By Yong Shu Hoong

On the Lonely Planet website, the perpetually-interchanging opening page to its travel guide of Ghana associates the West African country with "historic trading fortresses" and "where elephants meet". On a photo, where tribal drums are the focus, the tagline morphs to "Ghana is playing to a different beat."

Of course, trying to understand an England-born Ghanaian poet like Nii Ayikwei Parkes (b. 1974) through a survey of tourist-friendly representations of Ghana would be a futile strategy veering way off-course – especially when the subject is a unique individual who, before becoming a versatile well-travelled writer, used to be a food technologist. Though, one should also note, the colours and flavours of his culture do seep readily into his poetry (his "first love") as well as other genres of writing.

For example, in his hybrid novel, Tail of the Blue Bird, that was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010, the story unfolds in a Ghanaian village called Sonokrom. Translated into Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan and Japanese, Tail of the Blue Bird was crowned Best First Foreign Book in 2014 by leading French literary magazine, Lire. The novel's French translation also won the 2014 Prix Baudelaire, Prix Mahogany and Prix Laure Bataillon.

Parkes now lives in Ghana. A 2007 recipient of Ghana's ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy, he has also authored the book of poems, The Makings of You. He writes for children under the name K.P. Kojo and is currently working on a crowd-funded collection of short stories, The City Will Love You, which is slated for release later in 2018.

1. What are you reading right now?
I'm a multiple book reader. At the moment, I'm reading Carlos Fuentes' essay collection, This I Believe: An A to Z of a Life; a collection of three Mexican poets published by Vagabond Press in Australia; and Alvin Pang's collected poems, What Happened.

2. If you were a famous literary character in a novel, play or poem, who would you be, and why?
Melquíades, from One Hundred Years of Solitude – I like the idea of dying but not dying. I guess that may be why I'm a writer in the first place.

3. What is the greatest misconception about you?
That I'm a musician. I don't quite know how it happened, but it's a persistent misconception. It might be the ghost of my father hanging over me, but it has its benefits – I sometimes get hustled into clubs for free.

4. Name one living author and one dead author you identify with most, and tell us why.
Just a week ago, I would have named my mentor Atukwei Okai as the living author, but he died on July 13, so I must name him with the dead. For living authors I'd say Toni Morrison. The reason for both is the same; they represent for me authors who create and deepen their craft based on a unique aesthetic that they were/are prepared to stick to regardless of what the market or convention demands. That's what I aspire to in my work as both writer and editor.

5. Do you believe in writer's block? If so, how do you overcome it?
I don't believe in it. I think it happens when we are too precious about our work, so the solution I suggest to authors who claim to suffer that affliction is to not take themselves too seriously.

6. What qualities do you admire most in a writer?
Perseverance.

7. What is one trait you deplore most in writing or writers?
Jealousy. I think that if you have an aesthetic compass of your own making you won't feel threatened by other writers, so jealousy is a sign of weakness in your own practice.

8. Can you recite your favourite line from a literary work or a piece of advice from a writer?
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." From Yeats' 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven'.

9. Complete this sentence: Few people know this, but I…
stand on my head almost every morning.

10. At the movies, if you have to pick a comedy, a tragedy or an action thriller to watch, which will you go for, and why?
A comedy every time. There's enough tragedy in life.

11. What is your favourite word, and what is your least favourite one?
Favourite word is "ojotswalɔ" – it's a Ga word that means trickster. I don't know if I have a least favourite word, but at a push it would be "almost" – I try to avoid using it in my writing, because in the words of Brandy and Darkchild "almost doesn't count."

12. Write a rhyming couplet that includes the following three words: jet, lag, fire.

Where passion roars with the fever of a jet in flight,
no lag exists that can dim its fire, quench its light.

13. What object is indispensable to you when you write?
A pen – preferably with blue ink.

14. What is the best time of the day for writing?
To paraphrase Spinoza: Measure, time and number are nothing but modes of thought. Whenever I'm awake is good for me.

15. If you had a last supper, which three literary figures, real or fictional, would you invite to the soiree, and why?
My answer to this question changes all the time. I think this time I'll go for Zora Neale Hurston, Anaïs Nin and Bashō – I imagine that although they all have a quiet side, they know how to party and will definitely make great conversation.

16. How do current affairs – for example, Brexit and Europe's immigration crisis – affect your creative work as a writer?
Not much. Certainly not in the moment. I find that they can seep into my work at later moments, but definitely not at the time of occurrence.

17. What would you write on your own tombstone?
Gone but still fertile.

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