Cadre Author Feature: Enesi Majebi

By: Lorelei Kenny

Arts.

Sciences.

Students have been schooled into thinking that they have to choose one or the other. The notion of deciding whether they are “left brained” or “right brained,” has been subconsciously ingrained into the pedagogy. However, no one is fully “left brained” or “right brained”. Each person is complex and unique, with aptitudes for both sciences and arts. Students should not be afraid to engage themselves in both fields, moreover, they should be encouraged to build bridges between the two and learn how to make all their skills work together.

One student, Enesi Majebi did just that. Enesi decided to pursue both of his passions, engineering, and writing. He did not choose one or the other, he chose both. He chose to study engineering at UPEI but also found time to pursue creative writing at a serious level.

Enesi says he has always considered himself a storyteller, “I was famous in the family as a child for my exciting and grossly exaggerated stories.” Enesi has always had a passion for the written word and taps into his storytelling ability on a regular. He says he has a “cornucopia of stories in his head”  that he wants to share with others. His first publication was a dystopian short story called “We Are Not Happy” and his newest short story “Singularity” which will be available this month.

Enesi writes whenever he has time, almost every day. At any point in the day, he will take out this phone and just write down little snippets that pop into his head. He is constantly keeping his creative juices flowing. He sticks primarily to short story writing because in the past his attempts at writing poetry have had little success. Nonetheless, the writing process is still a constant battle. Enesi says “about 90% of the writing process is battling with writer’s block. My brain works in its own time and gives me inspiration and ideas when it wants to . . . most of the time it doesn’t cooperate with me.” Enesi explained that he has tried nearly everything to get over writer’s block but in the end, he says the best thing to do is just it out.

Enesi usually collects and organizes all of his thoughts in his head first. For his newest short story “Singularity”, in particular, he says he “had the entire plot already fleshed out in [his] mind before [he] wrote down the first word”. Ideally, he would have liked to complete “Singularity” in two-three weeks, however, it ended up taking about a month and a half. He describes himself as a “terribly slow writer”. Sitting at a desk for more than an hour drives him crazy, so he does most of his writing on his phone while pacing around his room or roaming around the house or on a walk.

You can find “We Are Not Happy” on Amazon and Google play now, and “Singularity” will be released in before the end of the month.

To use the exact words of the author: “On the surface, “Singularity” it’s the story of a young orphan trying to survive and make a better life for himself and his life being changed in an unexpected and not entirely appreciated way. But at its core, it tells the story of division, the danger of our over-dependence on fossil fuels. It is a look at the relationship between different cultures living in a country and it asks the question, as we continue to integrate ourselves with technology, at what point do we cease to be human?”

“Singularity” like all of Enesi’s stories comes from “maelstrom of random ideas and thoughts that bounce around in my head”, he says. It always starts as a sentence a mere thought and eventually grows out of control like a vine spreading and blooming into a full story. This story, in  particular, came from pondering on the fall in oil prices and how it has affected his country Nigeria. “Singularity” was heavily inspired by a science fiction anthology Enesi read this past summer called Diverse Energies, he highly recommends it!

Go read “We Are Not Happy” on Amazon and Google play now, and look out for “Singularity” later on this month.