Stick to Your Own Voice with Lola Akinmade Åkerström

On this episode of Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Lola Akinmade Åkerström, author of the novel, In Every Mirror She's Black.  Lola has lived on three different continents — Africa, North America, and now Europe — for extended periods of time. As a Nigerian-American author who is now based in Sweden Lọlá  is the author of the 2018 Lowell Thomas Award winner for best travel book, Due North and the bestselling, LAGOM: Swedish Secret of Living Well. She is drawn to the complexities and nuances of culture and how they manifest themselves within relationships. She has written two prior books and contributed to several others. 

Episode Notes
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On this episode of Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Lola Akinmade Åkerström, author of the novel, In Every Mirror She's Black.  Lola has lived on three different continents — Africa, North America, and now Europe — for extended periods of time. As a Nigerian-American author who is now based in Sweden Lọlá  is the author of the 2018 Lowell Thomas Award winner for best travel book, Due North and the bestselling, LAGOM: Swedish Secret of Living Well. She is drawn to the complexities and nuances of culture and how they manifest themselves within relationships. She has written two prior books and contributed to several others. 

During the conversation, Lọlá discusses how she kept going even though her manuscript was rejected 70 times. She also explains why she wanted to explore the many facets of Black womanhood to illustrate that Black women are not a monolith. Plus, in tackling class, career, and culture Lọlá  shares why the main takeaway she wants her readers to get from her work is to hold empathy for other people and their differences and experiences.