up their lives – food, culture , hobbies – is intentional. A character who lives in Enugu, Nigeria for example has different experiences and points of reference than a character who lives in Turnhout, Belgium. The latter might suffer home sickness, but the former is probably home and has other yearnings . When I set my Nigerian characters in places, I’ve lived other than Nigeria, their stories often touch on belonging and identity, which makes sense. SO, there’s no balancing, it just is.
TA: Many critics and researchers tend to see a body in pain when it comes to the writing of African women writers. Why do you see a body in pain as such a central issue in your writing?
CU: All those many critics and writers should read more. And read with an open mind. We write about joy. About love. About everything that life is about – just like writers from other parts of the world. A novel is never about just one thing. Even the slave narratives are often also stories of resilience and strength.
TA: You are a third generation of Nigerian writers along with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who emphasizes the danger of a single story. Returning to the same themes in many of your works, don’t you think you are prone to focusing on a single story?
CU: Many writers write out of a sense of being haunted by something, and often that thing has many facets that doesn’t get explored in any one book, or the novel gets over bloated. I am haunted by stories of people who live at the margins, but there are different types of people who live at the margins, countless ways to inhabit the margins, and countless lives in the margins. No matter how many novels or stories I write, I could never exhaust the stories, so there’s no danger of telling a single story.
TA: When you write, do you start out with a destination in mind, or do you just write to see where the writing takes you? What do you hope your readers take away from your writing?
CU: I begin and I write to see where characters take me. I hope readers get to the end of my novel or story and feel like it’s been worth the time they invested in reading it.
TA: Which writers have inspired you?
CU: Too many. I was lucky to discover Achebe, Emecheta and Nwapa relatively early in life.
TA: What top three insights would you like to share regarding the writing process?
CU: Nothing happens unless you actually start writing, allow your characters room to breathe and exist, don’t be precious about your writing.
TA: How would you summarize your literary view/journey from Nigeria to Belgium to America?
CU: I have written, I write, I will continue to write.
TA: What final words of wisdom do you have for aspiring writers?
CU: Read. Write. Edit. Edit again.
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Chika Unigwe is a Nigerian writer whose works, mostly fiction, explore themes of migration, identity, and the complexities of womanhood in African and European societies. She is the author of On Black Sisters’ Street, which won the 2012 Nigeria Prize for Literature, and The Middle Daughter (2023), a reimagining of the myth of Hades and Persephone set in contemporary Nigeria. The book was also nominated for the Townsend Prize. Unigwe holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Leiden and currently teaches creative writing at Georgia College. She is also a frequent contributor to global literary conversations on feminism and diaspora. Twitter/X: @chikaunigwe. Instagram: @chikaunigweauthor
Dr. Tulasi Acharya is a Nepali-English writer, academic, and researcher whose work spans both creative and scholarly realms. He is the author of the novel Running from the Dreamland and Sex, Desire, and Taboo in South Asia. Acharya holds a PhD and MFA and teaches English at South Georgia State College. and Nepal. His writing reflects themes of migration, identity, and socio-cultural issues, and he is particularly passionate about exploring marginalized voices in global contexts, gender, and sexuality. Like Water on Leaves of Taro is his most recent memoir. Website: https://tulasiacharya.com. Twitter/X: @tulsirames
