Zaynab Iliyasu Bobi, Frontier I, a Nigerian-Hausa poet, digital artist, and photographer is a graduate of Medical Laboratory Science from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. She is the author of the forthcoming chapbook Sixteen Songs of Loss, selected as a finalist by Rita Mookerjee (Sundress Publications Chapbook Competition, 2023), winner of the inaugural Folorunsho Editor’s Poetry Prize 2023, Labari Poetry Prize 2023, the inaugural Akachi Chukwuemeka Prize for Literature 2023, and Gimba Suleiman Hassan Gimba ESQ Poetry Prize, 2022. Her works has appeared or forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Fiyah Literary Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, Agbowo, The Deadlands, Torch Literary Arts, Arc Poetry Magazine, Ake Review, Native Skin, The Drift, Lucent Dreaming, 20.35 Africa, Canthius, Trampset, and elsewhere. She tweet @ZainabBobi.
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Blessing: Welcome to the new year, Bobi. In 2023, there was no time I logged into my Facebook without reading a good news post from you. Looking back on your last year’s literary escapades, how do you feel?
Bobi: Thank you so much, Ojo. Happy New Year to you as well. Coming back to your question, if I’m being honest, 2023 was a surprising year for me. Yes, it was an amazing year but it was also one of my most terrible years as an upcoming poet. Yeah, I know with all the wins people would be expecting me to say 2023 was my best year as a poet because it was the year I received many accolades in my literary journey, but it isn’t. You see, there is some kind of weight that comes with winning. I don’t know if it’s just in my head. This weight after each win suppresses my ability to be happy about my win. The feeling wasn’t just there because each time I felt this touch of unworthiness attached to every win because I know poets who write far better than I do. For all those who know me well, I always use the word ‘luck’ when talking about my wins. To fully answer your question, the feeling of defined happiness wasn’t there last year but that of gratitude was.
Sorry, I said too much. Smiles.
Blessing: I am glad to have witnessed your growth in the literary world. On December 13th 2020 when I first met you during the Inauguration of Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation, Abuja branch, where you emerged as the Treasurer of the branch, you were yet to be recognized as a poet. What or who resulted to the outburst?
Bobi: I’m glad to have witnessed your utmost growth and support for Nigerian teens in the literary world. I can remember the Inauguration Day vividly, too. I don’t think I still deserve the Treasurer title, though.
What: I consumed a lot of works from the likes of Warsan Shire, Ocean Vuong, Saddiq Dzukogi, Franny Choi, Osman Ladan, Leila Chatti, Sarah Ghazal Ali, Safia Elhillo, Abu Bakr Sadiq, & a lot more.
Who: Hmmm, I think if I’m to mention all the people that have resulted in my outburst, as you put it, we would need a longer list. But in a jiffy, I will give Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation the first shout-out because HCAF didn’t just contribute to my literary journey, but also showed me how to climb my first step on the ladder to becoming the poet I am today. Secondly, my literary family, The Frontier Collectives. Becoming a member gave me the push I never thought I needed. Lastly, my family—parents, siblings, and Abu Bakr Sadiq. These are people that I owe a lot to.
Blessing: Poetry found me unprepared in 2015 when at the end of my book launch, I expressed my appreciation to the witnesses. One of the men on high table said, “you have a bit of poetry in you.” I despised the genre because of its ambiguity, unsure though if it was rooted on the general youthful presumption. Did poetry find you too or you found it? When did you start writing poetry and how has the journey been so far?
Bobi: Yes, poetry found me. And yes, I found poetry. I would say the COVID-19 pandemic purged poetry out of me. But before then, was I a bit enthusiastic about literature? No! because I grew up in n environment that is focused on education with the direction of making it into the science class in secondary school and eventually becoming a medical practitioner. But despite that, poetry found me when I went searching for a niche to crawl into. To answer your last question, I started writing poetry in 2020.
The journey has been a ride with a lot of bumps so far. Alhamdulillah despite the ups and downs, I still find the strength to dust myself and continue the journey. I have come a long way to not quarrel with poetry like couples do and not hold tight to it.
Blessing: How long have you been writing? What genre did you start with and at what stage did you feel you are a poet?
Bobi: I have been writing poetry for 4 years now. I started with poetry and prose. When I realized that my strength was more in poetry, I moved forward to grow it as a craft. But I still kinda wish to go back to prose writing. Do I see myself as a poet? Sincerely, I think there is still a part of me that doesn’t see myself as a poet. Self, am I a poet?
Blessing: I have read a lot of your speculative poetry; one is “A Conversation Between A Cyborg and A Therapist,” an award-winning poem of the Chukwuemeka Akachi Prize for Literature. What is poetry to you and at what point of your career did you delve into speculative poetry?
Bobi: Poetry is so much more, but personally, poetry is home because home is where you feel the safest and I feel the safest with poetry. I started writing speculative poetry around mid-ending 2022.
Blessing: How well do you know Akachi and his poems that preached about his struggles before the contest call? Amongst Akachi’s poems that I read, I found “How to Paint a Boy and Chat History” really haunting for their relatability, dexterity and probity. Would you classify Akachi as a speculative poet and why?
Bobi: I have heard of the Late Akachi, may his soul rest in peace, from friends but I have not read his poems before the contest call. Yes, I would say the Late Akachi’s poems are speculative because to me, any poem written by a poet from a place only familiar to the poet alone, is speculative.
Blessing: I have been privileged to read some of your experimental poetry like “Funnel and Set Operation of a Country in the Belly of Wa(te)r” even before its publication. I would define speculative poetry beyond experimentation of form as a distinguished sub-genre based on its subject matter. How would you define speculative poetry?
Bobi: Yeah, I can remember sharing the poem with you at one point. To me, speculative poetry is different from experimental poetry. Speculative poetry is beyond form just as it is beyond human reality and perception. I will define speculative poetry as an endless realm of ideas that can be stretched out to any length and still hold magnificent meaning.
Blessing: How did you feel winning the inaugural Chukwuemeka Akachi Prize for Poetry knowing that it was a project to raise awareness for mental health and immortalizing the young poet whose works are still like fine wine?
Bobi: If there is anything beyond surprise, then that was what I felt for winning the prize because the long-list was crazy. After the long-list came out, I never expected to be on the shortlist not to talk of emerging as the winner. But in all, I felt very happy that very poem won the prize, looking at the fact that I wrote it a month ago before the contest call when I was going through a very rough time.
Blessing: In 2023, you attained certain feats – winning poetry prizes and numerous acceptances by journals – while still in school, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, precisely, studying Medical Laboratory Science. What was your adaptive mechanism?
Bobi: Hmmm, I don’t think there was a special adaptive mechanism that I used. Surprisingly, it was also the year that I was in 400L, the most challenging level in the Faculty of Medical Laboratory Science. What I made sure of was to read for both like my life depends on it. And whenever I get inspired to write a poem, I write it down and come back to it later when I’m less busy.
Blessing: Tell us about the creation of your debut chapbook Sixteen Songs of Loss, a finalist in the 2023 Sundress Publication Chapbook Competition to be published this year?
Bobi: Sixteen Songs of Loss, as the name implies, is a collection of different kinds of loss. Every loss is accounted for in the chapbook. I don’t want to say much. I will leave it to the readers.
Blessing: I’ve seen a couple of your arts work in several magazines. How much of your time do you dedicate to photography and digital art?
Bobi: In 2022, I dedicated a lot of my time to both digital art and poetry. When things started getting unbearable, I had to step back a bit from digital art and photography. But InshaAllah, I will be dedicating my time to digital art and photography in addition to poetry this year.
Blessing: Who are your favourite poets, speculative poets or not, and tell us what you value in their work?
Bobi: I love the works of Sarah Ghazal Ali, Osman Ladan, Leila Chatti, and Warsan Shire for their profound use of language in a way that leaves you hungry for more. In speculative poetry, I admire works from the likes of Ocean Vuong, Franny Choi, and our very own spec king, Abu Bakr Sadiq, because of the metaphysical and realistic approaches their works entail.
Blessing: I am aware that you have rounded up your program at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. Congratulations! What is next for you as a poet?
Bobi: Thank you so much, Ojo. Lol, I can’t wait to become a graduate. The next step for me is internship and then maybe NYSC if I don’t get into any MFA program.
Blessing: Thank you for granting this interview. What advice would you give to young/emerging poets today?
Bobi: The pleasure is mine, Ojo. I enjoyed answering your brilliant questions. The advice I would like to give the younger poets, not emerging because I’m still an emerging poet myself, is to always write their truth regardless of what they are told. Of course, after reading religiously.
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Blessing Omeiza Ojo is the Deputy Editor of Litvo Magazine and the Chairman of Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation, Abuja. He is a writer and creative writing teacher living in Abuja. A Best of the Net nominee and the winner of the 9th Korea-Nigeria Poetry Prize (Ambassador Special Prize), the 2020 Artslounge Literature Teacher of the Year Award, the 2021 Words Rhymes & Rhythm Nigerian Teacher’s Award. His poems have appeared in Cọ́n-scìò, The Deadlands, Split Lip, Trampoline, Icefloe, Arts Lounge, and elsewhere.