THIS WEEK
The Black Issue 2022 Yewande Biala
Biala seeks to inspire and share wisdom after success of Independent column
‘Love Island’ star Yewande Biala’s Reclaiming is a series of essays exploring topics including mental health, body image and influencer culture. The Bookseller spoke to her and Hodder publicity manager Kate Keehan
Questions Natasha Onwuemezi Could you tell us what the book is about?
YB I never know how to explain it to people because it’s non-fiction—it’s not like
The book is about learning and growing as a person, and finding broken pieces and putting them back together
you’re telling a specific story, like with fiction. But the name of the book kind of explains the book in itself. It’s called Reclaiming, and with each chapter I think that I’m reclaiming a litle bit of something that I lost along the way, or something that I thought I knew and I’m relearning—like with colourism, which was one of the hardest chapters to write. So the book is about learning and growing as a person, one step at a time, and finding broken pieces and puting them back together.
Where did the idea for the book come from?
YB I can’t even say me because I never thought I would have a book deal. I’ve always loved writing; I loved English, but I never thought I was good enough. Being a Black person and being Nigerian, you don’t really explore literature or English as a career choice. STEM was the only option for me growing up. I wrote a couple of Independent articles in 2021; people loved them and complimented me on my writing abilit, which I didn’t even know I had. That’s when I started hearing from publishers.
Why did you go with Hodder?
YB I went with Hodder because I felt like they got me and my story and they
YEWANDE BIALA 22 20th May 2022
weren’t trying to dilute me or my voice, and they believed that I could actually write the book. I think a lot of publishers believe celeb- rities need ghostwriters and don’t believe that they can write their books, but Hodder really believed that I could. I met with another
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