An interview with Ola Awonubi. Read our review of her book, Naija Love Stories here.

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

Ola: I was born in London, England to Nigerian parents and when they completed their studies, we left for Nigeria. I studied Business Administration at Lagos State Polytechnic.  After my Youth service in Zaria, I worked in Lagos and went back to England in the early nineties.

I started taking creative writing courses and graduated with an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East London. In 2008, my short story, The Pink House, won first prize in the National Words of Colour competition. This was followed by another story – The Go- slow Journey, winning the first prize in the Wasafiri New Writing prize 2009. Other short stories feature on blogs and anthologies such as African writing.com, Story Time, The Ake Review and Brittle Paper. I have had 2 books; Love’s Persuasion and Love Me Unconditionally published by Ankara Press – the romance imprint of Cassava Republic Press, Abuja. Nigeria.  My third book – an anthology of short stories – Naija Love Stories was published by Conscious Dreams Publishing in October 2018.

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

Ola: I work as an Executive Assistant for a living. I wish writing was my full time job but right now I have to pay the bills!  I currently live in London, England.

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

Ola: As a young child, I remember rewriting my fairy tale and Enid Bryton books with black characters. I just wanted to see characters that looked like me having fun! Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were Black and had long hair. Ironically I thought long hair equalled happiness!

LE: Are you currently working on any book and if you are, what is it about?

Ola: I’m trying to finish an inspirational romance set in small town America as well as working on Naija Love Stories 2.

LE: Nice, we look forward to reading both. Lastly, what are your hobbies?

Ola: I like reading other writers, travelling and singing.

Ola has three published books:

Love’s Persuasion

Love Me Unconditionally. Read our review here.

Naija Love Stories

She is on Twitter and has a blog.