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The author of the
poetry collection ‘I am Memory’ doesn’t fancy being called just a poet.
And though she loves poetry, she wouldn’t say she prefers one genre of
literature to another.

“I think it’s too
early to judge me. I like poetry quite all right, I find it
introspective,” she says but adds that she wants to be judged on her
writings. “I’d rather be a successful writer. You know when they say
writer/poet, I want to be that.”

Born and raised in
Lagos, Verissimo who has worked as a journalist, copywriter and editor,
has made a career of writing. Writing is the one thing she is very
passionate about and she is prepared to give it her all. “Everything I
always wanted to do has been writing. It’s all I know how to do in the
sense of skill.”

Passion for writing

Writing was a habit
the writer cultivated from an early age; she started by copying writers
whose books she read. “As a child, I learnt a lot from reading. I
started to write like the writers whose books I read.”

She grew to have a
passion for the art and decided to act upon it. She resolved to
dedicate her time to writing by resigning from her day job in an
advertising firm and has declined other employment opportunities since
then to concentrate fully on her writing. It was a risk she was willing
to take, leaving behind the regular income of a day job for one she
couldn’t be too sure of.

“When you like
something very passionately, you want to give it your time, watch it
grow and understand it. The reasons things don’t succeed is because we
don’t give it time. Relationships don’t succeed because we don’t give
it time, parents don’t know their children because there’s no time,”
she explains.

Verissimo’s passion
for writing is motivated by qualities, including honesty and integrity,
that she learnt as a child. She believes that writing is one good way
to portray these qualities.

“I’m from a humble
background, from a family where we are taught that the truth is above
all else. We were taught that integrity is above all else and honesty
is very important.”

Reading is another
activity the winner of the Carlos Idize Ahmad Prize (for her first book
of poetry) loves to engage in besides writing and she discloses that it
is a source of inspiration to her. “I enjoy reflecting on what I read
and see.”

She notes, however,
that it is difficult to place a finger on what inspires her given that
she gets inspired by everything around her. She nonetheless loves
listening to people because she learns a lot that way.

Thrills and trials

The writer enjoys
the thrills of writing at her own pace, unlike when she had a day job.
“There’s no definite time for writing. When I had a day job I seemed to
have a definite time but I got fed up with the routine so I don’t have
a definite flow.”

Though she likes
writing at her own pace, she delights in writing at the least expected
moment. “Interestingly, I love to write when I’m tired because your
thoughts clash and when you wake up in the morning, you find that there
is beauty in the ashes,” she discloses.

“Every day comes
with its own challenges,” notes the writer, though she insists that
they are not really challenges. “I don’t know how to talk about the
challenges because to me, they are like the steps to reaching my
destination.”

She believes there
are no challenges when you overcome them and when you do what you love
doing. Her advice to aspiring writers is to believe in themselves.

“There are people
who write because they want to be famous and some genuinely love to
write.” She believes that writing as a career should be borne only out
of love and not because of fame.

The future

When asked about
her future in writing, Verissimo compares herself to characters in a
novel. She explains that writers usually do not know the future of
their characters until the end of the story and she likes to see her
future as something similar. “Knowing your character doesn’t mean
knowing the future of a character. Let your character flow into your
story. So I’m like that character.”

She adds that she
does not have total control over her career. “I’m a protagonist in the
hands of the being writing my own story. I don’t know what that story
is but I’m hoping I’m a protagonist that will excel and I’m working
towards it.”

One fact remains
certain though: she will always be a writer and she intends to work
very hard at it. “I’m going to work very hard, I’m going to improve my
writing and I’m going to read so that I can excel in what I do.” The
writer’s ultimate goal is to reach as many people as possible by
widening her horizon. She has recently collaborated with photographer
Toye Gbade on a collection of poems and photography. The collection
features the Makoko community and will be published later this year.

It is writing or
nothing for Verissimo and she gets at it every day. “I’m working on a
novel and I have frame works for other ideas,” she discloses. The book,
she says, is not a cause book but she is “just following the lead of
the characters.” She likes to see herself as a reader who is looking to
be entertained so she does not limit herself to a particular theme but
wants to be free to write on any subject.

However, she does not feel the same is true for her poetry. “For
poetry, I have a running theme that grows on its own. At the end of the
day, I’m socially free and try to expand myself.”