Tell us about yourself and what inspired you to start writing.
I have always been a daydreamer. Since I was a kid it was easy for me to just tap out of reality whenever I felt like it to imagine stories and characters and random lines that can be in a poem. As soon as I realized that this was a gift was when I started putting more effort into it and actually putting my thoughts down on paper. So I guess finding my talent was what inspired me to start writing seriously. Although I must say that it was my dad that gave me the love for storytelling.
Describe your writing process? Is there anything unique about it?
With my writing I will usually be listening to a song or even just walking down the street thinking and a line or concept will fall into my head and I’ll just write from there. Sometimes I get the opening line, sometimes I get the closing line or sometimes I get a sentence that has nothing at all to do with the main concept.
Have you published any books or do you have a desire to do so?
My first book is a poetry collection that focuses on the idea of pain and losing yourself because of it. I wrote it as a stepping stone to being more honest with my work while connecting with people that may feel the same way. I used “You” as the main character in this collection because I wanted my words to come off as a conversation and confrontation of the things that have happened to us that we try to ignore.
Do you have any favorite poets or authors?
My two favorite authors are Gabrielle Garcia Marquez and Chinua Achebe. Marquez opened me up to the world of magical realism, which is a world that only really existed in my thoughts before I found his work. I read his short stories and felt like he understood me and the way type of worlds I wanted to create. Achebe’s “Things fall apart” was a book that I read when I was 9 years old and to read a book at that age where the main character wasn’t like-able opened an entirely new thought process for me. These two authors were what shaped my style of writing.
Do you have a favorite book of poetry or poems?
I like to read books that are intimate with their main characters, that show growth and struggle, and that take me on that journey with them. No matter what genre they are. I just enjoy books with depth.
What are you reading now?
Right now I am reading “For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” by Ntozake Shange. I have read this choreopoem at many different points of my life and will continue to read it for a very long time.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing? Full-time job, pets, hobbies?
I am currently an art student so when I am not writing or in school I am creating visual art and planning my next exhibition.
Are you working on a current project?
I have recently started working on a collection of fictional short tragedies.
Poet Website and Profiles
Arit Emmanuela Etukudo’s Amazon Profile
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