Chimamanda Adichie was at the Schwab Auditorium on Monday. I was not looking forward to going to this event throughout the day but I am very happy I ended up going. There was two parts of Chimamanda’s lecture, first she spoke about writers block, her inspirations for writing, and why she writes. Then she took questions from the audience and this was my favorite part of the lecture. When speaking about writers block she said she feels anxiety but to get out of this she will read her favorite writers books. Another place she would get inspiration from is the house she grew up in. She spoke of walking around this house and said she will just find a creative space. After speaking of her inspiration for write she talked about why she writes. She loves the possibility of being able to touch another human being with her work.
After she was done the first part of her lecture I was very surprised by some of the things she said. When she was talking about her childhood and the house she grew up in she mentioned gardeners and security guards at her house. This was very interesting because this inferred that she grew up rather wealthy compared to most Nigerian people.
The second part of the lecture when she took questions was my favorite. Chimamanda talked about how she became a writer, she was in medical school and decided that is not what she wanted to do with her life, so she told her dad and she was surprised how accepting he was of it, but she joked and said that her other siblings all turned out rather successful so there can be one crazy one.
I really enjoyed Chimamanda Adichie’s lecture, she kept me interested with information about her inspiration and life, but also threw in a joke once in a while to get a laugh out of the crowd.
I also went to the lecture and thought it was a pretty good experience to be able to go and get her life story. She really has led an interesting life and it’s fascinating how she gave up being a doctor in order to become a writer which is a bit of a gamble.