An interview with Kingsley Adrian Banks. Read our review of his book, Adamma here.

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

Kinglsey: I was born in Onitsha, Anambra State. I grew up in Onitsha as well. I schooled in Onitsha right up till after my secondary school certificate exams (SSCE) before I left Onitsha for Abakaliki in 2008. I obtained my first degree in Law. To be honest, originally, this was my father’s and mother’s choice—I wanted to study Literature-in-English. During my secondary school days, I was extremely good in Literature; I took to the subject like fish to water. Anyway, I studied law and did well at it and I am grateful for that even up till now. I reside in Lagos, Nigeria, but also spend a large chunk of my time in Onitsha (I hate Lagos traffic).

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

Kingsley: I work as a digital media consultant and lawyer as well. I do not make a living writing full time. One day, I hope to get to that level where I can comfortably say that my writing pays my entire bills or at least the bulk of it. It’d be a nice dream come true.

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

Kingsley: Like I pointed out earlier, I was extremely good in Literature. I started writing at the age of fourteen. I remember specifically because by then I was already in my SS3, preparing for my WASSCE—West African Senior School Certificate Exams—and I finished my secondary school at the age of fifteen. So, I pretty much remember. I’d written off and on for about a year before I turned fourteen, but from age fourteen I began writing like crazy. I had these stories swirling around in my head all the time, so much so that it seemed as if I would run crazy if I did not put them down on paper. So once the stories came, I started writing them down. I am twenty-eight now—this April, 2021—and I have written for half my entire life, literally.

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

Kingsley: For half my life, I have been writing non-stop so I always have something I am either writing or re-writing. Right now, I am re-writing the sequel to Adamma titled Forbidden Woman. See, I started working on the novel Adamma in 2010; I rewrote it start to finish in 2017. I rewrote it again start to finish in 2020. In-between the re-writing of this novel, I was working on its sequel. I am reworking that sequel now and I wouldn’t want to give out spoilers. I can promise you though, that I explored very dark themes of violence and death in it.

LE: Lastly, what are your hobbies?

Kingsley: I do love reading novels. I read and read and read. I check through the worldwide bestselling lists and make it a duty to read as many of those novels listed there as I can. I also watch movies and TV shows. Right now, I am obsessed with Chinese period martial arts (Wuxia and Xianxia) drama series and I watch them a lot. I also watch Chinese donghua (animated) TV shows and a lot of western animated TV shows. I love the visual arts.

Kingsley has one published novel, Behind Closed Doors.

Adamma is set to be published in November 2021.

He is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and also blogs here.