Ike Anya, doctor of letters

Ike Anya is something to everyone. To some, he is an astute travel writer. To others, he is a poet. He is also a good interviewer and a keen blogger. However people get to know Ike, they eventually get to know he is actually a medical doctor with one foot in the arts and the other in medicine.

Quoting Nnorom Azuonye's words on Ike Anya. "Something to everyone" - Nnorom can say that again.

Ike was recently appointed a Consultant in Public Health Medicine at the Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust. To the man who has achieved this great feat, it was just another blessing for which he was grateful, and not something to shout about. Ike's childhood friend and fellow public health doctor/co-blogger, Chikwe Ihekweazu felt differently about it, and together with his wife Ijeoma, they set up a fantastic reception in Ike's honour at the Cicada in London's Farringdon area on Friday, the 4th of July 2008. As the event kicked off I looked around. No Molara Wood. Shit! Who is going to write about this night?

No Molara Wood. But Nnorom stepped up, and wrote about it! Where there's a writer, no story goes untold. Read his account of the evening.

One always had this fear that Medicine would take Ike Anya away from us eventually, but judging from his recent showing, we need not fear too much. One of his trademark writer's interviews - a discussion with the author Sefi Atta about her recently published novel, Swallow - was in the Nigerian Guardian of 20 July. Anya also co-edited the just published Weaverbird Collection of short stories by Nigerian writers; his fellow co-editors for the collection being: Akin Adesokan, Sarah Ladipo Manyika (whose first novel, In Dependence, is out soon via Legend Press, UK), and Ike Oguine. Contributors to the Weaverbird include: Ike Okonta, Victor Ehikhamenor, Tade Ipadeola and Unoma Azuah.

• Swallow & The Weaverbird Collection are published by Farafina/Kachifo.
• Photo of Ike Anya (with Uzor Maxim Uzoatu) by MW.

At Nnorom's do

Here we are clawing a small literary event out of Nnorom Azuonye's son's birthday party, yesterday in London. L-R:

1. James Henshaw (son of the late playwright James Ene Henshaw); he is heading to Nigeria early next month to inaugurate a N100,000 prize in memory of his father - the ANA/James Ene Henshaw Prize for Playwriting. The winner of the prize (to be given for unpublished plays) will work with an experienced director to bring the play to production.
2. Nnorom Azuonye who brought us all there. Nnorom is the publisher of Sentinel Poetry Online (acknowledged by the Arts Council as 'a Poetry Landmark of Britain) & the Sentinel Literary Quarterly, and a host of other art initiatives too numerous to mention.
3. Author and current President of ANA (Association of Nigerian Authors), Wale Okediran, who never forgets to touch base with his constituency of Nigerian writers in the UK when he's in town. Okediran is being interviewed today lunchtime by Elizabeth Idienumah of BBC Radio Scotland on this years 50th Anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart - for which the Nigerian leg of the commemorations begin 12 April.
4. And there's me, MW.
5. Ike Anya, writer and consummate book lover. There was a time Ike and I ran into each other like clockwork on art beats where no one sent us; we just went for the love of it, and wrote about it. Google him for his writings. He is also a medical doctor and blogs at Nigeria Health Watch.

New Read

This week's new read, is mine; here's an excerpt from my short story, Kelemo's Woman...
Kelemo was one of the "subversives" whose names were being read out on the corporal's radio as he advanced further into our room. The army man's boots stamped dirty imprints on the floor. I could hear the commotion as other soldiers rampaged through the tenement. I rose from the bed and held the cover to myself. The woman in the next room screamed at the top of her lungs and begged a soldier, please, don't, don't, don't. I heard the laughter as her cries were defeated into whimpers. No use begging hyenas, I thought. I promised myself that whatever would be taken from me, I would freely give, of my own will. The corporal's eyes traced a lusty line down the length of my body, and I allowed my cover-cloth to slip to the floor.

- Kelemo's Woman is published in Eclectica.

• Whilst you're over at Eclectica, you might want to check out this travel piece by Ike Anya - Going Home. The home in question being Nigeria.

The Way We Were

L-R: Ike Anya’s brother, Ike himself, Cyril Nri, Chimamanda, her (then heavily pregnant) sis-in-law Tinuke Adichie, Wale Adebanwi & myself.

~

It was 8 June 2004, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was the only debut novelist & the youngest writer on the Orange shortlist - for her book, Purple Hibiscus. 3 years on, and she’s hotly tipped for the prize, this time for Half of a Yellow Sun. How will the story end this time? All will be revealed on Wednesday 6 June when this year’s winner is announced.

• Broadband Orange Prize