Nigeria’s Kenechi Uzor Founds Publishing Outfit

Tobi Akinloye is a creative designer who has built his skills around brand identity, illustrations and 3D designs.

He is a graduate of Human Resource Management from University of Lagos who opted to chase his passion in digital design. In this interview, he talks about his art, switching careers, and more. Excerpts:

United States-based Nigerian writer and journalist, Kenechi Uzor, has founded a publishing house, Iskanchi Press and Magazine.

The publishing outfit focuses on publishing fiction, essays, poetry, folklore and folktales, children’s books, books on African heroes, and history, as written by Africans. According to what is written on their website, the press accepts manuscripts in every genre provided they “honor the craft of writing and are written by Africans.

Iskanchi Press also houses the Iskanchi Literary Magazine, a Hausa word for ‘mischief’ or ‘waywardness’. It will seek out and publish wayward/experimental pieces by African writers. The idea is to showcase works that engage with and examine what the experimental form looks like in the African literary context. They are interested in pieces that disobey in form and content, in works that bother by being without borders. It is presently open for submissions and they pay for published work.

Kenechi Uzor has worked as the Kachifo/Farafina Enterprise Editor and the Farafina Trust General Manager. His writing has featured in Electric Literature, The Millions, Catapult, Litro Magazine, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Blue Monday Review, Brittle Paper, Mount Island, and amongst others. He is a 2020 Tin House Scholar, a winner of the 2020 Scowcroft Prose prize, and has received residency and fellowship awards from Ebedi International Residency and the Dee Artists’ Colony.

He teaches writing at the University of Utah, has founded a new publishing outfit in response to the dire need for more works by people of colour in the publishing industry. The new independent publishing house called Iskanchi Press is focused on fiction, essays, poetry, folklore and folktales, children’s books, books on African heroes, and history, as written by Africans.

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