I was four when I announced my ambition to write, eight when I began publishing such claims.

So often, literature about African people is conflated with literature about African politics, as if the state were somehow of greater import or interest than the individual.

Being a twin, and being my sister's twin, is such a defining part of my life that I wouldn't know how to be who I am, including a writer, without that being somehow at the centre.

The writer presents himself to the blank page not with an open passport but an open heart.

The Producers Guild represents the creativity, innovation and dynamism that sets our industry apart from all others.

Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.

I've always loved comic books. As a kid, I used to read cowboy stories and historical comics about other worlds, unknown places that would take me out of myself and which helped to develop my imagination.

Growing up a lonely only child prepared me for the years of solitude spent as a writer; years spent in the company of people who don't exist, imaginary people you have conversations with. It's a paid form of madness, this writing stuff.