International bestselling author Lolá Ákínmádé is back with another release readers are sure to find oh so sweet. I recently spoke with her about Bitter Honey.
Tell me about your latest book.
Bitter Honey is about mothers and daughters, lovers and friends, and above all, giving yourself grace. When life doesn’t go the way you’d originally planned, you can still pick up the pieces and create something beautiful worth living for. That is what Bitter Honey is ultimately about.
Why did you decide to write it?
I already had so much rich material to work in. While this is a completely standalone novel, in my debut In Every Mirror She’s Black, a character called Tobias talked about his mom moving to Sweden from Gambia in the 1970s as a student and how she ended up with his father. And I knew I had to explore that landscape when it comes to politics, migration, academia, art, and forbidden love.
Who is your favorite character and why?
While l deeply love my two main characters, mother Nancy and daughter Tina, my favorite character is a privileged man named Malik who is the son of the Gambian ambassador and comes from a family of diplomats. His 70s swagger reminds me of my own dad and photos of our fathers from that era when they had their afros, bell bottoms, slightly unbuttoned shirts, and were posing next to Trans-Ams and other muscle cars. They represented an era of pure confidence and power. That was also the time when other people started feeling inadequate and intimated by that strength.
When did you fall in love with the written word?
I loved reading as a girl, and in my pre-teens was when I started penning fiction and writing short stories. I filled up notebooks in mere hours, and when I went to boarding school, I was running my own mini library in my dorm room, where my friends [would] check out my handwritten books on a list and bring them back in for the next person. I’ve always known I was going to be a storyteller. I just didn’t now how it was going to manifest in my life. Now, in addition to being an author, I’m also a travel writer and visual storyteller using photography as yet another medium.
If you could pick another profession, what would it be and why?
First, I would wish for the superpower to speak every language in the world, and then I would probably work within the nonprofit sector as a visual storyteller across continents. So pretty much what I do now, but in a different context and the dream of being a proper polyglot.
What author would you fangirl over?
There are several authors I really enjoy and whose work I love. I like Lily King’s writing style. Taylor Jenkins Reid has supported my writing from Day One, so I would love to meet her. Onyi Nwabineli is a queen when it comes to witty reflective prose, and Chika Unigwe is a continued source of inspiration on how to confidently share space as a prolific author herself. As I’ve gotten older, and the more I travel the world as a travel writer, I simply see us all as vulnerable people with flaws, hopes, dreams, and insecurities as well. So, I think my days of actively fangirling have been tempered by age.
What books have you read lately and loved?
I’m reading Between Friends & Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi and Heart the Lover by Lily King. Loving both so far. I also recently read It’s Me They Follow by Jeannine A. Cook.
What books are you most excited to read next?
The Manual for Good Wives by Lola Jaye.
What’s next for you?
I’ve just released my novella JOHAN, and I’m currently working on a new piece of full-length fiction that has me digging into my archives for inspiration.
Do you have anything you would like to add?
I’m excited to meet readers and people who support my work on my upcoming U.S. book tour from November 4 to 12. You can view the dates and stops here: https://www.linktr.ee/lolaakinmade
Use the Black Fiction Addiction affiliate link to purchase your copy of Bitter Honey by Lola Akinmade.
To learn more about international bestselling author and award-winning photographer Lola Akinmade, visit her website or connect with her on social media.
- Media kit: https://bit.ly/MEDIAKIT-LOLA
- Website: https://www.akinmade.com
- Social media: @LolaAkinmade, @BitterHoneyBook
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Lola Akinmade is an award-winning visual storyteller, international bestselling author, and travel entrepreneur. She has dispatched from over 80+ countries and her work has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, Travel Channel, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, Forbes, and many more. She has collaborated with commercial brands such as Dove, Getty Images, Mercedes Benz, Intrepid Travel, Electrolux, ASUS, and National Geographic Channel, to name a few.
As a storyteller, Lola was featured on Condé Nast Traveler’s Women Who Travel Power List. She was named one of the Most Influential Women in Travel by Travel Pulse, a Hasselblad Heroine and Bill Muster Travel Photographer of the Year. She was also honoured with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture and a Newsweek Future of Travel Storytelling Award, to name a few recognitions. She has also been featured in several solo and group exhibitions around the world, including most recently Hasselblad Foundation’s Fotosalongen.
Her book, Due North, received the Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book, and she is also the author of international bestselling “LAGOM: The Swedish Secret of Living Well” available in over 15 foreign language editions. Her internationally-acclaimed novel, “In Every Mirror She’s Black“, was a Good Morning America (GMA) Buzz Pick, Apple Editors’ Pick, Amazon Editors’ Pick, and Independent UK “Best Thought-provoking Story”. Her latest novel, EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH, is an NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature, Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick, a Washington Post, Sunday Times, and Amazon Editors’ Pick, amongst others. Her upcoming novel BITTER HONEY was published in 2025.
As an entrepreneur, she runs Stockholm-based creative storytelling agency Geotraveler Media and online academy, Geotraveler Media Academy, which runs travel experiences around the world and is dedicated to visual storytelling and helping the next generation of travel storytellers put the heart back into the craft.