Bennett Fellow Uche Okonkwo Reads at Assembly

By Ella Brady, Otto Do, Jeannie Eom and Emma Liu

This year’s George Bennett Fellow, Uche Okonkwo, was introduced on the virtual Assembly stage last Tuesday. Okonkwo will reside on campus for this academic year as she finishes her first short story collection.

Every year, the Bennett Fellow Committee selects a George Bennett Fellow from hundreds of applicants to bring to campus, honoring an author or poet looking to develop their writing. The award provides a stipend for the school year, along with housing and other benefits. Okonkwo, the author of a short fiction novel The Girl Who Lied, looks to utilize this opportunity to both finish her short story collection and explore novel writing. 

Bennett Fellowship Coordinator and English Instructor Todd Hearon said at the Assembly that “the fellowship has only continued to grow in national and international prestige until I can say it with no bias at all, that it is one of the, if not the absolute best fellowships being offered to young and or emerging writers at a crucial formative time in their careers each year.”

Okonkwo was born in Lagos, Nigeria and draws heavily from her life in her fiction. “I’m always worried about how my family will react when they read my writing... I try to be truthful to my emotions, but I can fictionalize the details,” Okonkwo said at a question and answer session after the assembly.

Additionally, Okonkwo attempts to bridge cultural differences through writing. “We all live within different cultures and the cultures that we live in [are like] islands… I need to learn [about] some new cultures that I’m trying to adopt,” she said. “Having moved from Nigeria, there are a lot of new things that I’ve been exposed to since coming to the United States… [Writing gives] me a new lens with which to think about some of the things that [have] happened and still happen in Nigeria and also the things that are happening here that I’m having to learn about.”

During the assembly, many students lauded Okonkwo for her navigation of topics relating to mental health. Okonkwo said that many of the scenarios that she has written into her novel come from observing the people around her. “I’ve been in positions where I’ve been able to see other people go through [tough situations]. Where I come from, people with [mental health issues] get set aside and discarded. This is one of the things that I was trying to look at with this story,” she said. “Who deserves help, and who doesn’t?”

Okonkwo hoped to elicit more compassion for people with mental health issues, however big or small. “Everybody deserves and everybody deserves support. That’s where the story is trying to go,” she said.

Additionally, Okonkwo noted that she wants to give hope to her readers. “There’s just so much in the world to be sad and wary of... I try to think of ways to give hope, but not false hope, ways to show that there’s work to be done, work that’s worth doing,” Okonkwo said. “This [is the] message that I’m trying to include in my writing: to be honest about the struggles, but also to paint the picture of a hopeful future.”

For her in-process short story collection, Okonkwo is concentrating on revision. She plans to send her work to publishers in a few months’ time.

After finalizing this collection, Okonkwo plans to take advantage of the remaining months by beginning a longer narrative, a writing form she has yet to try. “I plan to focus on trying to start working on a novel,” she said. “For someone who’s used to writing short forms, the thought of trying a novel is really scary.”

Okonkwo has loved literature since her youth, reading romance and crime novels while a teen. However, she never planned to go into writing. Though she has made it her profession, Okonkwo said that she would not recommend aspiring writers to rely on their writing for an income. “That’s too much pressure to put something on writing. I’ve always had other jobs, whether it’s editing or freelance work,” Okonkwo said.

Because Okonkwo does not have to worry about working during her fellowship, she has spent her time reading African authors. “As I moved into early adulthood, I started to discover African writers,” she said. “Chinua Achebe, Akwaeke Emezi and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o are some of the authors I’ve revisited.”

As students engage with writing over the next year, Okonkwo will be available to assist them. Students can reach Okonkwo at uokonkwo@exeter.edu.