Brittle Paper, one of Africa’s leading literary platforms, has announced that it will be releasing Holy Sex: A Nigerian Church Erotica by Obinna Udenwe.
Last year Sooo Many Stories, one of continents better literary spaces in the continent with a focus on Uganda, made a strategic move as they opted to become a publishing house full time. It was a bitter sweet moment for us here at JamesMurua.com. The sweet part was that we would get new books that we want to read and since then there has already been two; Kagayi Peter’s The Headline That Morning and Philippa Namutebi Kabali Kagwa’s Flame and Song. The bitter part was that Ugandan content from that establishment would die out which sucks.
It seems like this “literary space becoming a publisher” is becoming a thing as Brittle Paper unveiled its first publication Holy Sex by writer Obinna Udenwe. Brittle Paper as y’all who read this is kind of one of the earlier ones of us in the African literary blogosphere in the millenium. If this blogger would consider themselves the Cypher of The Matrix, the Brittle Paper is the Trinity of the whole shebang. (In case you are wondering, Molara Wood is the Oracle and Kinna Reads is Morpheus; we are all still looking for Neo)
So what is this new publication being unveiled? Holy Sex is a dark and humorous tale that breaks the silence around the Nigerian church as an erotic space. The novella chronicles the sexual exploits of Pastor Samuel, the General Overseer of Saving Grace, Inc.— a new generation Pentecostal church in Lagos. Pastor Samuel is rich, charismatic, and handsome. When he isn’t delivering inspirational sermons, performing miracles, and winning souls for the Lord, he is engaged in all manner of illicit relations with female congregants, who he abandons the moment the relationship becomes inconvenient.
It’s not Obinna Udenwe’s first entry into the whole writing thing. His short stories have appeared on Brittle Paper, Expound Magazine, the Kalahari Review, Fiction 365, Munyori Literary Journal, The Short Story is Dead Vol 1 &2, and African Roar. He is also the winner of the ANA Prize for Prose Fiction 2015, the Nigerian Writers Award 2016, the National Top 12 Award 2009 and the African International Achievers Award 2012.
His first novel Satans and Shaitans set against the backdrop of Nigeria’s on-going terrorism tensions and upcoming elections is a powerful story about love, politics, power, religion and corruption.
Holy Sex begun as an online series and after nearly a hundred thousand views, it is taking on a new life as an ebook available for download on the following platforms Okadabooks.com and Amazon.com.
Are we here at JamesMurua.com following Brittle Paper and Soo Many Stories into the murky world of publishing you ask? I wouldn’t bet on it. That challenge I pass on to Bookshy and Kinna Reads.
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