Femi Fadugba Talks Netflix Grabbing His Debut Novel, Writing And Meeting Black Boys Where They Are – Essence

Theres a new sci-fi book series thats taking the young adult genre by stormthe first book,The Upper World, written by Femi Fadugba has already caught the eye of studioexecutives, and Netflix has acquired the film rights[and] Queen & Slims Daniel Kaluuya [is] attached to produce and star.

Fadugbas debut novel was alsorecentlyshortlisted for the Waterstones Childrens Book Prizein the Older Readers category in addition to being longlisted for the 2022 Branford Boase Award which is given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children.

One review attributed thenovelsunusual credibility to the fact that Fadugba is a real-lifephysicistand has based his ideas about time travel on real science, including Einsteins theories(even if you dont grasp it at all). Fadugba wrote the novel after many conversations about with people who would ask him to explain quantum physics. Theyd always be super fascinated and wanted me to recommend a book, but I couldnt find one that I could put my hand on my heart and say: Youll dig this, he toldThe Guardian.

Fadugba, 35, who splits time between the UK and the US, sat down with ESSENCE to discuss his inspiration for writing the book, his career path and meteoric rise to fame, as well as his upcoming projects.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

ESSENCE: What inspired you to writeThe Upper World?

Its a complicated one because it has a few different angles. I went to university, and I ended up doing quantum physics, quantum computing, specifically and I thought I was going to be an academic physicist at that point. I published an article at PRL, which is the same publication that Einstein published a lot of his stuff in, so that was kind of like the peak of my career. I was looking for whats next, but the academic route just felt a little bit abstract.

As a Black African boy in the UK, there are lot more serious problems faced by people than partial differential equations. So, I decided, let me go into working world and see what impact I can have, and I went into business, I did solar energy. But it just wasnt quite cutting it. I felt like I hadnt found my voice and didnt have a platform. I started digging into things that excited me when I was younger, and I rediscovered my love for physics, and especially about time travel. In many ways the genesis of the book was after reading pretty much 100 books on relativity to thinking, how do I explain this in a way that 16-year-old me would have not only understood it, but also have a reason to give a st.

Thats why I ended up putting it into a narrative, because people like stories, thats how we learn things. Look at the book of Genesis, thats a story about nature. Its a story about physics in many ways and how the universe came to be, it told a story because thats how we absorb things, and I think the other side of my motivation was because of the actual story part, the specific characters I chose, the location, the theme I explored. Again, I think for me it was about writing the kind of book that teenage me would have fked with basically. A big part of that was, I dont want to lecture the kids. How do I meet young Black boys where theyre at and then give them a story that combines philosophy, physics, real-life st and elevate the conversation and never at any point underestimate their curiosity?

ESSENCE: How many drafts were there? How long, and what was the process like?

I would say that theres only four words that matter in your first draft: good enough and the end. When I started writing, I assumed that the world consisted of people were born good writers and people who were essentially not so good, and I thought I was in the second category. I had this moment, and I think it was partly from speaking with a couple of people who said, Oh, no everybody starts off rubbish, and then you practice and then you end up good. So I accepted that I was a rubbish writer and as long as I made improvement every day and I came to the page every day, I was gonna get a little bit better every day. It actually kind of worked, I mean, if you see the difference between different drafts, youd be amazed honestly. It came along, and I think there was something about that sort of amateur mindset where I was a nobody. I didnt have the weight of being a somebody, with the expectations of being a good writer. I was in a writing group with a bunch of people who were much better writers than me, and I found that most of them struggled to write a lot because they get to the end of just a couple of sentences or a chapter, or a paragraph and they will decide that its not good enough, there was that perfectionist kind of thing that made them just keep revising the first paragraph. Whereas I knew that my paragraphs were rubbish, so I just finished the draft and then went back and started again.

It took two and a half years from first words to pressing send to publishers. I think thats probably another thing that I did right in the first the first go-round when I was writing the first book, because I didnt have too much of an ego back then, so I just told people, Hey, Im not a writer, just read this. What do you think? I gave it to a lot of people, my wife read pretty much all eight drafts, whatever I produced. I probably sent it to like 10 other people, just friends, and I think the key thing for me was basically making it safe for them to tell me that my baby was ugly. Instead of just saying What do you think, which they probably would have said Its great, I asked, Did you care about the character? At what page were you hooked? What questions do you have in your mind? Does it make sense? Just basically digging for a no, rather than digging for a yes.

ESSENCE:The Upper Worldis being adapted by Netflixhow did that happen?

This all happened during June of 2020. The book went out to publishers, and out of nowhere, theres like essentially a bidding war, which was fking mental to be honest. Im just doing all these Zoom calls, with different publishers, and then maybe two weeks later the book leaked to Hollywood, I dont even know what that means. It leaked to a bunch of film studios, both in the UK and the US. And so, literally two, three weeks after the publishing thing closed, I was having calls with a bunch of the big studios and production houses. Then, Netflix came along, Daniel Kaluuyas agent got a hold of the script and then he read itI think pretty much in a dayand he said Yeah, Im keen to be involved. Its so sick, it just came together perfectly to be honest.

ESSENCE: You mentioned that you hoped for this book to be something that your teenage self would have wanted to read. Are there any other things that you hope the legacy of your book to be?

Im writing the sequel right now, literally just before I hopped on the call, burning through it. I had so many ideas, but I was surprised by how different my headspace was writing the second one versus the first one. I want the book to be a two-part booka duology. I think one of my inspirations isThe Godfather: Part II. Its a prequel sequel, and we essentially take the events in book one and then we go back in time, and we look at where Esso comes from, which takes us back to Africa, to Benin specifically, and we look at the mythology and the history of that country, and how it interweaves with the upper world. We also go forward, and we pick up from where we left off Rhia. Esso left off in the 2030s where Rhia is now going to uni and is facing a whole new host of challenges, both personally and with upper world and a maniac on the loose, whos trying to kill her and has ambitions on conquering the multiverses himself.

I mean, I think its part of a bigger story. Im really excited for you to have a look at the second book once its out and see, and we can have a discussion then on how it compares. My background, my life has been kind of strewn all over the place, and Ive seen a lot of different environments. One big contrast that I had growing up was going back and forth between Oxford and Peckham and then my parents were in Rwanda. One of the big things is showing people different worlds, just letting people imagine beyond what they see. Theres a practical aspect of that, which is literally showing different environments. In book two, youll definitely get that, in terms of going back to Africa and Rhia going to Cambridge. I think the other aspect of the legacy I hope for by the time Ive wrapped up, is that people who are religious will see just how similar they are to people who are atheists and scientists, and people who are just interested in how the world works, and what storytelling and metaphors mean and have a unified vision. I know thats a very abstract way to describe it. In book one, you saw a glimpse, where I combined physics with a concrete story in Peckham, and in book two I want to take it a bit further and incorporate Africa and religion into that.

I think for me, the biggest joy of writing is just the opportunity it gives me to like find my own joy, and also just share that with other people.

TOPICS: afrofuturism black authors

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Femi Fadugba Talks Netflix Grabbing His Debut Novel, Writing And Meeting Black Boys Where They Are - Essence