‘A Visitor Who Belongs Here’ by Luwa Adebanjo
A Self-Published Spotlight Interview with the Author
“There are many ways to tell a story. This is mine.”
‘A Visitor Who Belongs Here’ is Luwa Adebanjo’s debut poetry anthology all about home, belonging, and the joy of surviving despite all hardships.
The anthology follows Luwa’s journey after arriving in the UK from Nigeria. As a child, she struggled to fit into her new environment while remaining the perfect daughter she felt her family needed. Every place felt unfamiliar, and she began to feel like a visitor no matter where she went.
At home, the pressure of looking after her brothers and hiding her struggle with her sexuality in an abusive household meant she never felt safe. At school, she felt alone and out of place, unable to fit into British culture. She was too weird, too loud, too fat, too crazy, too gay, too Black — and yet somehow not enough of anything to belong. At 19, after battling with anxiety and depression all her life, Luwa was diagnosed with OCD. This diagnosis pushed her to change her life and begin a journey of healing, fighting to turn her suffering into joy.
BLK INK: What inspires your writing the most?
Luwa Adebanjo: The number one inspiration for me is always being the kind of person that 13-year-old me needed. Being the kind of person that would have saved my younger self is something that inspires me to write a lot.
In my anthology, one of the poems started from the idea of writing to my younger self, and I’m trying to connect with her. It isn’t easy at all, and it’s hard for me to focus on those difficult parts of growing. I think there’s a lot of forgiveness that has to be done when you grew up with a hard childhood. You have to forgive yourself and you have to forgive your inner child, and that’s something that’s really important for me.
Being the kind of person that would have saved my younger self is something that inspires me to write a lot.
I also hope that sharing my story helps other people. I think art is something that allows you to share emotion and healing in a way that’s just so beautiful.
Another inspiration would definitely have to be Lucille Clifton, I talked about her in my anthology in the foreword: she’s an amazing poet, and her poem ‘won’t you come celebrate with me’ changed my life. Her poetry showed me how sharing your story can change everything. I think that’s so inspirational; I want to be that for someone else.
My final inspiration is, I don’t know, maybe boredom? There’s a little bit of healthy boredom there — if I’m not creating I feel stifled. When I’ve gone a little bit without writing something I do feel it, and I’m very much inspired by my own life and events that have changed me.
Art is something that allows you to share emotion and healing in a way that’s just so beautiful.
BI: What impact do you hope to have with your writing?
LA: When I was younger I would have said: “I want to be a world-famous author.” I’ve grown past that. I still would love mainstream success, but it’s not my goal anymore. I want to be able to measure my impact. There’s that question of how many true fans do you need to be successful? That’s what I’m focused on right now. I really do want to touch people with my work because I have experienced so much art that touched me and changed my life. I want to provide that for other people. I really want people to come to my work, especially little black girls, and see themselves and feel represented.
BI: What is your writing process like?
LA: My writing changes very much depending on what I’m writing. I’ve published a comedy play as well as my debut poetry anthology, and of course, my writing process was very different for both. When it comes to my anthology, some of the poems were pre-written because it is sort of semi-autobiographical. Some I started writing around 13-ish and it’s taken almost a decade to finish them if you think about it — which is wild!
For the rest, I looked at my anthology like a timeline and thought “What are the gaps that need to be filled in for the story to make sense? And what else does the audience need to know?” Then I titled poems based on what they needed to do to fill in the gap.
Sometimes I sit down and just write whatever comes to mind. Sometimes I take inspiration from other places. Sometimes I have an idea already of what the poem could be like, what it’s going to visually look like, or how I want the reader to feel with it. One of the poems in the anthology is called “Exodus 20 KJV.” I tried to make that poem very visually jarring and kind of uncomfortable for the reader because it was expressing what it was like for me growing up in a religious household with intrusive thoughts and struggling with my sexuality.
BI: Why did you decide to self-publish?
LA: Self-publishing was a big decision. I ultimately decided to do it because I felt so left out of the traditional publishing world. It is a very inaccessible industry for Black people. That’s not to say no Black person could succeed there — many have, despite barriers. Still, it’s really hard to get into traditional publishing as someone who doesn’t have those connections. A lot of publishing companies won’t even see you unless you have an agent, and for an agent, you need a cover letter, which is very specific in the way that you need to write it. No one seems to be willing to give you that secret of how to write the letter without paying them first.
So ultimately, self-publishing allowed me to go beyond the barriers of traditional publishing and tell stories that represent my life and struggles.
I felt so left out of the traditional publishing world. It is a very inaccessible industry for Black people.
BI: How do you think our community can best support self-published authors?
LA: The most important thing that the community can do to support our writers is to buy our books! Let our writers know their art has value! Even if you’re not going to read them — buy them as a gift for someone else. If the cover is pretty, and I think my cover is gorgeous (thanks @artbybolu!), you can use it to add some color to your shelves.
It’s just really important that you order these books because otherwise, these artists are not going to make any money, and many Black writers don’t have the luxury of writing and publishing if their books don’t make any impact. We have bills to pay, and if no one interacts with our work, why bother?
That’s the next important thing: Interact! It’s also important that you leave reviews wherever you can leave a review. Even if you’re not a very talkative person just one or two lines like, ‘Oh, I love this’ or ‘It was okay’ or ‘It was horrible for XYZ reasons’. Whatever you want to say, just put it out there because that’s the kind of thing that writers geek out over. One thing that inspires and pushes us to keep going is that positive feedback and knowing your work is doing what you wanted.
Black writers really need that extra support because white is seen as the default. Therefore, white stories are seen as a default — as if everyone can and should relate to white stories as a given. When we try to add diversity, white- led stories are seen as a great blank canvas, while our stories are seen as ‘political’ and ‘virtue-signaling’ and unrelatable.
Many Black writers don’t have the luxury of writing and publishing if their books don’t make any impact.
If we want to have more Black writers and more Black stories published, then we need to support Black artists. This stuff actually does trickle down. If a book becomes really successful and has a diverse cast, hopefully, any movie or TV adaptation will also have a diverse cast. This isn’t always the case, but we can use our purchasing power to show that all stories deserve to be told.
“There are many ways to tell a story. This is mine, and it is a celebration.”
You can follow Luwa Adebanjo to see more of her writing here on Medium, and support her work with a purchase: A Visitor Who Belongs Here is available now on Amazon.
Self-Published Spotlight is a series from BLK INK that seeks to elevate the work of BIPOC writers. Interviews are edited and condensed for clarity and readability. If you are a self-published author who would like a spotlight, check out our criteria and submission form:
