BOOK BOSS NG.

Abuja, let's do this.

The only way the Nigerian literary scene can keep you down or block you out is when you’re either a bad writer, or you’re not entrepreneuring and resourceful enough to find your way out there. Be courageous and build your own structure and put it into the system. Best wishes.

Which kind of poll is this? Two questions that if one is in agreement will have opposing answers of yes and no.

step 1: get your spark back step 2: set everything ablaze

Carl Terver concludes: 'if there’s any coup that needs to happen to upset the middleclass problem of our writing, it should be now or soon.' @abasimaenyinn?

'Many secondary school and university students do not know contemporary Nigerian writers or their works. If they do, an invisible few, it is mostly still by an advantage of privilege or the right exposure...'

Please read.

Not sure what committing an Oris means (I wasn't aware he's a verb now) but this unequivocally grapples with the economic reality of literacy and pedagogy. People need to understand that it's simultaneously sisyphean and herculean being a reader in Nigeria.

everyone needs to read this

Probably nothing or committing an Oris. I have been thinking about this for a while now, meaning a few years ago. I finally put my thoughts together here. Kindly engage. afapinen.com/2026/03/19/mid…

@cornrowchuks The loss of literary memory.

Save Nigerian literature? From what?

@Panoneee The Lisan al-Gahib.

@BookBossNG I am lost. Who is Chimezie?

There's a deep respect I have for Chimezie. I think with he can save Nigerian Literature if some things sit in place.

Dear Writers, Never create your stories or novels using AI. If you cannot find the time to write, hire a ghostwriter.

At my book readings: Reader: *asks a difficult or tedious question* Me, who studied under Nigerian university professors: 'So, does anyone here have any thoughts in response to what has just been said?'

@carlterver @olayinka_yaqub Na only who read your essay go understand the jab. Yinka, read am.

@olayinka_yaqub @BookBossNG 😇😂

My biggest flex this month is, throughout my tour, when readers ask me about what I am working on next, I reply that I have finished.

"The Nigerian literary industry at home has dwindled—though ceremonial announcements of book publications appear like a band aid to the underlying unattended malaise—as the cost of promoting literature in an increasingly economic hardship, or funding its lifestyle, isn’t commensurate with the gain. What is happening is that the production of literature and its diffusion into society are not as organic as they should be, or that it revolves within a microcosm. Simply put: it is thriving within a thin, restricted, privileged system.  If Nigerian literature is currently thriving anyhow, it is within an elite circle. And those outside this circle—accessible by being middleclass or proximate to—are distanced from partaking in it or enjoying its benefits. It is a projectile that has been in motion for a while, only becoming visibly disturbing now; the culture of reading and literary engagement keep moving away from society, instead of being a member of it in performing the function of freedom.  This disappearing function pronounces an underlying problem. Surely, a growing philistinism within the country contributes to the populace’s apathy towards literature. But it worsens when this literature itself can no longer be found in spaces where it is needed. Exposure to Nigerian literature today, for Nigerians within the country, is highly dependent on privilege. And while there’s the privilege of class, there’s also the privilege of position, to be exposed to it in the first place, as it moves away from ordinary society. This is where the elitism creeps in. The Nigerian novel today, every day, keeps climbing to a pedestal of becoming a rare object, or an endangered one, accessible to a few; perhaps even, almost as a collectible. This greatly affects the number of novels one wishes to read in a year; thus, the seemingly harmless inability to afford books translates to disinterest, to resignation, to apparent absence." "The world is quietly succumbing to the coup of digital media overtaking print. It is cliché to weep over technological transitions; as we already know, every age decries the lessening of authenticity with each leap, yet somehow, we always turn out fine. But it’d be foolhardy to dismiss the clear evidence that there’s been no time we have had it worse than today, especially with brain rot and reduced levels of critical mindedness—what Herbert Marcuse feared would result in the one-dimensional man. Literature, in my view, seems to be the last refuge for any hope at all. But with its middleclass situation in Nigeria, it is far from affecting the lives of those outside its reach; firstly, is the economic distance, and secondly, as all things middleclass or bourgeois, it distances itself from the common man." Carl Terver @carlterver READ: The Middleclass Problem of Nigerian Writing by Carl Terver afapinen.com/2026/03/19/mid…

I don't agree with everything here, but @carlterver makes some interesting arguments in this essay. afapinen.com/2026/03/19/mid…

Working from here today

An important conversation:

“Nigerian literature is moving away from ordinary society,” writes Carl Terver, which has lead to what he calls “the middleclass problem of Nigerian writing.” Read essay to find out more: afapinen.com/2026/03/19/mid…