Molara Wood. Credit: Guardian Nigeria.

The Nigerian writer, journalist, and editor Molara Wood has been announced as the new Chief Editor of the publishing press Ouida Books and its One Read initiative. Founded in 2016 by the novelist and Ake Festival director Lola Shoneyin, the Lagos-based Ouida Books has published books by Nnedi Okorafor, Ayobami Adebayo, Tomi Adeyemi, Chike Frankie Edozien, Odafe Atogun, and Hadiza El-Rufai, and further operates a children’s literature imprint, Tanja, and a nonfiction imprint, Cognix. One Read Africa, a collaboration with Sterling Bank set to launch this year, is the press’ mobile subscription-based application meant to encourage reading and to support the book industry by giving readers access to one new book every month.

Wood, author of the acclaimed story collection Indigo, is a popular figure on the literary scene. She currently writes an arts column for The Guardian Nigeria and was Arts and Culture Editor at Next. A judge for the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature and winner of the 2008 John La Rose Memorial Short Story Competition, she sits on the advisory board of the Ake Festival and annually edits the festival publication Ake Review.

“Molara Wood has always been a member of the Ake Festival/ Ouida Books family,” Shoneyin tells Brittle Paper following the announcement. “She has been editing our annual Ake Review for four years and has been doing a stellar job. Ouida Books was seeking a chief editor who not only had range and experience, but also could take the publishing house in new directions and to new heights. Ms Wood has the Midas touch. She has worked with writers of all ages and abilities and we are absolutely delighted to have her running Ouida Books. She is an asset on so many levels.”

Brittle Paper congratulates Molara Wood and Ouida Books.