Precious Okpechi

my poem about crushing / the kind of desire that goes nowhere in the new issue of @poetrymagazine

I think Toni Morrison would've adored the eternal return of the discourse about her! The greatest pleasure of my ON MORRISON book tour has certainly been talking about her words. We recorded those conversations for a podcast, PASSAGES, out 5/21. Join us! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pas…

Of the eighth volume guest-edited by Sarah Lubala (@SarahLubala1) and Logan February, managing editor Precious Okpechi (@p_okpechi) writes: “The way we express joy, the way our longings fold out of our skin, is skewed by the weight of customs.” opencountrymag.com/20-35-africa-v…

Some good news for the real Morrison heads in the midst of all this discourse: my book, ON MORRISON is one of the @nytimesbooks best books of 2026 thus far! Grateful that at least some readers are finding it useful to accompany their (re)readings of her incredible writing!

Documenting Igbo people today, for tomorrow. Agaba masquerade & follower. Ezeagu, 2026. Photograph: @ArchivebyKamsi

ON A STRAIGHT LINE

Honored to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fiction! (Insert Helen Dewitticism about the prize discourse that launched a thousand quips.) Jk. I'm just grateful that for me awards like these have been wind in my sails, with no shortlist drama and only minor strings attached!

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.” ― Toni Morrison

One of the fascinating things about reading books written by Africans in the late 1960s and early 1970s is the dedications and introductions. There was a yearning to be in relationship with other Black voices from around the world, a collective desire to be free.

yall couldn't even handle different skin colours bfr

Sunset in Enugu 📍

We are still taking submissions until the 25th of March 2026. Send us your experimental poems, your declarative poems, your lyrics poems — whatever form feels like you. 🤩🤩 Submission guidelines here: 2035africa.org/call-for-submi…

I don't believe it will. Readers are much more astute than you seem to believe. Clean, average, constitutively uninventive prose has an expiration date. It might sell but it won't last! If you disagree, if you think it's so great, why are you averse to labeling it AI-generated?

BAY AREA, THIS IS TONIGHT! I'll be in conversation about ON MORRISON in Oakland for a special early Bay Area Book Festival Event with the incredible @cathyparkhong! Hope to see you there!

Stop normalizing team buildings that are scheduled on rest days. If you want to build your team, use company time.

As 20.35 Africa (@20_35Africa) enters its ninth year, it seizes this monumental event to reflect on the legacy it hopes to build. An anthology by and for living African poets is both a celebration of the present moment – the lush, complex terrain African poetics is currently negotiating – and an homage to the writers who paved the way. Since 2017, the series has gathered poets from every corner of the continent, including the Congo, Sudan, South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, and beyond, affirming African poetry as alive and thriving. The anthology also functions as an educational resource and a free, environmentally conscious platform for disseminating poetry that speaks to the socio-political realities of our time. To this end, 20.35 Africa is pleased to announce its call for submissions to Volume Nine of the 20.35 Africa Poetry Anthology Series, guest-edited by Akosua Zimba-Afiriyie Hwedie and Antony Fangary (@antonyfangary) alongside 20.35 Africa editors Ebenezer Agu, Precious Okpechi (@p_okpechi), and JK Anowe.

Chinua Achebe’s daughter, Professor Nwabundo (Nwando) Achebe, a renowned historian, has been promoted to the prestigious rank of Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, USA.

Of couse your wife can’t cook like your mom. YOU SHOULD! You’re her son. You ate her food your whole life.

Western language limitations are so clear in this BAFTA discourse, because you can 100% say “sorry” to acknowledge harm and show empathy for someone’s pain EVEN IF IT WASN’T YOUR FAULT. Africans do it all the time using sorry-translated words like ndo, pele, ashia, pole, etc.