This month we are featuring Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ on our December digital cover. She is a British and Nigerian speculative fiction author whose recent release, Dazzling, is a take on West African mythology. Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, and raised in Awka, Nigeria. A product of not one but two Nigerian boarding schools, she went on to attend Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work has been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award (2015), a Nommo Award (2020), and the Caine Prize for African Literature (2017, 2020), and Dazzling won the inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel Prize for a work in progress. She lives in Newhaven, East Sussex, England.

Dazzling by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ

When Treasure lost her father, she’s given the opportunity to get him back by making a bargain with a man whose feet float a few inches from the ground. As for Ozoemena, she is destined to be the first girl to protect the land and to do so, she’ll transform into a leopard. When Treasure’s misdeeds begin to intersect with Ozoemena duty, they are set on a collision course for one another.

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What was the inspiration for Dazzling?

Life in Nigeria mostly, with all its quirks and foibles and cultures and beliefs and traditions. There is a strong sense of the self in my culture, but also of the non-selves, in whatever form they might choose to appear; angels, demons, spirits, gods, wer-creatures, merpeople, the indistinguishable. I am fortunate to have had the childhood I did.

How do you feel myth and magic help us make sense of the world?

I think life would be pretty dull if we had all the answers, if everything in life could be explained. The idea of magic gives us a sense of power, of control where we might otherwise have none and myths inspire us to wisdom, greatness, possibility. Even in futuristic scifi worlds, there is no complete absence of wonder for a reason. Human beings need to search, to strive. It gives our lives meaning. The idea of something else out there underpins all that.

What are some of the books that have shaped you?

Ooh, this is a hard one because I started reading early and read widely. I fear that naming any books that I remember at the moment will exclude those that I might have forgotten about but which did shape me to some extent. That wouldn’t be fair on the books!

Who are some of your favorite African writers?

You’re killing me! I have many favourites, but I really resonate with Jennifer Makumbi’s work, and Lesley Nneka Arimah is a god. I’d read anything these two write. Heck, they could blow their noses and I’d read their tissues. Bound to still come up with gems – excuse the pun.

When you wrote Dazzling, who were you most hoping to connect with?

Myself. The me who grew up in a large family and was always trying to find a cubbyhole to read in. The me who rubbed holes in pages of books, convinced there was a secret page, a portal between the thin leaves of a book. The me who did not wish to go to sleep because she knew that life of a grander, more bizarre scale happened while she was sleeping, and that sometimes, dreams were treacherous places. The me who grew up in a place that was not as wild as Lagos, or as intriguing as Enugu, a place with overlooked or forgotten charms, but with a solid history and proud traditions.
And then of course, everybody else.

What is your number one hope for how Dazzling will impact readers?

I’m just looking to be understood, innit. I’d love to be able to start a conversation with someone who isn’t Nigerian or Igbo and have them automatically plug in because they know some stuff already from reading my novel. I also hope that Dazzling haunts people’s dreams as it did mine. I am generous like that.

Can you share with us what you’re working on next?

Twist my arm, why don’t you. I am working on two books for reasons that have not yet become clear – I’ve never worked like this, alternating between longform stuff. I have done, for shorts, but novels are a whole different…wait, you did not ask that. Yes, so I am working on a book about a girl who is about to get married to a man who is her world, only to fall for someone else as the wedding approaches, and to begin to discover that her fiancé might not be all he’s cracked up to be.
My other novel I am working on? Dazzling 2: The Dazzening (not real title). All I can say about this book is that I am so, very sorry. And please don’t be mad at me.