Literary Birthday – 5 November – Uzodinma Iweala

Happy Birthday, Uzodinma Iweala, born on 5 November 1982.

Uzodinma Iweala Quotes

1. I was an English major and took a number of creative-writing classes. There isn’t any real writing program at Harvard. You can’t major in creative writing.
2. When you write, you are not necessarily writing to get attention. You are writing for people to read. You learn to tell a story, and it’s great if people want to read that story. It doesn’t always happen.
3. You can really learn through exposure to different writing, to different art forms, to different modes of storytelling, and with mentors who are able to get you to step outside your comfort zone.
4. I don’t ever want to sit back.
5. I’m very interested in the way that people speak. Both in the creative fiction that I do. And also the creative nonfiction. I mean, I like the rhythm of language. I like the sounds of voices.
6. Write. Write. Write. Don’t worry so much about being published or discovered. Worry about writing what you have to write — what you need to say, and how you’re going to say it. The rest will come.

Uzodinma Iweala is an award-winning Nigerian writer, filmmaker, sociologist, and medical doctor. He is the author of Beasts of No Nation, which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. He released a second novel titled Speak No Evil and a collection of essays, United States of Ambivalence: Essays. His short stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications including Foreign Affairs, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and The Paris Review among others. His films have appeared at Sundance and on Al Jazeera. Follow him on Instagram.

Source for Image: Van Leer Foundation

by Amanda Patterson
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