Q&As: Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s ‘Adjustment of Status’ – on the Caine Prize Shortlist 2024

By Africa in Words on 5 February , 2025 • ( 0 )

With AiW Guest: Samuel Kọ́láwọlé.

AiW note – on our 2024, now annual, AiW Caine Prize series:

Continuing our ‘Words On / Caine Prize’ 2024 Shortlist series, in this Q&A, we hear from writer, Samuel Kọ́láwọlé (Nigeria), whose shortlisted story, ‘Adjustment of Status’, was published in New England Review, Vol. 44, #3 (Summer 2023).

Our twinned Q&A is with the story’s publisher, Carolyn Kuebler, editor of New England Review. You can find her responses, along with the other posts in the series so far (same Qs, different As), at this link.

Please note, as with our previous coverage of the Prize, we spoke to our interviewees before the winner was announced on September 17th.

AiW: Congratulations on being shortlisted for the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing, Samuel. Thank you for your story, ‘Adjustment of Status’, and for talking with us.

Could we open with a bit about some of the “other lives” or pre-lives of your Caine Prize shortlisted story, perhaps something that our readers might not yet know (or that they should, or need to know) about it?

Samuel Kọ́láwọlé: The story came up as a result of an accumulation of ideas that I had been having for some time. I wanted to write a story on the cultural and physical alienation that comes with leaving home to pursue an ambition in a strange land. When I was thinking about this, I remembered having a conversation with an American friend about what it would look like to be a corpse washer in America, how that would work if it was done illegally. The idea for the massage parlor came later. As I wrote, each of these ideas began to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and there I saw a story.

Could you tell us a bit about your (other) work — your own writing and/or other kinds of work, roles, or the more general and different sorts of professional hats you wear – and how it might play out in terms of your involvement with short story writing from the continent?

My work tends to explore social and political issues in all its forms. I rarely write about topics on which I do not have strong views even though my work is not didactic. I was promoting my book, The Road to the Salt Sea, which was published this summer, when the shortlist was announced. Like ‘Adjustment of Status’, my novel delves into themes surrounding the migrant experience, but not the African immigrant experience, but the trans-Saharan migrant crisis. I would say I am more interested in stories about our continent, set in Africa.

In addition to being a writer, I am a professor of creative writing and teach fiction. I get to read things I wouldn’t normally read for pleasure and learn from my students when I teach writing. This is quite valuable for my writing.

Is there a serendipitous or interesting, perhaps even uncanny, book / text related thing that’s happened to you? Perhaps a happy, weird accident that has occurred around books or writing that you can share with us; or a strange, significant – outrageous, even – thing you have done, or would do, because of, or for a book (text / story / piece of writing)?

I have sometimes gone to places I wouldn’t typically go to for research. I think it makes the process even more interesting.

What are the most ethical and/or heart-lifting changes in practice you’ve seen happening across your industry/industries recently? What would you like to see become more visible and celebrated going forward (jobs, roles, avenues, practices)?

I believe the literary world is more welcoming to writers from the continent. When I say, “the literary world,” I am referring to the western publishing establishment, which is still predominantly white. Building our own systems as Africans and not depending on the West is ultimately the way forward but frankly I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

What would you say is the best investment you’ve made in your professional self / selves, and/or the most valued advice you’ve received about navigating your industry (or industries)?

Dedication and focus. My advice is if this is your way, go for it and don’t give up.

Finally, how can our blog, books, reading, and online communities best offer support for your work in African writing?

Visit my website samuelkolawole.com. Buy my new novel The Road to the Salt Sea and tell someone about it. Thanks.

Samuel Kọ́láwọlé was born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria. He is the author of a new, critically acclaimed novel, The Road to the Salt Sea. His work has appeared in AGNI, New England Review, Georgia Review, The Hopkins Review, Gulf Coast, Washington Square Review, Harvard Review, Image Journal, and other literary publications. He has received numerous residencies and fellowships and has been a finalist for the Graywolf Press Africa Prize, International Book Award, has been shortlisted for UK’s The First Novel Prize, and won an Editor-Writer Mentorship Program for Diverse Writers. He is a graduate of the MFA in Writing and Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts; and earned his PhD in English and Creative Writing from Georgia State University. He has taught creative writing in Africa, Sweden, and the United States, and currently teaches fiction writing as an Assistant Professor of English and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Continuing our attention to the various routes of African literary production and their interaction with prize cultures, today’s twinned ‘Words On / Caine Prize’ Q&A is with Carolyn Kuebler, publisher of Samuel’s story and editor of New England Review – on the site now, with links to the previous interviews in the series (and more to come this week) here…

Read ‘Adjustment of Status’, with all the stories shortlisted for 2024, via the Caine Prize website, or by clicking direct on ‘Shortlist…The Stories’ image below.

For more on the 2024 shortlist and the changes to the format of the Prize, looking ahead to its anniversary edition in 2025, visit: https://www.caineprize.com/.

With congrats and thanks to all our Q&A Caine Prize Shortlist 2024 participants; our reviewers; and special thanks to Ajoke Bodunde and Ellah Wakatama at the Caine Prize.