Author speaks at SEMO about finding your true self

Buki Papillon, the 2022 winner of the Maya Angelou Book Award for "An Ordinary Wonder", spoke Monday, April 17, at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. Papillon is the second-ever winner of the award.

Born in Nigeria, Papillon earned a law degree in England and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She now resides in Boston where she hopes to draw inspiration for more material.

"An Ordinary Wonder" is about a Nigerian boy's secret intersex identity. The novel highlights the danger of this through storytelling.

Papillon said she hopes those who read her novel understand it is a book about finding your true self and that this book speaks to certain things happening in our times.

Inspiration for this book came to her when she was finishing her MFA.

"I did a course in which I studied Nigerian gods and goddesses. That was sort of where the magical aspect came from, because the Nigerian pantheon of gods and goddesses is as rich as the Greek ones, the god of iron and god of thunder. Then the character herself came to me, basically just telling me her story, and she's a compendium of many things. That I have heard or seen or experienced," Papillon said.

The Maya Angelou Book Award was founded in 2020 to honor the legacy of Missouri-born author Maya Angelou, according to the Kansas City Library website. The award recognizes contemporary authors whose work demonstrates a commitment to social justice and diversifies contemporary American literature. The Maya Angelou Book Award recognizes works of poetry or fiction in alternating years.