Semester 1 2017
Interview with Omar Musa Nadia Kim
Omar Musa is an award-winning rapper, author and poet from Queanbeyan. He graduated from ANU in 2006 and has recently released his third book of poetry, Millefiori. He spoke to us about writing, inspiration, and the hard work that goes into the business side of creative endeavours.
and don’t have to do any promo. I think I recognised that early, that nothing was a given, and so I’d have to handle everything myself. I’ve got a pretty strong work ethic, and I enjoy those different sides of the process. It’s difficult to split them sometimes. Because it is a different part of the brain, to come up with poetry and deal with things like matters of the heart, and then the business side of your brain, being disciplined enough to send things out and promote things. But I find it quite fulfilling, and I do enjoy that energy. I’ve sent out every single copy [of his latest collection, Millefiori] myself; I don’t have an assistant. I could have hired an assistant, that
Nadia Kim: You do a lot of self-publishing – how did you learn to be entrepreneurial? Omar Musa: I mean, I’ve always been a bit of a shameless self-promoter. You learn things along the way. Long gone are the days when you’re going to sign some big publishing deal or record deal and then sell a million copies
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