The Power of the Pen

Below, we asked Afabwaje a few questions about her journey as a writer and how she plans to use her gift of writing to empower Black women and girls.

The protagonists of my stories are mostly Black females. They’re not accessories in my fiction, but complicated characters with desires, strengths, vulnerabilities, and flaws. My hope is that Black girls and women would find themselves increasingly represented in fiction as whole and human and complex. Representation is empowering. When I lived in DC, I once organized a weekend writing retreat for Black women at a cottage in Annapolis. I facilitated the writing sessions and developed writing prompts, and it was a time of encouragement for these women to give themselves the space and time to share their writing. As I continue on this writing journey, I hope to have the opportunity to not only write my fiction as a novelist, but also to create spaces for Black women to have their voices heard.