[00:00:00] Presenter:

Thanks to Iko Africa and Pencilmarks & Scribbles for sponsoring this episode.

Welcome back to the Ibinabo Residency. I'm your presenter, and I'm excited to bring you today's conversation with aspiring literary professional Ada Onobu. Her debut short story, Demon Time, was published in a literary magazine whose name you will never remember. Her sophomore short story, Cravings, is so short you may blink once and miss it. Her first novel will be released sometime in the foreseeable future. Ada, welcome.

[00:01:06] Ada Onobu:

Thank you so much. And thank you all for being here. So I am thinking of writing a story. A short fiction piece about a vampire that specifically derives its’ powers from sunlight. It doesn't drink blood, it doesn't sparkle—I believe we've seen enough of that in the media—but it does have a reflection, and crosses don't harm it. However, it does need permission to enter buildings; it can’t turn into a bat, eat food, or commit murder. It is more or less a person.

[00:01:40] Ada Onobu:

But I must say, I do have some reservations about writing this story. There are quite a number of stories about vampires. I'm certain you can easily mention at least ten characters from any medium. Bella Swan, Louis de Pointe du Lac (I’m talking about the fine one from the new series, not the film with Brad Pitt), Nosferatu, Angel, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Nadja of Antipaxos, Blade, and others. It's been done to death. There are also other depictions of vampirism that do not strictly come from Eurocentric narratives. These include the previously mentioned Blade, Blacula, The Girl from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Sang-hyun from Thirst, Atl from Certain Dark Things, and many more. My point is this: there are a lot.

[00:03:01] Ada Onobu:

I’m also not sure I would actually write it. I do have three other story ideas about vampires that have been swimming in my mind for years now about which I have still not written. I have a story I started in February 2023 that I still haven’t completed but I really want to – especially as it’s the continuation of the first story I got published. It’s one thing to say you want to write something, it’s another thing to do it. Unfortunately, my writing life is that one meme where there’s a girl that daydreams about doing something versus the same girl in tears when she actually has to do the thing. The problem is I want to write these stories but I don’t know if I ever will. Between my ADHD, depression, and anxiety, it’s hard to care about myself sometimes, much less open a notebook and write about something as trivial as a bloodsucking monster of the night.

[00:04:06] Ada Onobu:

And if I’m being honest with myself, I don’t know how to write the story. Specifically, I don’t know what to do about my character’s origins. So my character is a DJ who lives somewhere sunny in California and she is a fair African American woman. She usually DJs on the beach during the day and spends the night at home with her three young children. My issue is: does she have to be African American and does the story have to be set in America? It’s hitting me that I don’t always know how to write outside an American perspective and that’s worrisome as a Nigerian writer. I feel I should be able to write all types of people, regardless of their background, but there’s only one I think I’m good at, and that’s an issue.

[00:04:45] Ada Onobu:

So my question now is: how do I find the solution to this problem and quickly too? Because I don’t know if I will eventually draft this story, but if I do, I don’t want a western influence to perpetually hang over my head every time I write.

[00:05:17] Ada Onobu:

Thank you.

[00:05:18]

(Applause)