“Nameless” Book Sprint in Nigeria
Last week we finished the first fiction Book Sprint, “Nameless” was the name of the book produced in Abuja, Nigeria. One day after the Book Sprint ended a test print was run, and yesterday two thousand copies were printed.
Starting from the working title “The Future We Want,” eight writers set out to create characters and stories of present-day Nigerians with glimpses of alternative futures ahead. The stories of the book “Nameless” center around a fictional marketplace in a town that contains all of Nigeria in a nutshell. To quote from the book:
Nameless is a city. A country within borders. A boundless space of ideas. A cosmos with realities, stark and painful, quiet and loud. A space crippled by fears. Nameless is populated. West African. It is in the minds of its people, black and proud. Sometimes Nameless is human. An idea. Sometimes it is in the past. Often times it is the now. Other times, it is the future.
None of the eight writers had participated in a Book Sprint before. Here are some opinions captured during the Book Sprint for an upcoming documentary:
Chioma Agwuegbo about the Book Sprint:
Kalu Aja about the Book Sprint:
The contributors (and to be honest, the facilitators, too!) where surprised how well the Book Sprint methods could be applied to writing fiction collaboratively.
Chioma Agwuegbo about fiction and collaboration:
Rafeeat Aliyu about ownership and writing stories and characters collaboratively:
See photos from the Book Sprint here.