Alumni Profiles: Okechukwu Nzelu

Okechukwu Nzelu (English, 2007)

By Pippa Considine (Law/English, 1985)

‘I learned so much at Girton.’ Okechukwu Nzelu, writer and teacher, had met up with friends from Girton the night before our conversation for this piece. ‘I don’t want to pretend that Cambridge is immune to the problems of the world because it isn’t,’ he says, as he reflects on his career and his time at the College. ‘But I would hope that anybody who goes to Girton gets to have a great time and to enjoy learning in a warm, human environment.’

Okechukwu is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. He has two published novels: The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney was published in 2019 and won a Betty Trask Award; his second, Here Again Now, came out in 2022.

Both titles have received great acclaim. Author Bernadine Evaristo described The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney as ‘smart, serious and entertaining.’ In her New Statesman review, Preti Taneja said: ‘Joy is exactly the right word for this unforgettable debut, about a Nigerian–British girl coming of age in our mixed-up world.’

Here Again Now explores love and loss through the lives of the men at the heart of its story. Among many other plaudits, author Brit Bennett called it ‘a lyrical and insightful novel.’

The Guardian review described how ‘Nzelu brings verve and radiant detail while still mastering the skills to construct a high-stakes obstacle course.’

Brought up in Manchester in a British–Nigerian family, Okechukwu first visited Girton on an open day. ‘It just seemed like a lovely friendly, informal atmosphere…as close to normal as I think Cambridge is ever going to get.’ He remembers feeling that it was ‘somewhere that I could feel comfortable.’ The College history also struck him as forward-thinking and progressive, despite being part of an ancient university. ‘I loved that it was a college that was originally for women and let men in.’

Okechukwu went up to Girton in 2007. He dived into University and College life, acting in a number of productions, joining Girton’s Chapel Choir, rowing and taking the role of Ethnic Minorities representative for the JCR.

In his JCR role, he ran a shadowing scheme for BAME sixth-formers to experience a few days of university life and to encourage them to apply. ‘I really valued that experience, because the feedback that I got was that it really changed their perceptions of Cambridge. It can seem very intimidating and like it’s only for a certain type of person and I was grateful to be able to lift that veil.’

For him, studying English had always been the goal. ‘I loved being able to study English in a place like Girton. Reading things that I wouldn’t otherwise have read and being introduced to this vast sweep of English literature and English literary history.’

He developed a keen interest in the medieval period and in particular William Langland’s theological allegory and social satire The Dream of Piers Plowman, where the narrator/dreamer quests for the true Christian life, in the context of medieval Catholicism and corruption of that time. ‘It was this incredibly beautiful poem that was absolutely, unapologetically passionate and principled, but also really nuanced and thoughtful.

‘Sometimes the things that you read open you up to the possibilities of what literature can do. That might be in terms of technique, or form, or the voice of your work. And for me, Piers Plowman opened me up to the possibility of writing powerful works of literature that challenge the status quo in an incredibly bold way. Langland was writing about corruption within the church at the time, he was speaking truth to power. To be aware that that is something that had been done for 1000 years is quite a powerful thing, especially at such a young age, to know that there is a strong and bold tradition of politically engaged fiction.’

Writing for Okechukwu has been a lifelong passion. ‘I thought that writing stories was sort of the next logical step once you knew how to write letters and words and sentences,’ he says. He was encouraged by his teachers and inspired by writers from Nigerian Igbo culture, including Chinua Achebe. ‘Having such a successful writer who spoke our language, was incredibly valuable, to help to make me aware that sort of thing was possible, not to be the first one.’

At Girton, he was part of the College poetry group, run by students, but also attended by Fellows and lecturers. This included the then Director of Studies for English, Dr Sinéad Garrigan Mattar, whom he still sees. He describes her as ‘a deeply caring and thoughtful presence.’ The group considered each other’s original verse, submitted anonymously. ‘I think back on those evenings very fondly, largely because the poetry group helped expose me to the idea that people might read my work.’

His own writing, while not being autobiographical, draws from his experiences. The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney is set in Manchester and references Nnenna’s mother’s experiences at Cambridge.

In 2007, the student body at Cambridge was significantly less diverse than it is now and certainly very different from Okechukwu’s hometown. ‘I was struck when I realized how different Cambridge is in terms of diversity. In Manchester, the school I attended was really diverse. I wasn’t the only black kid, I wasn’t the only Nigerian kid, I wasn’t even the only Igbo kid in my year.

‘I was celebrating Manchester’s multicultural heritage and cultural life. But I was also observing that that isn’t the case everywhere, even within Manchester. Just because it’s diverse doesn’t mean it’s a paradise of equality, it’s certainly not. And I wanted to write about both sides of both cities.’

Cambridge inspired him with its cast of characters. ‘University draws together people from all sorts of different walks of life and backgrounds and who might have all sorts of different ambitions for life and their careers, or their relationships. And that makes for a really great, quirky, weird bunch of characters, which for me, was exactly the kind of story I wanted to write.’

But most of all, it gave him personal conviction. ‘My time at Girton and at Cambridge helped give me the confidence to feel that I could make the contribution I have, and it gave me experiences that shaped my understanding of the dualities—the multiplicities—of life in 21st-century England.’

He needed to find a career that would underpin his creative ambition. ‘I was always aware, certainly as an adult, that writing is not necessarily something that pays the bills by itself.’ After graduating, he returned home to Manchester, initially working in an administrative role for a law firm, where he decided that the profession was not for him. Then he took up a role at independent literary publisher Carcanet Press, which gave him scope to continue developing his critical and creative thinking, as well as his writing.

He was also drawn towards education. The Girton shadowing scheme had shown him, ‘that you can help people with the barriers that exist in education.’ After three years at Carcanet, he embarked on the Teach First programme, which for him involved two years of working in secondary schools in Greater Manchester. On completion, he took up a teaching post at his old school.

Okechukwu kept up his writing alongside the teaching, winning a Northern Writers Award in 2014 as he headed into his second year of Teach First. The award was a step change in his approach to writing, giving him structured support as well as recognition.

In 2018, he signed a contract with Dialogue Books for his first novel. There was a deadline for his manuscript and he was required to do publicity. The move to Lancaster University where he is a lecturer in Creative Writing has allowed him the flexibility to build in his writing work and given him fellow novelists as colleagues.

It has also given him a renewed respect for those who taught him at Cambridge. ‘When I think about how thoughtful some of my lecturers were, how much they cared about us and how much time they dedicated, in some cases it’s quite breath-taking.’

Photo credit: Alex Douglas