Literary Everything

An interview with author, Feyisayo Anjorin. Read our review of Feyisayo’s book, Kasali’s Africa here.

LE: Hello Feyisayo, please tell us a bit about yourself.

Feyisayo:  I was born in Akure, I grew up in the hilly town of Oba-Ile. I’m the last child in a family of three children. I studied Geography at the University of Ibadan after my secondary school years at St John/Mary’s Unity School, Owo. I later trained as a broadcaster and later as a filmmaker in Johannesburg. I’m a husband and a father.

LE: What do you do for a living? Is writing your full time job?

Feyisayo: I am a filmmaker. Writing is not exclusively my full-time job. My family is in Akure, Nigeria, even though my job keeps me regularly engaged in places like Lagos, Johannesburg, Atlanta and London.

LE: When did you start writing and what prompted it?

Feyisayo: I started writing in my preteen years, I read a lot as a child. My Dad bought me a lot of illustrated books. I started taking writing seriously in my 3rd year in varsity when a girl I was very close to started ignoring me.

LE: Do you have other published titles apart from Kasali’s Africa?

Feyisayo: Apart from Kasali’s Africa, Brittle Paper published my novella “The Night My Dead Girlfriend Called”. It is on Okadabooks and on Amazon.

LE: Why did you choose the unusual form/style in Kasali’s Africa?

Feyisayo: I decided to experiment with the writing based on the way the Bible was written. We have books whose writer we don’t know or are not sure of, and some we can tell for sure, and then you have these writers claiming to hear and know God. The Bible is like a puzzle, but when you put it all together, Jesus is the central character.

Kasali is meant to be like the ‘Jesus’ of Kasali’s Africa. But Kasali is no Jesus, if you know what I mean.

LE: He definitely isn’t! What are your hobbies?

Feyisayo I love climbing hills and mountains, I love walking in the forests. In Akure, in Idanre, in Johannesburg, when I see a hill, even if it’s a mine dump, I would love to get to the top of it. I love reading, if I’m not reading I would be in the cinema, for a good movie.

Feyisayo’s published books are:

The Night My Dead Girlfriend Called

Kasali’s Africa

Feyisayo is on Twitter, Instagram and has a blog.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.