Be The Rain

Updates on the work so far and where to find me this summer.

Hi!

I hope your days have been tender.

For my part, I’ve been in the midst of balancing clinic days with the work of creating. I finished up National Youth Service; I started service around the same time promotion had just started for The Bone River, and it’s been rewarding; my clinical skills are the sharpest they’ve ever been, but I’m just happy to be done, can’t lie. As writing stories and preparing to write stories has me in an oddly ritualistic mood, I’ve gone back to the things that remind me of who I am and the stories I look up to. I’ve also put down the first words of my next novel, which I promise is a sequel to The Bone River. Finding Afem and Heych (wherever she may be!) has not been as scary as I thought, but then again, reconnecting is easy when you never really left…

I have two things to share with you for the month.

Awards and Where to Find Me in June.

Commensalism, or the Labyrinth’s Vessels” is a 2026 Ignyte Award Outstanding Short Story Finalist ✨

I am honoured to be sharing this ballot with incredible authors. This story means so much to me, and I am grateful to everyone who nominated it. To everyone who read a conversation between a chef from Lagos and the super-intelligent slime mould that conquered Earth and shared it with their people, thank you!

I’m grateful to editors Olivia Kidula and Somto Ihezue for believing in the work, and to the other amazing people at Will This Be A Problem for giving this story a home. Finally, to all my friends and colleagues, for all the amazing feedback as it was coming to life, and for cheering me through every rejection email.

Other stories that feature on the finalists’ list are Descent by Wole Talabi (Clarkesword) for Outstanding Novella, and We Begin Where Infinity Ends by Somto Ihezue (Clarkesword) for Outstanding Novellete, as well as Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite, Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi and A Song Of Legends Lost; all for Outstanding Novel.

You can vote for Commensalism and all the other amazing stories across all categories till August 16th.

In other news, I will be in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom, this month for the 2026 Boldoz Books and Arts Festival!

The theme is Sio Uyo, which translates to “Speak up”. It resonates because of the need for all of us to lend our voices to the many injustices and indignities around us every day.

I love Festivals; the opportunity to meet readers and writers will always excite me, and I happen to be from Akwa-Ibom, so this is everything to me. I’ll be speaking on a panel and meeting, signing copies of The Bone River, so come through with your questions and —as always—ask me for a fun pose! I cannot wait to see you all.

Be The Rain

The words come from The Unbroken by C.L Clark, a sapphic fantasy that I read in recent weeks, a secondary world, queernorm fantasy that still succeeds in examining the ills of colonisation, discrimination and hatred. Even with Luca, one of its main characters being a sympathetic monarch, it critiques colonialism poignantly, even down to the dynamics between her and Tourraine, a lieutenant in the colonial army kidnapped from her home country of Qazāl as a small child.

“We pray for rain” are words first uttered by the people of Qazāl as they work towards the liberation of their land from colonial rule, and over the course of the story, something new is asked of Tourraine.

That transition stuck with me, because it calls on us to be involved. Silence in the face of injustice is complicity, and with everything happening in Nigeria, with all the death we’ve seen become a part of our daily life, with the hardship that permeates everywhere, weighing shoulders and backs down, it’s not unexpected that we look up, praying for rain, but for the change we need we must be the rain— act in neccesity to bring about change knowing the cost.

It is a terrifying thing to ask of us, but omo, it is that or extinction by slow, painful strangulation.

So..Be The Rain! (Also, get your PVC)

What I’m Enjoying

📖 Reading

From novels to short fiction, I enjoyed the stories I read while I was away.

THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION was my first foray into the world of SCP, and it does my favourite thing; it takes deep SciFi x horror concepts and uses them to explore the human condition deftly. Interconnected high- concept stories blow your mind with every page and I recommend it if you love skin-crawling, mind-bending “Black Mirror-esque worlds

Caged Ocean Dub is a Nigerian Surrealist dream (abi is it a nightmare) that defies classification with every story. Available from Masobe Books, it is a great place to get into Nigerian Speculative Fiction. My favourite stories on this read were Ngozi Ugegbe Nwa and Kikelomo Ultrasheen.

The Crimson Vigilante kept me on edge for pages and pages, and with time finally freed up, I tore through hundreds of pages in hours. Can’t say much because I no wan spoil, but this is real crime thriller shit!

The Sword of Kaigen has worldbuilding enough for three books, characters you can’t help but root for, and page-turning action sequences. Peak Fantasy because M.L Wang will always deliver.

The Left Hand of Darkness is an examination of our relationship with gender and sex and how it has affected our evolution as a species. It is remarkable, and I’m glad I’ve finally read Ursula K. Le Guin

📺 Watching

I watched a lot of things.

I enjoyed The Testaments, and now I wish I’d seen The Handmaid’s Tale, but its Margaret Atwood’s work interpreted so efficiently I just might watch it too.

Mother Mary was an unnerving musical x horror, and Perfect Days was a patient, contemplative film with so many amazing shots.

Remarkably Bright Creatures felt like a warm hug, Project Hail Mary made me a hopeful human for exactly one week, and Hamnet made me ugly cry (Jessie Buckley deserved every one of the awards in her clean sweep)

On a Final Note

Thank you, as always, for your support. We’re up to four hundred and fifty subscribers, and yes, I still do a little dance for every subscriber and supporter. I’m grateful for everyone who reads my work and follows this documentation of my journey.

To stay up to date with my doings, follow me on Twitter (again, their parents named them Twitter) for book updates and ramblings outside of here + Instagram and TikTok for other posts and short videos.

Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

Nkereuwem.