Meet Esohe Iyare of African Writer Weekly
we talk about African literature, rejection, writer resources & more
This is an interview with
, the founder of African Writer Weekly – a weekly newsletter that curates and shares opportunities for African writers and is published every Wednesday by 5:00 pm (WAT). I and Esohe had this conversation via an audio call on Friday, 4 April, 2025. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Who are you? What do you spend your time doing? What are you drawn to? Can you tell us as much about yourself as you'd like us to know?
My name is Esohe Iyare and I am a writer and researcher. I'm very interested in digital culture, women's experiences, and also culture and society in general – which is what I love to write about. I'm drawn a lot to stories that hide in plain sight. So I always say this thing that pop culture reveals to us the ideas that are hidden between the lines of our everyday lives. So all those ideas and narratives push public life, and when something happens, you have to criticise those. You have to dig to find what the central idea is, and then criticise it. So, yeah, that is me.
Can you share your favourite African book with us?
Ouuu, this is such a good question because I have a new favourite book and I'm going to pick it from my shelf right now so I can hold it while I'm talking about it. My new favourite African book is Everything Good Will Come by Seffi Atta. I just read it for the first time this year, which is strange because this book is like, years old, and this is my first work of Seffi Atta that I'm reading. I love this book so much because it is like a thesis on the Nigerian experience, the Nigerian woman's experience. Everything in this book is so Nigerian.
For my undergraduate project, an idea I explored was Nigerianness as an emerging identity. One of the theories I used was the theory of ‘banal nationalism’. Banal nationalism are different things of common experience that are hidden in our lives, or are present in our lives – so present that we ignore them. And this book contains so much of that. At first, I didn’t even know the author was Nigerian. I thought she was Ghanaian. But I read this book and I was just like: this person is so Nigerian. This is an aware Nigerian, because everything, the setting, the language, the characters, everything was so authentically Nigerian. I love this book, and I've been recommending it like crazy. She did a good job. I'm not even surprised that this thing won an award.
Do you have a favourite African author you want to share?
Oh, let me see. I do like Chimamanda Adichie, which is kind of like the most popular person to like. I like her because she was the first person that made literature feel close for me, like sort of feel near. All the Nigerian books I had been reading were set in colonial or pre-colonial times. But then Purple Hibiscus was set in Nsukka. I grew up in Abakaliki, but Nsukka was where my sister’s school was. I always went to Nsukka. So it made it real for me and I saw that literature could also be about real experiences that you could see yourself in. So I like Chimamanda Adichie and I like, what's his name now? Leye Adenle, the author of The Beautiful Side of the Moon. I think he is a fantastic writer. So those are the two people I like so far. But I also like Chimeka Garricks, even though I have only read one short story by him, but I am just about to read Tomorrow Died Yesterday, which is literally on my bedside table.
What inspired you to start African Writer Weekly? What did you hope to achieve with it?
Okay, so the story is rather selfish, I must say. I used to work in Marketing and Communications but I didn't find it fulfilling, either personally or financially. So I decided that I needed a change. I quit my job and said, okay, let me go back to the things that I really want to write, because, at the end of the day, all I really want to be is an author, an academic and an artist. So let me pick one and focus.
I decided to see if I could enter the Nigerian literary scene as an editor. But then I didn't know a lot about what was happening. And I didn't know how I could start putting my work out there. Then from time to time, I would just randomly find opportunities with deadlines that had passed and I'd just be like, oh my goodness, if I knew, I would have worked on this. So to stop giving myself an excuse that I don't know where opportunities are and I don't know what to pursue, I decided to start compiling a list every week for myself of opportunities for writers like me that I could find. Places I could pitch my work to and get my writing out there. Then while I started doing that, I realised that there are probably other people like me who want to start, but they don't know where to start. So I thought it'd be good if I share the list and then if people were interested, it could be a way of keeping myself accountable like, oh, I have to actually gather these things because it's not just me. I can't slack now, because people are looking forward to it.
I think the first list I made was like five things that people could apply to. And I just kept doing it. And it's so crazy to me when I realise how many people are subscribing, cause I’m like what are all of you doing here? I just crossed a thousand subscribers last month and I was like, this is so freaking crazy. But it just started as a way for me to stop giving myself excuses and start putting my work out there.
What you do seems like a lot of work. How do you find and then curate these opportunities? Are there specific things you look out for?
Yeah, it is a lot of work, but I would say it is the work I love the most, even though it's the one that doesn't pay me. I wish somebody could start paying me. Like, I wish this was my only job, to just be compiling lists. I'll be so glad.
The way I started finding things was that I set up multiple Google alerts for writing fellowships, contests for African writers, and similar things. I set up about twenty different Google alerts and I started checking different magazines that I wanted my work in even though, spoiler alert, my work hasn't gotten there yet, but still. I started following magazine newsletters to see when they released a call for submissions. And something that helped was searching on Twitter and Instagram. Once I started, my algorithm started bringing me more of the things I was looking for. I'm also on this group called the ‘Emecheta Collective’ that has about 1000 women, I would say mostly Nigerian women. A lot of them are writers so they share opportunities they find and when I see something, I add it to my newsletter. I also created a spreadsheet of different literary magazines and when they are open for submissions. Then some people made great lists. Sprinng has a list of publications writers can submit to and I also checked those as well. Now, it's mostly the algorithm that brings interesting stuff to me and I check out websites too.
Yeah, that seems like a lot of work, but you enjoy it so good for you. So one reason I was really excited to find your newsletter was that I quit social media. I don't have Twitter or Instagram. It's been a couple of years now, so that means I couldn't get access to all the opportunities posted on these sites. But then, your newsletter is handing it to me like, ‘Here it is. I've curated it for you.’
That is so good for me to hear because I tried to start an Instagram for it, but then, it was just a lot more work. Then I thought about it and decided it doesn't necessarily need social media pages. One platform is enough. Just get it by email. Is it the same people I want to follow us on Substack and then follow us on Instagram? It's just too much. I don't like overstimulation. So, just know that it is one place, it comes on Wednesdays at 5 pm, go and check, after that, live your life.
What are some challenges you’ve faced with the newsletter so far?
Well, of course, there's the general Nigerian challenge. I have to work extra hard and go out of my way to make sure the newsletter goes out by 5 pm because I have to actually send it manually at 5 pm. I do this because there was one time I had scheduled it and it had come later or earlier, and I did not understand what was wrong with Substack’s scheduling. So now I always have to manually send it at 5 pm. But then sometimes there is no electricity, because, I mean, Nigeria. So I have to pack my load and go to, like, a library nearby and make sure that my laptop is charged. I remember early in March when I had an emergency and of course, my laptop had gone to zero because I was running up and down. I had to use my tab to send it and it was funny because I had to give my friend the tab, and I told him, ‘Once it is five o'clock, hit this button,’ and then I went to sort out my stuff. So yeah, that's definitely a big challenge.
Then, some months are dry. Some months I don't see a lot of things out there, I’m just like, where is the stuff going on? Who is accepting, oh? And then sometimes, because I've sent a lot of unpaid opportunities or opportunities I don’t know if they have any financial compensation, I want to do something that is all paid gigs so that even if you are not in a financial place that is hard right now, you can still get money for your work. But then it's so difficult to find people giving financial compensation. Or when you find something that is really great, you see that, oh, there's an entrance fee. Entrance fee for what? Like you think if we have $5 to be giving you we’ll be looking for someone to give us back $10 as payment? Like, be so for real right now.
So you don't include opportunities with entrance fees, right?
Nope, I do not. I feel like as new and emerging writers, the last thing you want to do is to be paying people to look at your work because most likely you are broke.
How do you handle consistency and balancing the newsletter with your other commitments?
I wouldn't say it's difficult because this is, like, the thing that I am most consistent with. Part of the reason that I even started it is because I listen to this podcast called the Jen Fulwiler Show and every week, on Wednesday, this woman puts out her podcast no matter what, I kid you not. This woman came from the hospital and put her podcast out. It is just inspiring for me. And she has like, six kids, but she believes if you have a village, you can achieve self-actualisation. You can reach your dreams. So that's why I started doing it on Wednesdays, and it just became a habit. I clear my Wednesdays for this newsletter. I don't even care.
What has been the most rewarding part so far in creating this newsletter?
Oh, the most rewarding part is when people give me feedback that their work has been accepted. It makes me so happy. When you told me about your two acceptances and your friend who got into the workshop, I literally started crying because I was so happy and I know how an acceptance can open doors for you and sort of almost change your professional life as a writer. When I got my essay accepted by the Republic Journal, I know how that felt for me and how rewarding it was for me to receive feedback. So that is the most rewarding, when somebody tells me they've been accepted. I am over the flipping moon because I'm like, you freaking go! Send me your work. I want to read it. Let me post it. Anything you want. Like, I am just so happy that you saw it, you applied and you got it. You go, you guys are rock stars.
At the end of every newsletter, you include a greeting from a language from an African country. So how do you find them?
Yeah, that one is super hard. In the beginning, it was kind of easier, because, I mean, you can start with Nigerian languages, and you can ask your friends. But then when I started to move out of Nigeria to ask people from other countries, it became much harder then. I found this site, I think it's called Omniglot, and it has a bunch of languages and what ‘good luck’ is in that language. So sometimes I take it from there. Then other times, I just think of a random country in Africa, I search what the indigenous languages are, I pick one and start hunting through the internet to see if I can find a phrase that means good luck or blessings or success or something like that. So that's how I find them. And when I can't find something new, I reuse something I've used before.
At the end of the newsletter, there is also the ‘prose and poetry for the week’. How do you choose them? Are you a frequent visitor of literary websites?
I am a frequent visitor, even though I need to improve and read more. But if I read a story or poem that is interesting, I think, oh, I'm going to share that. But then I also started something last year. I started asking people in the community to email me their work if they want to be featured and people have sent really good stuff. Sometimes I open my email and I'm like, una dey write o! You people are writers. Ahn-ahn, mad o! But usually, it’s when I find something interesting.
I've been challenging myself to read short stories every week. Like a novel and then short stories, or a nonfiction book, and then essays. Not just so I can get things to share, but also so that I can learn more.
Then if nothing has caught my eye during the week, I would just go to any literary website I frequently visit and find a story that seems interesting. But then there are some stories that when you read it, you know that this writer is just starting out. There are a couple of errors. I put those there to inspire people. Like, look, you're not alone. Everybody starts from somewhere, and the story is still a good story. But then also, I like putting things by established writers as well. Like this week was Leye Adenle’s ‘The House’, speculative fiction. I want people to read and see what exceptional writing looks like from somebody who has studied and has a lot of experience. That story also inspired me to write another story, which I’ve not started writing oh, but it's on my list, sha.
Do you have any plans or any wild dreams for the newsletter that you’d like to share?
Oh, boy, boy, do I have plans! So one of the things I did recently was register my media company. It's called Awednwed Africa. Awednwed is an Ibibio word meaning ‘writer’. I’m half Benin and half Ibibio. So one of the things I want to do with this company is to push audio stories, to make our literary work more available in audio not just for accessibility, for people who can't see, but also so that we have more diverse platforms to reach people. Some people don't like reading physical books or ebooks, but then they like audiobooks, or some people don't have time. So it's great for people to have more ways to experience stories. One of the things I really hope I can do, and I'm gunning for it like mad, is to transform a lot of our old books into audio stories. Like The Bottled Leopard. I don't want us to have a generation of people who have never read these stories because it's not available to buy, or they can't find anywhere to pay for it online or download it and they don't have anywhere to borrow from. I feel like a lot of these things are sort of like the foundations of African literature and feel it would be detrimental for us to miss them.
The second thing I want to do, which I hope I can start this year because it's money-oriented, is to bring more support for emerging writers. One of the things I want to do – in fact, maybe you should even publish this thing so that I will hold myself more accountable – is that I want African Writer Weekly to have a contest called ‘The Rejection Olympics’. It’s for the writer who has written and has been the bravest in sending out their work, in applying and pitching for stuff and has gotten the most rejections. So it's not even about the quality of what you have written, it’s that you have gotten the most rejections. From the people who have gotten the most rejections, one will be selected at random and then paired with an editor who will work with them on a story of their choice to the point that they get that story accepted for publication. The point is for people not to give up because rejections are so demoralising. Hmm, if I start my story. So, it’s like, okay, you've been getting a lot of rejections but it doesn't mean that your work is not good. It doesn't mean that your work has no value. It just means that sometimes you need to improve. A bit of guidance from an actual editor will help. So that’s one of the things I want to do this year: The Rejection Olympics. Maybe I'll change the title to something that sounds more African.
I also want to be able to expand this Rejection Olympics to something that is like a workshop, where not only the people who are accepted have access to the workshop, but then it’s open for other writers to join. So typically, when you have a workshop, it's only open to the people that are selected. What I want to do is that we have the workshop, we have the people who are selected for the workshop and these are the people who get feedback and mentorship directly from the mentors, but then I also want these classes to be open so that even though you are not accepted, you can still listen to the sessions the mentors are giving and you can learn something from it. You will not get feedback on your work or get to have a one-on-one with the mentors, but you can still learn from what they are saying. So those are my three big ideas.
What piece of advice would you give to African writers and do you have any resources you would like to share with them?
A piece of advice I’d give to African writers? Submit your work. I’m not even playing. Submit your work because you’ll be in a place where you’re telling yourself you’re not good enough, look at what everybody else is writing, but when you don’t submit your work, you have already rejected yourself. So give people a chance to accept your work, or reject it, but give them a chance to see your work and eventually, you learn. The more you submit and see what was accepted or not, you learn. When you submit and you’re accepted, you gain more access. So submit, give yourself a chance. Pleaseee, please oh, Lord! Don’t you want me to have things to read? Is it every day I’ll go to Roving Heights and be buying novel? You need to submit your short stories.
And for resources, Brittle Paper has these free courses on their website. One has Eghosa Imasuen, I think he was talking about plot. I think that’s a good resource and you should definitely watch those masterclasses because they are African authors like you and they are giving really good examples. I really enjoyed the one with Eghosa Imasuen. I admire him very much as a writer. I have Fine Boys and it’s one of my go-to Nigerian books that I recommend to people, so yeah that’s one resource I think people should check out.
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