Wole Soyinka

2008/2009 Literature Mentor

Interview with Wole Soyinka

How and why did you choose Tara, among the four finalists?

First, I liked her book, Swallow the Air, immensely. It was fresh, yet revealed a sure hand, observant eye and empathy in the depiction of characters. Then she has one unfair advantage – with me, that is – of being a single mother. It struck me that she needed the break more than the others. Unfair to the others, I admit, and even irrational, but in the end, such choices are irrational.

You have been a mentor to many younger writers. Has this particular mentorship been different from the others?

Oh, yes, of course, very different. It’s not every day I allow a student to invade my space for an extended period, and with a lively daughter to boot! Additionally, I also had to think out some kind of personalized work structure, even of the loosest kind. In the end, we never even followed it!

You’ve talked about Tara’s submission of a piece of writing, her second novel, as a big step in arriving at a working relationship with her.

Ah, when you actually trap a mind at work on a creative metaphor, twisting it around, seeking variations on it, even getting bogged down with it, then you feel that teacher “rush”. This novel has not taken on a definitive shape to merit commentary, but that’s part of my own temperament – I can’t comment on work-in-progress.

In concrete terms, in terms of the technicalities and actualities of writing, how do you work with her? Do you criticize specifics or help her articulate what she wants to say?

The latter definitely. I don’t bother myself very much about spelling, even my arrogant computer tries to correct my spelling from time to time. No, it’s the latter, it’s trying to draw out from her first of all what she wants to do, the way she views her subject, and then opening oneself to possibilities of suggesting ways of achieving this, preferably more than one. That’s the first task, the first hurdle, to be able to assure her yes, that’s a valid theme.