British-Nigerian Author's Books Set for February 2018 Revamp
By Kirsty Osei-Bempong | MisBeee
Writes
Monday, 24 July 2017.
The son of the late
British-Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta is leading a project to digitise and
re-launch all her works.
By February 2018, Emecheta's (main picture) most well-known novels: 'In the Ditch’, ‘The Bride Price’
and ‘The Slave' will be re-launched with more titles set to follow, Onwordi
told MisBeee at the sidelines of literary festival Africa Writes earlier this
month.
The plan to digitise and republish Emecheta's entire collection of over 20 books –
complete with new book covers - emerged after the Ibusa-born London-based
author passed away in January this year.
"One of the consequences was a realisation that lots of people wanted
to
read her books but unfortunately some of her books have gone out of print,”
said Sylvester. “And so the idea came to me, and the other people I have been collaborating
with, that we should get together and form a publishing company to re-launch
some of those editions.”
Despite Emecheta's work spanning almost 30 years; some of her books have fallen
out of print in the UK. Sylvester has been working to secure the copyright for
most of them and is looking to digitise the remaining third.
Her collection includes works of fiction, children's stories, plays, and short
stories. She was also a prolific academic writer.
Her semi-autobiographical piece 'In the Ditch' started life as columns in the
magazine New Statesman and was eventually published as her first novel in 1972.
The novel charts the life of a Nigeria-born mum who, like Buchi, single-handedly
brought up five children in London after leaving her husband.
Emecheta's work touches on multiple themes linked to womanhood, race, identity and
displacement.
Sylvester (pictured below) hopes that plans to digitise her collection will widen the appeal of
books to new audience.
(c) MisBeee Writes
There are also plans to sell translation rights to countries across the world,
including in Brazil and China. A formal launch that pays tribute to Buchi and
her work is timed for early February at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Sylvester
revealed.
Watch
Kirsty’s interview with Sylvester here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8uZqn7kOVE&t=378s