It’s time for the second instalment of our interview series with the Brittle Paper 2022 Persons of the Year. Our first interview was with Thabiso Mahlape, the founder of our 2022 publishing house of the year, Blackbird Books. This time we are sitting down with our Social Media Influencer of 2022, Amyn Bawa-Allah also known as Lipglossmaffia!

Amyn Bawa-Allah is a Nigerian literary figure in the digital space, mainly for her growing Instagram platform Lipglossmaffia but also for her ability to inspire readers with her reading challenges. Initially starting out as a personal blog, Lipglossmaffia began in 2011 before it transitioned in 2019 into the book-centred platform we know and love. Amyn has also created reading prompts and challenges that have us all getting inspired to grow our libraries. For these reasons and so much more, we are excited to jump into conversation with the wonderful Amyn!

 

Brittle Paper

Amyn, AKA Lipglossmaffia, congratulations on being Brittle Paper’s Social Media Influencer of the Year! My last interview was with Blackbird Books, and they celebrated their 8th anniversary this year, and I see you just celebrated a ‘bookstaversary’ as well. Congratulations on that huge milestone! I cannot imagine the number of books that contributed to all of those years [laughs].

What led to this amazing platform? Was it just pure love for books or rather the need to engage with fellow readers?

Amyn Bawa-Allah

It’s a whole lot of books, that’s for sure! Thank you, I really needed that acknowledgement.

I wish I had a selfless answer for what led to all this, but I don’t. The truth is I can’t shut up about books and I‘m a hopeless fangirl. It’s hard for me to gatekeep anything so if I read a book that blows my mind, everyone has to know about it and read it. And as a fangirl, it’s my duty to uplift the work of my favourite authors so that they can make lots of money. Through this, I’ve met the most incredible people and that has become my reward. Bookish people are the best people!

Brittle Paper

They most certainly are!

Besides being a hopeless fangirl, you also label yourself as an ‘openminded reader’ which I love but surely this means you must have come across some obscure and strange things that ‘mainstream’ readers don’t usually encounter. Any you’d care to share because I’ll be honest, I am extremely curious. I’m sure there are some genres or niches that some of us don’t even know exist.

Amyn Bawa-Allah

The genres are pretty much still the same. It’s the niches that astound me, they keep getting tighter and tighter. Now, we all know literary fiction, yeah? But then it can be broken into sad girl fiction like My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh or millennial fiction which speaks to the ennui millennials are facing, kinda like Luster by Raven Leilani. I do find the need to label books into boxes very fascinating but at the end of the day, nothing is new under the sun.

Brittle Paper

I used to study Classics and sometimes we’d spend time not even reading books but reading catalogues of books held in ancient libraries. I could honestly spend a few days just reading these expanding lists of literary niches. It’s truly amazing the spaces artists carve out.

We find ourselves in an ever-growing digital age. Often, unless someone can research or come across something online, they don’t know about it at all. In this way, Lipglossmaffia is contributing heavily towards the spotlighting and promotion of African literature. Do you often get comments from people saying, “You are the reason I am reading” or “You are the reason I’ve learned about African literature”?

Amyn Bawa-Allah

Yes! I get comments like this a lot and it fills me with joy. I see it as my contribution to world peace. Since I can’t help the world, I can at least help one person. And the thing about introducing one person to the beauty of reading books for pleasure is they’re almost always going to share it with another person.

Brittle Paper

That is a beautiful and very fitting way to look at it. I completely agree and it’s why we are all such huge fans of you and your work. But Amyn, I’ve paced myself for long enough and I can now finally introduce you to my favourite part of the interview: quick-fire questions on your literary opinions.

Starting with, what is your go-to comfort book?

Amyn Bawa-Allah

This is such a hard question but the first book that popped into my head is Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. I have read it at least eight times.

Brittle Paper

What has been the most enjoyable book you’ve read recently?

Amyn Bawa-Allah

This is another difficult one but I’m currently reading the Green Bone Saga series by Fonda Lee and I’m having the most amazing time.

Brittle Paper

Is there a book you think you could read again and again?

Amyn Bawa-Allah

I have read Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika again and again.

Brittle Paper

Finally, and I only ask this because you are open about sometimes giving up on boring books, what is a book that you really did not enjoy?

Amyn Bawa-Allah

Hmmm, for me to say I didn’t enjoy a book, that means I pushed through and completed it. The most recent book I didn’t enjoy is Zora Books Her Happy Ever After by Taj McCoy. I rolled my eyes so much while reading this but sometimes I finish a book, so I have enough data to be upset.

Brittle Paper

I agree about sometimes needing to finish a book in order to ‘hate’ it. I used to tutor first-year university students in literary studies and whenever they would complain about not liking a book, I had to remind them that you can hate a book, but you have to read it to be able to explain why. I do believe that sometimes you can toss a book to the side and not return to it, but it was a useful way to get students to finish their coursework.

You do lots of reading and book challenges. What have been some of your most popular and enjoyable ones? And are there current book challenges we can hop on?

Amyn Bawa-Allah

I adore reading challenges. It makes my reading fun and more intentional. Not to brag, but my favourite is the #SomethingBookishReadingChallenge. I created it with myself in mind (as I do for any content I put out). As much as I enjoy physical travelling, the logistics are so stressful, so I decided I’m just going to travel around the world through books. I put together a list of prompts to address my various desires and needs but I’m so bad at gatekeeping, so I put it out and lots of people have been living their best reading lives through this challenge. Also, completing the #SomethingBookishReadingChallenge is such a flex because that person is officially a well-rounded and cultured reader.

Brittle Paper

I love that idea! And the best part is you can adapt the reading challenge to fit your travelling lists. So, it is a reading challenge that is both keeping you focused and giving you room to make it your own. I think I might hop onto this trend and tick places off a little map to keep track.

Now, we know you as the remarkable literary influencer, Lipglossmaffia, but you also have many other literary projects under your belt. Tell us about those, such as the podcast and virtual book club.

Amyn Bawa-Allah

I really don’t see myself as an influencer (maybe when the influencer coins come in). I’m just a reader who enjoys talking about books and social media is the best way to talk to many people at the same time.

I’m such a sucker for reading communities. Nothing trumps having a group of people who are as excited as you to read a particular book. It’s the best feeling in the world. The Indulgent Bibliophile is my fourth attempt at starting a book club and we turned 4 on April 1st, 2023. It’s a virtual book club because I have lots of bookish friends from all over the world and they threatened to defriend me if I didn’t include them, and the group keeps growing thanks to all the referrals.

The Something Bookish podcast was born from my wanting to be better at public speaking, but I abandoned that when it became more fun to talk about books and reading while inebriated.

Brittle Paper

[laughs] Come on! You can’t tell me your followers, including me, won’t absolutely love hearing you go off about a book you read while a little intoxicated? That is a podcast I can get behind.

Before we go, I have to ask something that I know you are probably sick of hearing: As such a passionate reader and as someone so involved with the literary scene, would you ever write your own book?

Amyn Bawa-Allah

I think about this a lot. Do you know that once upon a time I used to write erotica? I had a blog and a mini cult following even but after I settled into full-time employment, I lost the spark. I have tons of unfinished stories, or like paragraphs really [laughs]. Also, it doesn’t help that I have been doing a lot of writing for marketing purposes, so when it’s time to write, I just go blank. Maybe one day, after I win the lottery, I will give it another shot. Right now, I’m very content in reading the books and uplifting them however I can. After all, all skills are transferable.

Brittle Paper

Amyn, Lipglossmaffia, thank you so much for talking to us and for sharing even more of yourself with our readers. We truly adore you and the work you do. Here’s to another year of success and growth for all of your projects and platforms, but mainly to you! And fingers crossed that the influencer coins find you soon!

 

 

We’ll be sitting down with the rest of the 2022 Persons of the Year so stay tuned!