Fiction and poetry are my first loves, but the really beautiful lyrical essay can do so much that other forms cannot.
Chris AbaniIf I dont get at least one e-mail every ten minutes, I feel unloved. Even junk mail makes me feel seen. Sad, I know. Sigh.
Chris AbaniThere was a positive side to not trying at something: you could always pretend that your life would have been different if you had.
Chris AbaniThe Igbo used to say that they built their own gods. They would come together as a community, and they would express a wish. And their wish would then be brought to a priest, who would find a ritual object, and the appropriate sacrifices would be made, and the shrine would be built for the god.
Chris AbaniMy mom taught me to read when I was two or three. When I was five I read and wrote well enough to do my nine-year older brother's homework in exchange for chocolate or cigarettes. By the time I was 10, I was reading Orwell, Tolstoy's War and Peace, and the Koran. I was reading comic books too.
Chris Abani