Michael Echeruo

Michael Joseph Chukwudalu Echeruo (born March 14, 1937) is a Nigerian academic, professor and literary critic from Umunumo, Ehime-Mbano LGA, Imo State in the southeastern region of Nigeria. He is the William Safire Professor of Modern Letters in the English Department at Syracuse University since 1990. Quotes Actually from the beginning. I always conceived of Expert in All Styles as a collection that would tell, through various voices, perspectives, and styles, the story of contemporary Nigeria. The collection’s purpose was to set out the flavour of Nigerian life at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, similar to James Joyce’s Dubliners in setting out early 20th century Irish life. The title was one I conceived for the collection from the beginning. Interestingly, the story Expert in All Styles was one of the last to be written, even though the title and its setting in a barber shop was an idea from the beginning. The explicit confidence of the craftsman, conveyed in signs that cries EXPERT IN ALL STYLES, is, for me, an attribute of the Nigerian spirit and this was something I wanted to capture in the collection. The story itself when I finally wrote it was of course more nuanced and complicated. The stories and the characters that live in them come from life. From observing the life around us and having enough empathy to feel the world from the perspectives of others. The characters come from this and the stories emerge from the characters themselves. It is one of the reasons I love writing, this immersion in other lives, watching these characters and the stories that spring from them. It is incredibly important. I want to tell stories that matter to me. I want to interact with characters that resonate with me. Family, those with whom we most closely live our lives, are a key part in understanding and interrogating our human experience. The family relationships in the collection are varied and sometimes quite complicated with intriguing dynamics of love, joy, envy, betrayal, passion and disappointment. I am not sure there is any message that I would like readers to take. I want them to enjoy the stories, to feel that the time they have spent reading Expert in All Styles has enriched their lives. I certainly hope it does. Read and write. Write! Write! Write for yourself. Focus on the writing part. When that comes together you will have the satisfaction of creating work that resonates with you and derive satisfaction from the creative spirit that drew you to writing in the first place. Hopefully, the other things will take care of themselves. Focus on the writing. First, be happy with that.