Today we’d like to introduce you to Tomi Adeyemi.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Tomi. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was able to do this fellowship in Brazil, during the summer of 2015. I was originally going to Brazil to study the parallels between the Brazilian slave trade and the American slave trade, and see how those differences and similarities kind of led to the African American identity and the Afro-Brazilian identity that’s emerging today. So, I thought I was going to write this kind of an epic tale of two sisters separated from the slave trade—one to Brazil, one in America.
Once I was got there, it became clear that that story wasn’t happening. It was raining one day so I ducked into a gift shop because I was trying not to get my hair wet. And I saw the gift shop owner was taking out people who were clearly just there to avoid the rain, so I was like, “Okay, look interested.” So, I’m looking around and I see this one big poster with nine different images and it was of these African gods and goddesses. And I remember being like, “Oh my god, this looks like an African The Last Airbender. What is this? This is so cool.”
So, that’s when I first discovered the Orisha and that was sort of the turning point in my fellowship. Because I went from trying to study all these things about their slave trade to studying everything I could about the Orisha and seeing plays and doing new research and talking to people. And so, I discovered this religion that I’d never known about.
Almost a year later, March or April of 2016, I stumbled across this picture. It was this digital illustration of this black girl with luminescent green hair. It was beautiful and so captivating. I remember I couldn’t stop looking at it.
And in my personal life, I’d gotten to a point where I realized what I wanted to do was writing and I couldn’t run away from that anymore. So that sort of led me to really put my all into it. I left my job, my full-time job, and I went to a part-time job so that I could really throw everything into this book. And the first book I tried to get published failed, but that was a great thing because I learned a lot about publishing.
And then within the state of the world, all the police brutality headlines. It was really, really, really weighing on me, as I knew it was weighing on basically every black person. And so, I took those experiences and inspirations and turned them into Children of Blood and Bone.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Yeah, lots of people don’t talk about my first book. I spent four years on it and it didn’t even get me a literary agent, but it taught me everything I needed to know about myself, my writing, and publishing. It gave me the confidence to really go for my dream.
I actually laid out a ten-year plan to achieve my publishing goals, and I had planned to write five books to help me get there. CBB was just my first attempt, but it would not have been successful at all had I not had the valuable experience from my first book.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’m a writer so my day to day can vary if I’m traveling but I try to be as organized as possible in order to maximize my time for writing!
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success for me means having the ability to influence the next generation of readers. I love hearing how Zélie or Amari are inspiring young adults to achieve more. They are the most passionate people and they are the people who are going to make the world a better place.
Contact Info:
- Website: tomiadeyemi.com
- Email: howdy@tomiadeyemi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tadeyemibooks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tadeyemibooks/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tomi_adeyemi?ref_src=twsrc%5Eappleosx%7Ctwcamp%5Esafari%7Ctwgr%5Eprofile
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