The Liquid Eye of a Moon

By Uchenna Awoke

(Catapult)

Interview by Diane Slocum

Dimpka lives with his poor family in a small village in rural Nigeria. He has finished primary school at fourteen and hopes to go on, not only to secondary school, but to university. This is a dream that seems unlikely to happen because his family is not only poor, but appears to be cursed. His one hope is that his father, because of his age, is next in line to be the head of the village and due to receive riches. This honor goes to someone else, but Dimpka won’t give up. He goes to Lagos to work for a rich, sadistic mistress. He labors in a dangerous quarry, but his dream eludes him.

AUTHORLINK: What was your first idea for this book? Where did it go from there?

AWOKE: The Liquid Eye of a Moon was expanded from a short story Shallow Grave, the story of the woman who killed a god. It appeared in Elsewhere Lit (defunct) in 2017. I had other ideas that helped me to flesh out the narrative.

AUTHORLINK: Did you plan much of the plot and eventual outcome ahead of time or did you put it together as you wrote?

AWOKE: I had a plan before I started to write the story. I had thought of the different angles to approach the story from and had ideas for a structure before I set out. But structures are not cast in stone. They could change depending on the character arc, on other factors. The Liquid Eye of a Moon was no exception.

AUTHORLINK: Your story introduces us to some aspects of Igbo culture and traditions. What are some of these that you would like people to remember?

AWOKE: The Liquid Eye of a Moon highlights ethno-aesthetics in the Omabe masking tradition of the Nsukka-Igbo people, purely as performance theatre, not necessarily digging into its implication on therapy and healing. So much of the Igbo cultural heritage has come under attacks by modernity, urbanization and neoreligious intolerance.

AUTHORLINK: A friend who is Igbo told me he learned English in Nigeria because that is how the people who speak different tribal languages communicate with each other. As I was reading your story, I wondered if this was how Dimkpa with his limited schooling, was reading the English-language novels, or if they had been translated.

AWOKE: Dimkpa is intelligent despite his shortcomings. He went through primary school and started secondary school before dropping out. In Lagos, he interacted with Ejiro and Mummy in English since none could speak the language of the other person, advancing his knowledge of English. Any surprise that he could read? So, yes, Nigeria is a multilingual society and English is the lingua franca.

AUTHORLINK: The attempt to establish a separate country of Biafra is an ongoing part of Dimkpa’s story, but not a central focus. What can you say about that?

AWOKE: Biafra is a resonant theme in Nigeria, particularly in the southeast, the setting of The Liquid Eye of a Moon. A portion of the novel is set in the southwest, though. There’s so much enthusiasm for that subject in the southeast, so much despair.

AUTHORLINK: What were some of the most difficult parts of the story to write and what gave you the most joy?

AWOKE: Describing the market and motor park scenes in Lagos was a bit difficult for me. Growing up I had lived in Lagos (a reserved area of Lagos), but I’d left the city a long time ago. Also, writing about the accident at the quarry was very emotional for me. I had been around the scene of an accident that inspired that portion of the story. Generally, writing The Liquid Eye of a Moon was pure joy.

AUTHORLINK: How did your effort to get an agent and a publisher for your first novel go?

AWOKE: I had many rejections. I wrote and rewrote and redesigned pitch letters. I was getting frustrated, but Mary Adkins who was the development editor for The Liquid Eye of a Moon had assured me an agent would come along at the right time. It turned out she was right. I have an excellent agent, one of the best around: Annie DeWitt of Shipman Agency. Robert Lopez introduced us.

AUTHORLINK: What are you working on next?

AWOKE: Herdsmen versus crop farmers, with focus on herder/farmer terror in Nigeria. I think it’s a global menace.

About the Author: Uchenna Awoke is from Nsukka, Nigeria. He has published short stories in Transition, Trestle Ties, Evergreen and more. He was a finalist for the 2019 Graywolf African Fiction Prize. He has received fellowships from MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center and Artist Protection Fund. He is the first Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Fellow. He lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Liquid Eye of the Moon is his first novel.