Q&A with Elom K. Akoto

 

 

 

Elom K. Akoto is the author of the new novel Blindspot in America. He teaches French at a high school and ESL at a community college, and is the founder of the nonprofit Learn and Care. Born in Togo, he lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Blindspot in America, and how did you create your character Kamao?

 

A: I wanted to write a story that explores different immigrants’ viewpoints and experiences of the American Dream.

 

After living in the United States for nearly 20 years, I realized that prospective immigrants are profoundly unaware of many things until they have relocated to the US. But regardless of the many struggles they face, there’s still hope and endless opportunity for everyone in this country.

 

I wanted the protagonist to be someone from a prominent African family who is educated and friendly. The character of Kamao fits that description well. His father is an academic who became the health secretary in Ghana shortly after Kamao immigrates to the US.

 

Q: The writer William Archila said of the book, “Elom K. Akoto's fiction makes a simple, yet sharp meditation on the American Dream, and yes, a dream that for the faithful is still possible.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think that description fits the novel well. When people ask me if my novel is about me, I usually answer that it’s about every immigrant in America.

 

Although it features an African immigrant as the protagonist and is written from an African immigrant’s perspective, it mentions people from other parts of the world who relocated to the United States as refugees or immigrants, such as Nepal, Bosnia, El Salvador, and Yemen. Every one of these people has their own experience of America.

 

Although their stories differ from one individual to another, one thing is familiar to most immigrants: their dream of America is far different from the reality they face once they relocate to the US.

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: The story started building up in my head in 2017. I started writing it in 2018 and finished it shortly after Covid hit in 2020.

 

Surprisingly, I had little trouble writing this novel's beginning and ending. They were the two most important parts I settled with quickly and relatively easily.

 

Once I knew and liked how the story started and ended and felt comfortable with them, I thought it would be a good story. I had to rewrite mostly the middle part, the story's evolution, and the plot's details.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The current title of my novel, Blindspot in America, was not the original title I gave it. I was unhappy when my publisher decided it was best to find a new title for the book because of how cliché In the Dream of America would appear to potential readers. The publisher then included me in the task of finding a new title.

 

After tossing words around, Blindspot in America seemed to fit the story better, as it depicts how prospective immigrants’ conception of America excludes or instead omits some crucial aspects and realities of their future adopted country. Those aspects and realities constitute the spots they didn’t see in their dream of America.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently working on my third novel, the first story I started writing several years ago when I was a senior in high school in Togo. It’s about the use of child soldiers in conflicts and about humans’ internal struggle between good and evil.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I never thought writing would be so much fun. I enjoy every minute I sit down to write.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb