Contributor Spotlight: Itoro Bassey
Bassey's story, "Here Is a Forest," appears in Issue 43.4.
Tell us a bit about your piece.
The story is about what it means for us as the children of Black immigrants in the diaspora to live in our bodies and to inherit so much. Sometimes we understand and sometimes we don't understand the entire weight of it, but we know we have to metabolize it and make sense of it in the now. So it really grapples with what's passed down from generation to generation and these ideas of what it means to belong and also let go of that which may no longer serve the lineage.
What do you hope that people glean from your work?
I really hope that it's something that people who read it will see themselves in, or at least know somebody who goes through similar stuff.
What does it mean to you to be published in Callaloo?
I am really honored...I couldn't think of a better home for it than Callaloo, which has such a rich literary tradition. I think of the writers it's published who have been such guideposts for me—Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid—these are writers who I read when I really need a lifeline. They taught me so much about what it means to be a Black woman who writes and also loves everything Black. So for that, I thank Callaloo and I thank the lineage. So get your copy and read it. Support what we do.
ITORO BASSEY is a writer, journalist, and cultural critic whose work explores themes of belonging, gender, and cultural hybridity in diasporic and African literature. Her forthcoming short story collection, Ajebutter Women (Regal House Publishing, 2027), examines how women of Nigerian origin navigate identity and difference across cultural landscapes. Bassey’s work has received the W.S. Porter Prize, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and the Three Sisters Award from NELLE journal. She has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Edward Albee Foundation, and the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study, among others.
