Liberian Literary Magazine
What books have most
influenced your life/career
most?
I think my strongest
influence w hen it comes to
w riting fiction is Ernest
Hemingw ay. The simplicity
of his dialogue in the short
story, “A Clean Well-lighted
Place,” made a potent
impact. Then I read his
nov el, A farewell to Arms,
w hich influence me even
more. My short stories are
dialogue driv en. But I am
better at w riting poetry. My
poems tend to be concise,
and filled w ith imagery. I am
painting w ith w ords, you
see. I am blessed to have
done poetry w orkshops
w ith Allen Ginsberg, the
famous
beat
poet
and Judson Jerome, at the
Univ ersity of the Virgin
I slands around 1969-70, and
w ith Maya Angelou, in
Liberia
(LAW
poetry
w orkshop). From them I
learned that a raw poem is
like a chunk of w ood or
marble that must be
chiseled dow n until it
reaches its perfect form. So
I hav e learned to w rite
concise poems that can
ev oke a response in the
reader. There are many
schools of poetry.
I am often draw n by the
poetry in the title of novels
and to w riters w ho w rite
about
their
immigrant
experiences. For example,
the
Japanese-GermanMexican-American, Sigrid
Nunez, A Feather On the
Breath of God, or Jhumpa
Lahiri,
Interpreter
of
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
Maladies, Chimamanda N.
Adichie Americanah, and
then there are nov els about
other cultures, Arundhati
Roy, The God of Small
Things (I ndia),; Ben Okri, The
Famished Road (Nigeria),
I sabella Allende, The House
of Spirits (Chile) and Claire
of the Sea Light, Breath,
Eyes, Memory by Edw idge
Dandicat (Haiti). I hav e just
finished Bound to Secrecy
(Liberia) by Vamba Sherif.
How do you approach