Books | Giveaway

What Does It Mean to Come Home? A Conversation with Peter Okonkwo, Author of Kwame Come Home

ByLisa Traugott June 13, 2026June 13, 2026

This month’s giveaway is a little different from the historical fiction and fantasy novels I often feature.

Kwame Come Home by Peter Okonkwo is a moving work that blends narrative storytelling, prose poetry, and dialogue into something that feels almost like a stage play. At its heart is a deeply human story about migration, family, loss, longing, and the universal search for belonging. (Details about how to enter the giveaway at the end of this post).

Kwame Come Home

Peter was inspired by real-world stories of African migrants risking everything in search of a better life, but rather than focusing solely on those who leave, he also explores the grief experienced by those left behind. Through the voices of Kwame, his mother Vanessa, and the people whose lives intersect with theirs, readers are invited to consider what “home” truly means.

Peter is also the host of the P English Literature podcast, where he has interviewed more than a thousand writers—including me! In the interview below, we discuss the inspiration behind Kwame Come Home, his unique blend of prose poetry and storytelling, the lessons he’s learned from interviewing authors around the world, and his advice for aspiring writers.

To learn more about the inspiration behind Kwame Come Home, the meaning of home, and why Peter chose to tell this story through a unique blend of narrative and prose poetry, I invited him to share his thoughts in the interview below.

Migration, Motherhood, and Belonging: A Q&A with Peter Okonkwo

Kwame Come Home explores identity, belonging, and emotional connection. What first inspired you to tell this story?

I was inspired to write Kwame Come Home after seeing many heartbreaking immigration stories online, how some African migrants viewed Europe as  paradise and embark treacherous journey to get there. One of the major things that inspired me to write this story was to explore the reason for leaving, the pain of those left behinds, and also create a shift in perception that these risks are not worth taking, at most times could be life threatening. I understand that some people are forced to leave their countries because of war and other factors. I have also seen many stories of poor families, including desperate mothers who came alongside their babies, all stranded on Mediterranean in search of a greener pasture in Europe. I wanted to tell the story around the current economic hardship affecting some, and if not all African countries, and I felt there was no better way to tell it than through the grief and absence experienced in Vanessa’s story. I was also deeply inspired by the things I see around me. The story of Kwame and Vanessa is so dear to my heart, and many of the characters were inspired by people I know in real life. I wanted to tell not only the story of migration and the pain faced by those who embarked on the journey, but also the pain of those left behind — the mothers, fathers, siblings, and
loved ones who never got the chance to hear goodbye from their fleeing relatives.

Your novel’s title immediately raises questions about “home.” What does the idea of home mean to you personally, and how does that theme shape the book?

To me, the idea of home feels like a safe haven. It is where you are known, seen, and heard. It is where your people are, where you are loved, where
you truly belong. For Kwame, however, home does not entirely fit into these definitions for him. It was struggle entwine in the quest for seeking a good life. For Jide, it was humiliation, as debtors knocks on his mother’s door every now and then. From some of the poems both of them narrated, you could hear their idea of home — “mother cooking millet, the sound of chicks walking around, and the beautiful sense of community that existed there.” But home, to me, feels personal and motherly, and I believe that idea greatly shaped the narration of the book. As you’ve seen in the book as
Vanessa constantly calls on Kwame to return home, to a place where he can feel safe, loved, regardless of its standing challenges. On the other
hand, Kwame has his own reasons for leaving. So, ultimately, home is a place where you feel heard and seen, where you live at peace and are loved wholeheartedly for who you are, and where you feel an utmost sense of belonging.

Many readers connect deeply with stories about family, displacement, and self-discovery. What do you hope readers take away from Kwame’s journey?

I hope that readers take away the depth of Vanessa’s pain, empathize with Kwame, and get to have a view of why he left home. I hope that some of the messages I sought to pass through the book come across undiluted and pure to the readers. One of the things I want readers to take from Kwame’s story is his journey, his tenacity, enduring spirit, his horror, and his “whys” for leaving home. It’s the fact of him being pushed out as an “economic refugee”; as one of my reviewers’ quoted. I’d really love readers to able to resonate deeply with Kwame’s journey, his pain, lamentation, story, his sacrifices, and also empathize with Vanessa while at the same time looking forward to seeing how the story continues in the second series.

‎Was there a particular scene or character that surprised you while writing the novel?

I think Kwame and Vanessa surprised me while writing the story. Kwame kept showing up unexpectedly and that plunged me into further deep
research of people in similar situations like him. I knew where the story was heading but along the line it went into directions I never thought of. I’m
really impressed with the dynamics of Etean, the switch in characterization of Kwame and his mother, Vanessa. I do think Jide would have his own
switch as well. But I’m particularly intrigued with Vanessa’s characterization. And if there was to be a particular scene that surprised me while writing the book, it will be “Vanessa’s Dire Lamentation” where she talked about how she has waited years for Kwame to arrive, how she stayed outside with her Nokia phone tucked in her bra while waiting for her son to come home because the prophet had told her that her son would arrive on a particular date.

Kwame Come Home isn’t written like a typical novel—it blends storytelling, prose poetry, and dialogue in a way that feels almost theatrical. What inspired this unique approach, and what do you think it allows you to express that a traditional format might not?

While I was writing Kwame Come Home, I wrestled hard the thought of whether it should be an actual novel or a poetry collection. All I’ve written
so far is poetry, because they come naturally easy to me compared to novel writing. I was thinking of a better way of writing it so I first wrote it in a
short story format. But I saw that it wasn’t giving me the authenticity that I was looking for, the rawness of the emotion that I wanted the story to evoke in the heart of its readers. There was this dissatisfaction that came with me first exploring it as a short story, that’s why I had to change it to narrative poetry as I think there’s a level of rawness, emotional evocation that poetry gives that modern storytelling might not convey, especially in the sense of Kwame’s story. I’ve got so many people talk about the dialogues in the book in a way that feels almost theatrical in nature, that’s why most people say it reads like a stage play. I love it that way and I’m exploring prose poetry and narrative poetry so that it could be adapted as a stage play. I believe Kwame Come Home is a powerful work of art, and I look forward to it reaching a wider audience. I truly believe narrative poetry and prose poetry are among the best ways for me to fully communicate the emotions, rawness, and depth of the story in a way that allows each character to feel seen and heard. Just as in the book, every character is given the opportunity to tell their own story, and I believe I achieved that through the
writing style I chose.

Readers often love hearing about the behind-the-scenes process. What did your path from idea to finished book look like?

The path to my idea was quite a journey really. When I first had the idea, it was touching the themes of migration, motherhood, displacement, longing, loss, grief and many more. And as I began to write it, the story unfolded itself in ways that I saw my characters moving in directions I never saw coming. As I progressed, I realized that I could include so many other themes and subject lines that baffle our world currently into the book. Right from the “behind the scene” process to the idea creation. Although the story is not yet complete. Kwame’s story is not finished yet, Vanessa’s story isn’t finished yet. We don’t know if he’s ever going to come home or if he’s going to die on the way. We don’t know what’s going to happen to Etean or Jide or Vanessa herself. Currently I may not be able to answer the question fully because the book is not yet complete and I don’t want to give too much information away, but I think it’s such a mysterious journey really, one filled with a lot of creativity, hard work and a lot of research as well. That’s all I can say about the process.

You also host the P English Literature podcast and recently interviewed me there, which was such a fun conversation. How has speaking with other writers influenced your own creative process?