Taiye Selasi
Taiye Selasi
Taiye Selasiis a writer and photographer. Of Nigerian and Ghanaian origin, she describes herself as a "local" of Accra, Berlin, New York and Rome...
NationalityGhanaian
ProfessionWriter
CountryGhana
artist order stuff
As a young woman, I had been seeking experience, knowledge, truth, the stuff writers need in their work, but when the artist actually kicked in, I came to understand that in this romantic relationship I was not free to be myself, or to find myself, in order to begin the true work I needed to do.
class sight subjective
Sight is subjective. We learned that in class.
who-i-am defining twins
Being a twin, and being my sister's twin, is such a defining part of my life that I wouldn't know how to be who I am, including a writer, without that being somehow at the centre.
pain yoga retreat
The thing that comes most frequently to me on yoga retreats is excruciating pain in my hips.
ambition writing eight
I was four when I announced my ambition to write, eight when I began publishing such claims.
party ghana human-life
Every Christmas, all around Ghana, there are tons of these parties and they are full of everything that exists in human life in Ghana and worldwide.
writing heart mind
I write essays to clear my mind. I write fiction to open my heart.
creative identity west
I consider myself West African, among other cultural identities, and a writer, among other creative ones.
summer ghana west
The summer I finished my first novel 'Ghana Must Go,' I drove across west Africa: from Accra to Lome to Cotonou to the deliciously named Ouagadougou.
writing play oxford
I wrote fiction during my entire childhood, from age 4 to 18, and started writing plays when I went to Yale and Oxford.
heart pages blank
The writer presents himself to the blank page not with an open passport but an open heart.
humans human-beings concepts
How can I come from a nation? How can a human being come from a concept?
emotional long sound
When I'm working, I'm so narrowly focused on sound, language, rhythm, flow, that I rarely feel the emotion of the text. It's only after - long after - I've finished a piece that I can experience in any way its emotional charge.
spiritual mean unique
What distinguishes [Afropolitans] is a willingness to complicate Africa – namely, to engage with, critique, and celebrate the parts of Africa that mean most to them. Perhaps what most typifies the Afropolitan consciousness is the refusal to oversimplify; the effort to understand what is ailing in Africa alongside the desire to honour what is wonderful, unique. Rather than essentialising the geographical entity, we seek to comprehend the cultural complexity; to honour the intellectual and spiritual legacy; and to sustain our parents’ cultures.