Government is not doing enough to promote literature —Azino

Efe Paul Azino is a poet. In this interview with ADEOLA OGUNRINDE he spoke about his project, Lagos Poetry Festival, which comes up in November 2015

For how long have you been writing?

I have been writing for 20 years now but actively 15 years.

What has been your challenge over the years regarding your writing career?

I think my greatest challenge is managing a day’s job. I love my day job, but it doesn’t give me the chance to write.  You know the way Lagos is, you come back from work and you are very tired.  Finding time to promote my work has been challenging.

When will your book be published?

I have a book coming out in August titled ‘For broken men who cross often’. It is a collection of poems and I am working on another collection. I think the most immediate project I have is the Lagos International Poetry Festival which is coming up November this year.

What is it about?

Well it is a poetry festival. It’s Independent and because Lagos is hosting it, we will be partnering with the Lagos State Government.

Who are those involved in the project?

I am directing it. Poetry has come of age in Nigeria. In recent times we have been seeing an explosion in some sense, Poetry particularly of the spoken word variance, where people gather and watch poetry performance. What eventually brought about this was the fact that there is a huge interest in poetry, people who want to be poet or are poets at different levels in their careers. I felt we didn’t have quality representation as necessary to push poetry more into the mainstream. I initially thought of having workshops, a two-day workshop , the more I thought about that the more I thought why don’t we have a poetry festival instead, and have poets from other parts of the world.

Do you have a date already?

Yes, 2nd of November to the 7th of November 2015.

Where is the festival taking place?

We will be using different venues. The British Council, Goethe Institute, Freedom Park , Terra Kulture  and University of Lagos

Who are those coming for the festival?

We are still putting the guest list together. We are looking forward to having, Wasam Shai, Inua Ellams , Lebo Mashile and T J dema . We are also thinking of having a lecture with Professor Niyi Osundare. Then, the usual poets in the Nigerian literary scene: Jumoke Verrisimo , Dami Ajayi, Akeem Lasisi , Titi Sonuga and a few other people.  We want to have a broad representation. You have poets who write, some others just do performance. We are taking poets across board, we need representation from the several categories of poetry.

What are the challenges publishing poetry works?

I was fortunate to have Farafina buy into the collection so my collection of poetry will be published by Farafina. They are handling all the logistics of distribution and printing. This is my first collection and it took me this long to publish, because I wanted to get a reputable publisher on board. That wasn’t forth coming at the initial stage, eventually Farafina came on board.

Who are the writers you look up to, that you read?

Interestingly I read more of fiction than I read poetry. I have a lot of Chinua Achebe and I have read all that Achebe wrote. I read Leo Tolstoy recently I have been reading the late Tomas Transtromer

What advice do you have for young writers who are looking forward to publishing their works?

Discover your voice, horn your voice, keep looking for more dynamic ways to express what you do. You will eventually find your own audience. I think the most important thing we can do is putting out quality poetry.

What can the government do to promote literature?

The government is not doing enough to promote literature. We need more structures and systems where promoters of Arts and Culture can get funding for most of their activities. Also piracy, if the government can actually put its hand where its mouth is regarding piracy, the laws are there, they also need to enforce those laws regardless of whose ox is gored.