Episode 117 with Nadia Owusu, Introspective and Precise Writer and Chronicler of Trauma and Joy, Writ Large, and Author of the Award-Winning Memoir, Aftershocks

Episode 117 Notes and Links to Nadia Owusu’s Work 

 

 

    On Episode 117 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Nadia Owusu, and the discuss, among other topics, her early love of language and her experiences living in multiple countries, her relationship with her parents and her parents’ families, aftershocks both literal and figurative, colonialism and trauma, tradition, and coming to terms with her past and all of our pasts.  

    NADIA OWUSU is a Ghanaian and Armenian-American writer and urbanist. Her debut memoir, Aftershocks, was selected as a best book of 2021 by Time, Vogue, Esquire, The Guardian, NPR, and others. It was one of President Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and a 2021 Goodreads Choice Award nominee.

In 2019, Nadia was the recipient of a Whiting Award. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Orion, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Literary Review, Slate, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, and others.

Nadia is the Director of Storytelling at Frontline Solutions, a Black-owned consulting firm that helps social-change organizations to define goals, execute plans, and evaluate impact. She is a graduate of Pace University (BA) and Hunter College (MS). She earned her MFA in creative nonfiction at the Mountainview low-residency program where she currently teaches. She lives in Brooklyn.

 

 

Nadia Owusu's Website

 

From The Guardian, Feb 2021: "Nadia Owusu: 'I wrote as a way to process trauma' "

 

Buy the Award-Winning Aftershocks

 

Aftershocks Review in The New York Times

At about 2:50, Nadia describes her childhood reading interests and relationship with language, including the “important” Their Eyes Were Watching God and Things Fall Apart

 

At about 4:20, Nadia discusses books as constants in her life as the family moved often in her childhood

 

At about 5:00, Nadia responds to Pete’s question about Achebe’s book and its significance in African countries today

 

At about 6:40, Pete wonders about texts that were thrilling/transformational for Nadia as a high school/college student 

 

At about 7:55, Pete and Nadia discuss the many places in which Nadia grew up, and she explores how reading connected to this upbringing, including ideas of empathy 

 

At about 10:00, Pete asks Nadia about James Baldwin and his connection to Pan-Africanism

 

At about 12:00, Pete and Nadia discuss the implications of the Anansi and the African diaspora, and Nadia details the meaning of the term “bush” as used by her father and in the Ashanti culture as a whole

 

At about 14:35, Pete and Nadia discuss narrative and ideas of time in her book, and Nadia gives more insight into the significance of a family trip to Ghana and ideas of “double-consciousness”

 

At about 16:40, Nadia talks about not having a lot of information about, and connection to, her Armenian heritage, and how being Ghanaian and Armenian-American informed her life and the trip mentioned above

 

At about 18:30, Nadia describes the familial and political structures of Ghanaian peoples, and how they were and have been affected by colonialism

 

At about 20:20, Pete remarks on the specifics of “aftershocks” of the book’s title, as well as the skillful ways in which Nadia writes about how much of  African life is still affected by European colonialism

 

At about 21:10, Nadia expands on the ways in which colonialism continues to

 

At about 22:30, the two talk about colonialism’s specific legacy in Tanzania, particularly with regards to oppression coming from organized religion and the horrid debacle with George Bush’s

 

At about 25:50, Pete and Nadia trace the book’s beginnings and the earliest “aftershock” that came in 1988 with the disastrous Armenian earthquake 

 

At about 28:50, Pete and Nadia parse the usage of the word “aftershock” and trauma’s everlasting effects 

 

At about 30:15, Nadia responds to Pete’s questions about her exploration of her Armenian family

 

At about 32:50, Pete wonders about the circumstances of Nadia’s mother leaving the family and its connections to misogyny and internalized misogyny 

 

At about 35:05, Pete makes a request regarding beloved Aunt Harriet

 

At about 36:45, Nadia responds to Pete’s questions about difficulties and challenges in writing a memoir, especially with regards to public and unfiltered exposure for her and those in her life

 

At about 40:45, Nadia discusses the importance of the book’s blue chair motif and the history of the chair

 

At about 44:50, Nadia talks about her father and the term of endearment “Baba”

 

At about 45:30, Nadia explains her process in writing about Kwame, her half-brother, and how his case mirrored that of many victimized by racist law enforcement practices

 

At about 48:00, Nadia talks about her first-hand experience in New York City during 9/11

 

At about 49:30, Nadia explains how listening to Coltrane and allowing herself “madness” led to breakthroughs during her tough times

 

At about 51:20, Nadia discusses her ideas of her father as “man-god” and his contradictions and ideas of faith 

 

At about 52:00, Shout out to the great Malala and her father! 

 

At about 53:55, Pete shouts out the creative and meaningful ending chapters of “Libations” and “Home,” and Nadia gives her rationale for these two chapters, including her interest in ceremony

 

At about 56:10, Pete makes comparisons between Aftershocks and Jean Guerrero’s Crux, in that books work 

 

At about 57:20, Nadia shouts out contemporary writers who thrill, including Caleb Azumah Nelson, Hanif Abdurraqib, David Diop

 

At about 58:15, Pete highlights the interesting variety of work that Nadia does, and Nadia talks about future projects

 

At about 59:55, Pete asks Nadia about meaningful feedback from readers of her book

 

At about 1:02:00, Nadia gives out her social media and contact information, and shouts out Café Con Libros, The Word is Change as cool booksellers to buy her book

 

At about 1:03:10, Nadia reads from “Failures of a Language,” a chapter from her book

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    Please tune in for Episode 118 with SJ Sindu, a Tamil diaspora author of two literary novels, two hybrid chapbooks, and a forthcoming graphic novel. Her first novel, Marriage of a Thousand Lies, won the Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award and was a Stonewall Honor Book and a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Sindu’s second novel, Blue-Skinned Gods, was published to high praise in November 2021 by Soho Press. A 2013 Lambda Literary Fellow, Sindu teaches at the University of Toronto Scarborough. 

    The episode will air on April 13.