Begin With Place. Your Memory of a Place.

After a break, Joy Notoma is back with more insightful talks with early career BIPOC creative writers.

In this episode Joy talks with Tolu Daniel about PLACE as a vehicle to create stories that transport readers.

In a wide-spanning conversation rich with ideas about how one's personal relationship to place shows up in writing, Tolu eloquently discusses leaving his home country, Nigeria, how he views racism as a Nigerian in America, and what it means to create a platform for other writers whose work converses with his own.

If you have ever written a piece that is very invested in character, plot, dialogue, etc...only to find that your setting is only vaguely fleshed out, this is for you!

We explore:

1. How being specific about place adds breadth and depth to writing

2. Place as a site of memory versus imagining a future or unknown place

3. Giving yourself permission to write, sometimes even after other people already identify you as a writer

4. The value of creating a platform for the work of other writers


Further Reading:

Ellipses Newsletter on Substack 

In Defense of Silence: A Portable Paradise by ADEOLA OPEYEMI 

Tremor by Teju Cole

A Souvenir of Me by Kemi Falodun 

Thank you to participants Ucheoma Onwutuebe and Kwaku Kyereh. Special thanks to the one and only Mat "Mat Mat" Poirot for editing and production help and our lovely logo design.