Yewande omotoso biography samples

Yewande Omotoso needs no introduction to African fiction lovers. Her debut novel, Bom Boy, was highly acclaimed, and her second highly anticipated novel, The Woman Next Door, has recently been published.

Here she shares some of her measured and astute observations.

After finishing The Woman Next Door, I was struck by how you strive to write in opposition to the phrase, "Write what you know". In your debut novel, Bom Boy, your main character was a young man who was adopted by white parents.

What attracts you to writing what you don't know?

YEWANDE:  I won’t say I set out to write what I don’t know. In fact a current struggle is that I can’t allow myself to write, as main characters, people whose first languages I don’t speak.

Since I only speak English with any competence it