Write Now with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Who are you?

I’m Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, an author and teaching artist based in New York City.

What do you write?

I’ve published primarily children’s books, fiction and nonfiction, from picture books through young adult works. I’ve also written a play, and I’m currently working on fiction and nonfiction for adults.

I started writing because I grew up immersed in stories. My mother was an immigrant from Jamaica, and my father is from Nigeria, and I grew up in a home rich with stories about migration, home, and family. Our bookshelves were always packed full, overflow towers of books perched at their edges. Weekly library visits were a highlight. We moved a lot, all over the place. I didn’t always know all of the places that I was from until I encountered them in stories. I was very shy, and I found freedom, discovered my creative and intellectual strengths through literacy.

My parents provided me with a liberal supply of blank books, legal pads, and writing tools. I grew up doodling and scribbling, jotting down scraps of dialogue and description, even the occasional line from a favorite read. I've always known, from my days writing and illustrating stories for my little sister in exchange for some "stop bothering me" time, that I would write for children. Who am I? Who do I want to be? Those are the questions I wrestled with daily, in my scrapbooky childhood journals.

I love what I do because I always have questions, I’m always wondering, I’m curious about the world and how we move through it, and story helps me work on those questions – not necessarily always finding answers, and sometimes coming to more questions. Writing is not always easy, but I love the ways it can be like a puzzle, working to figure out a story, the ways that it can be joy-filled and make me laugh out loud, the ways that it can really be exciting. One of my favourite pieces of writing is from Gwendolyn Brooks’ Paul Robeson:

we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.

I love the ways that stories help us forge bonds and build community, remind us that “we are each other’s harvest,” and I hope that my stories encourage readers to see their whole selves as valuable to the world. I hope that my stories affirm theirs, help to empower readers to treasure, examine, and grow their own stories.

Where do you write?

I usually write at different branches of the public libraries in New York City. I love the different personalities that they have. If the weather allows, I love working outside, by the Hudson River, or in city parks. I always have a couple of small notebooks with me, and a few different-colored pens.

When do you write?

I’m at my best early in the day, but I’m writing whenever I can, depending on deadlines, etc. I try to set 90 minute blocks of work throughout the day. I also consider long walks a part of my writing process; they often help me get unstuck, or let the ideas that have been simmering just below the surface of my consciousness become a little more solid.

Photo courtesy of Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Why do you write?

I write to create new opportunities to listen, to step outside of myself and my affinities into unknown people and worlds. I write to learn things I didn’t know I needed to learn. I write because I adore the magic and mystery of life, and we want to imagine, and remember, and share.

How do you overcome writer's block?

Reading something I love or am excited about can be very helpful, also music and movement. Sometimes knitting or sewing – making something with my hands really helps. Sometimes working on something else (I usually have more than one project going at a time) or giving myself an intentional break – some space to *not* think about the story, or the fact that I’m stuck, is very helpful.