interstellar, or: anoda banga!

Rema cover story, new blurbs and more updates for you

Mar 01, 2025

This January just gone, I was in conversation with superstar and creative genius, Rema, for the cover of Dazed. For the New Gen issue, we — i.e two Edo artists working in separate lanes — got to speak in shorthand about process, design, power, names, intention, Benin City, channeling our history into art and music, and what the near future looks like for him. What’s that if not ICONIC? Exactly!

Each artist conversation I’m blessed to have shows me something different about craft and the rigorous determination required to sustain this work. Easily one of the most exciting artists working right now and a favorite artist of mine, Rema’s work is crucial, moving and consistently inventive. But this one meant some other things to me, too: 1) when Dazed profiled me in the Impossible Issue (Autumn 2024), I mentioned that I’d been thinking about the specificity of Edo artistry and my roots in my culture, citing Rema’s work among a few others, so this feels full circle, 2) I journaled just a few weeks prior about wanting to be in community with more people from Benin doing cool shit out in the world and 3) there’s a handful of artists who I want to be in public conversation with, and Rema is one of them. So it was a specific kind of alignment, something ordained, when I opened my inbox to this ask.

There is so much to say and share and make about where we’re from. There is more to uncover about the matchless musician Rema is (morphing into.) None of it can fit into one place or time. But this was an epic place to start doing that work from. I’m grateful for what I do with words, and for what I get to learn from listening and speaking, and writing.

Click the link below for stained-glass windows into some of where we went.

Rema x Eloghosa for Dazed

Btw, my galleys for Necessary Fiction arrived a few days ago. It was an emotional moment, getting to touch a version of my SECOND book at home. Wild that this specific book that felt insurmountable at points — if I speak! — exists in tangible form in such vibrant colour. If you’ve been following my work from since before Vagabonds!, you probably have an idea how much of a journey this has been so far. But even that is just a percentage. I’m glad to still be here; I’m grateful to be alive and well enough to simply continue my work. Being the uncorrected proofs, this is not the final version of the work at all, but at least I can officially confirm to you that the book is REAL, and coming to you this July.In the mix of things I’m feeling, joy and pride are huge. Mostly, I feel fuelled beyond language because I did it… again (#AnodaBanga!) For now, they’re resting on a stool right opposite my bed so that they’re always in view. It feels good to wake up to my miracles each morning.

As the books go out through the back end, my team at Riverhead sent me this incredible test-graphic below, with some of the early blurbs we’ve received for Necessary Fiction from writers whose work I love. You’ve already seen the amazing Kaveh Akbar and Yrsa Daley Ward quotes, but there are two more below that I haven’t shared here yet from: Nicole Dennis Benn (author of Patsy) and Bassey Ikpi (author of I’m Telling The Truth But I’m Lying):

“In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde takes us into a Lagos humming with secrets, survival, and the unbreakable bonds of chosen family. Through characters who refuse to shrink under the weight of history and shame, this novel reveals the stories we create to endure—and the love we dare to claim when we break free. Honest, gripping, and alive, Necessary Fiction challenges us to find our own truths amidst the masks we wear. Osunde’s writing shines on their characters; their imperfections become necessary and magical things. A bold, essential reminder that life, with all its bruises, is for the living. To call it one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read is to devalue it. It demands to be felt, absorbed, and carried, like a song that refuses to leave your chest. It’s not just beautiful—it’s transformative.”

— Bassey Ikpi, New York Times Bestselling Author of I’m Telling The Truth But I’m Lying

“This book is exquisite and excruciating. It quickens your pulse and burns inside you for days. With elegant, lean, searing language, Eloghosa Osunde reminds us what it really means to be alive. A gorgeously deeply humane book, which is indeed, necessary.”

– Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun and Patsy

Feeling: seen. Feeling: blessed.

If you’re a lover of my work, and curious about how best to support me, the answer is still and always 1) please preorder Necessary Fiction 2) share Necessary Fiction wherever you see it.

Link below to:

PREORDER NECESSARY FICTION (USA)

PREORDER NECESSARY FICTION (NG)

My staunch goal is for this book to go out as many readers in as many parts of the world as possible. Everything you do to help me get closer to that makes a world of difference to me and this book!

According to Open Country/the Roving Heights bestseller list, my debut novel, Vagabonds! has been a bestseller for three consecutive years now, since 2022 when it dropped. That’s a huge feat to me, especially at home. I remember being asked by friends before the book dropped if I was scared of/expecting negative attitudes toward the obvious queerness in the work. I wasn’t scared, though I was braced for the possibility. It wouldn’t have stopped me either way, but to see the exact opposite happening is a blessing. I’m grateful to every reader who has picked up my book, shared it, gifted it, told a friend or lover about it, stood up for the stories and/or discussed my work in book clubs across the country and continent.

This year, I look forward to being OUTSIDE for my work in a way I opted out of when Vagabonds dropped, for a number of reasons (I wanted to prove to myself that the book could pull its own weight without me having to physically burn myself out; I was exhausted because my life was both blooming and erupting at the same time; I didn’t want to travel as much as it would have required me to; it would have cost money and other intangible resources I wanted to save instead; I was both confident and terrified to step into the truth of my life’s changes etc etc etc). But this time around, and for NF? I want to feel it all in every pore. I don’t want to just have a sense of where the work has gone, I want to know for sure what is and isn’t happening there.

What that means is — in addition to doing some more exceptional unexpected work — what I want the most is to connect with as many of my readers as possible, in person, in cities all around the world. Between now and July when life picks up wild pace again, I want to work on thrilling, well-paying (!) projects of all kinds, so definitely reach out if you’ve been wanting to, and have a proposal you think I’ll be into. God willing, I’ll be in the UK, US and Europe this summer, so hit my team and I up for festivals and shoots, readings and features, panels and artist conversations, exhibits and appearances, concerts and fashion shows, brand collaborations and screen/songwriting projects etc etc. You get me. Click below to get in touch:

CONTACT ELOGHOSA

Some things I’m loving:

1. Shallipopi’s Laho is a crazy banger. I can’t get over how trippy it is to hear my language on this song, and to be immediately pulled back to specific moments from my upbringing. Especially after rinsing Benin Boys for months, I’m glad this song exists. If you haven’t heard it yet, you should listen. You might like it.

Doechii is another cover star for Dazed’s latest issue. Written by Kacion Mayers and styled + shot by IB Kamara, I love her cover story. I love her work. I love this shoot. Those photos? Sickening! You can find it here.
These two quotes by June Jordan:

i) “It goes both ways. I care for you but you have to allow me. It is actually a very similar thing with love. You have to love me. And I, well, I have to let you love me.”

& ii) “My heart is not peripheral to me.”

Perfection.