Some Thoughts with ... Nuzo Ozoh
12 Nov 2024The Author/s
Nuzo Onoh
Nuzo Onoh is a Nigerian-British writer of Igbo descent. She is a pioneer of the African horror subgenre. Her books, The Reluctant Dead (2014) and Unhallowed Graves (2015) are both collections of ghost stories depicting core Igbo culture, traditions, beliefs and superstitions, all within a horror context. She’s also the author of the novels, The Sleepless (2016) and Dead Corpse (2017), The Unclean (2020), and A Dance for The Dead (2021). Titan Books UK will publish four of her new works from October 2024 Where The Dead Brides Gather until 2026 Futility, The Turning of Sally May and The Ghost in the Moon.
Hailed as the “Queen of African Horror”, Nuzo’s writing showcases both the beautiful and horrific in the African culture within fictitious narratives. She holds a Law degree and a Masters degree in Writing, both from Warwick University, United Kingdom. An avid musician with an addiction to JungYup and K-indie pop music, Nuzo plays both the guitar and piano, and holds an NVQ in digital music production from City College, Coventry. She currently resides in The West Midlands, UK, with her cat, Tinkerbell.
The Interview
1.- Could you introduce
yourself to Jamreads’ readers?
I’m Nuzo Onoh, popularly known as the Queen of African
Horror. I’m a writer of African speculative fiction; K-drama and K-indie pop
mega-fan; besotted mother; lazy cook and pork belly lover.
2.- What impulse drove you to
start writing?
Nothing specific. I dabbled in writing from a young age but
only took it seriously after I returned to my old university, Warwick
University, to do a Masters degree in writing aged almost fifty years. I
realised it was a matter of ‘now or never’ to pursue one of my numerous
childhood dreams, since I’d grown too old to become a popstar.
3.- Let’s talk about your new
book, Where the Dead Brides Gather. What inspired you to create this story?
Like all my works, I never plan any story or plot the
storyline. My characters call to me when they’re ready to tell me their stories
and I just sit and type. With WHERE THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER, I was
boiling the kettle in the kitchen when an image of a young girl coated in white
paint flashed inside my head and that was it. I knew I had to write the story
and once I started, I quickly realised it wasn’t white paint as I’d thought,
but something else completely; a supernatural phenomenon.
4.- Was it challenging to
capture the voice of such a young character as Bata? Which part would you say
it was the most difficult to write?
It’s never difficult for me to capture voices because I just
listen to what the characters tell me and type it as I hear it. Unlike many of
my other characters, Bata wasn’t much of a talker and instead, exposed her
thoughts to me, which I found really sad because it highlighted her total
powerlessness in both her family and wider society. The part I found most
difficult was writing the otherworld of Ibaja-La, the realm of the dead brides.
I’m not a fantasy writer, yet this character was taking me to a world that
required me to write like a fantasy author.
5.- Your novels include a bit
of social commentary. Why do you think it’s important to share it with the
public?
Like all my works, and in fact, as many horror writers do, we
use the medium of horror to highlight many social ills that would be impossible
to tackle in a non-fiction work where one runs the risk of sounding preachy. Like
every other culture, Africa has it good and bad cultural practices and beliefs.
Dangerous patriarchy and equally dangerous superstitions are amongst some of
them. So, for instance, I needed to highlight in the story that mental health
isn’t infectious, that being bitten by a person with mental health issues wouldn’t
infect someone with rabies-like madness.
6.- Would you say your writing
process has changed alongside your career?
My writing process hasn’t changed, albeit, I’ve recently been
experimenting with multi-genre work of horror/fantasy/magical realism/humour. WHERE
THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER has elements of magical realism, fantasy and humour
within the predominantly horror context. As for my writing process, I still
write only when my characters speak to me and stop writing when they stop
speaking to me. So, I could go for a month without writing a single word and
then have a week of non-stop manic writing where I become a total recluse till
the story is done. I still need one particular song playing on loop to write
each book. Once I’m done writing, I never listen to that song again for years.
For WHERE THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER, the song was “Sad Tango” by the
K-pop superstar, Rain. Finally, I don’t write sitting in my study. It makes me
feel as if I’m working and destroys my concentration. So, I write either in the
kitchen, in the living room, in the bedroom, and even in the car; anywhere but
my study, which is mainly for doing podcasts, zoom calls and interviews.
7.- In 2023, you were awarded
the Bram Stoker Lifetime Award. How did you feel about it? Do you think there’s
more pressure on you?
It was an unexpected honour to receive the Bram Stoker
Lifetime Achievement Award. It was a validation of both my work and African
horror as another bona-fide addition to the regional-horror genre pool like
Japanese, Korean, and Latin American horror, to mention but a few. And no; it
hasn’t put more pressure on me. On the contrary, I now feel a sense of freedom,
knowing that other African writers can now carry on the mantle and go on to
saturate the horror space with more works of African horror while I finally get
to indulge my dream of writing all these other stories I’ve been pushing away
for years as I worked flat-out to promote African horror to a global audience.
8.- Which elements would you
say are your favourite ones when writing horror?
Anything to do with ghosts and haunting, especially when
vengeful ghosts with unfinished business exact their deadly revenge and the
wicked get their just desserts.
9.- Which three horror pieces
would you recommend to the readers of this interview
- DEAD CORPSE by my unhumble self, Nuzo Onoh 😊
- AMONG THE LIVING by Tim Lebbon
- MAGE OF FOOLS by Eugen Bacon
- WRITING AND RISING FROM ADDICTION by Brian Bowyer, a book to inspire
every writer to stick to their art no matter the challenges lie throws them.
10.- What can we expect from
Nuzo Onoh in the future?
WHERE THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER is the first of four works in this
new multi-genre writing I mentioned to be released in the coming years. THE
FAKE GHOST is released in August 2025 by Dead Sky Publishing; FUTILITY
will be published in October 2025 by Titan Books, while THE TURNING OF
SALLY-MAE and THE GHOSTS IN THE MOON will be released in 2026, also
by Titan Books.
Where the Dead Brides Gather is the last novel written by Nuzo Onoh. You can get a copy from Bookshop using this link.