A guest post by Sosthenes Ekeh
Hello everyone! I am Sosthenes Nnamdi Ekeh from Nigeria. The pronunciation of my first name has always posed some difficulty to people in my home country, and I guess that’s one of the reasons I have grown so fond of the name. I am a new PhD intern at the Press, the sixth of the PhD students who will have completed a two-year internship here. Currently in the second year of my PhD program in the Department of English and Film Studies, my research centres on the phenomenon of suicide and depression in postcolonial African literature. I am particularly interested in the linguistic violence and postcolonial sensibility brought about by colonialism and their convergence with the discourse of suicidality in African literature. This research trajectory, which is completely different from my usual focus on textual criticism in literary studies, was largely influenced by the recent explosion of suicide cases in Nigeria, especially among our university students.
I completed my BA and MA in the Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and was also teaching at the same university before I relocated to Edmonton in September 2023 to begin my doctoral programme at the University of Alberta. Being the first graduate to emerge not just from my family but from my kin, I would say that my academic journey has been quite a rough one, as is often the experience of people who are pathfinders. But it has been exciting as well as challenging, with my undying passion for scholarship and the instinctive curiosity for new discoveries propelling me through every conceivable hurdle. For instance, my secondary education was suspended for years due to non-availability of funds, but the seductive appeal of knowledge lured me back to the classroom, despite having to rely solely on menial jobs to pay my way. To do so, I left behind the remaining few years needed for the completion of a business apprenticeship. Knowing that my financial background offered little to no prospects for a university education, I started to explore academic opportunities early on while focusing on achieving excellence in my studies. For this, I wrote and directed plays, which were usually performed by a group of student actors at social events; I wrote and recited poems; and took part in debates and news broadcasting, among many other activities.
Besides providing me with sponsorships, these dynamic experiences were the shaping force behind my career in English and literary studies, and have, to date, continued to animate my interest not only in creative art but also in various media of language use. Although I have yet to publish a book, I have published research papers, short stories, poems, and playlets. During my undergraduate studies, I served as the Editor-in-Chief of my departmental journal, The Muse, the longest surviving students’ journal in Africa, founded by Chinua Achebe in 1963, and this was my first-ever experience in publishing.
However, my first few days with the Press have alerted me to the wide range of differences between publishing in Nigeria and what apparently occurs here. I am irresistibly attracted to the new vistas of experience which the internship already promises, as much as I am drawn to a career path in book publishing. Having worked as a freelance copyeditor for journals and as an editor with Papertrue, an editing company, before I moved to Canada, I believe that going through these two years of training will be a great boost to my technical language competence and communication skills, besides enriching my experience in publishing and print culture.
But this wouldn’t be possible without the enabling environment the staff members at the Press create. It’s just amazing to see the level of enthusiasm and conviviality they bring to publishing, which not only facilitates a good atmosphere of learning but also whips up the motivation to drink deep from their well of experience. Given my burning thirst for knowledge, I fear that I might empty this well before my internship is over. But for now, I look forward to my foray into the Canadian publishing industry.
