unfinishing is the podcast about projects that are incomplete, abandoned, works-in-progress or not public. It’s presented by Emily Anderson. If you have an incomplete or private project you’d like to talk about, please contact us via our website: https://unfinishing.co.uk/.

Akeem Balogun is a writer. His debut collection of stories, The Storm, won the Society of Authors' Somerset Maugham Award, a competition he now judges. Akeem is eclectic with his form, and has written stories, audio drama, and creative pieces for artists and festivals.

He curated Words, Vision and Sound for the 31st Off the Shelf Literature Festival of Words, a multimedia literature event. It was also featured in the Huddersfield Literature Festival. His latest work, Post-modern Hustle, was published by Intergraphia Books and features artwork by Thomas D. Fowler.

Akeem’s first unfinished project is a short story collection called Expressions. It has finished elements, but for the most part consists of stories that are unwritten or ideas - all safely collected in a notebook for when the time is right to complete and publish them.

His second unfinished project is a novel with the working title of The District. The book depicts a particular set of characters whose lives Akeem wants to see in print. After countless drafts and lots of feedback, the end is in sight.

Akeem is highly motivated by a desire to make his writing excellent. In fact, the pursuit of excellence is one of the reasons the works we discuss aren’t yet out in the world - so they’ll be worth the wait.

⁠Links of interest:

About Akeem: Written Gallery – Writing by Akeem Balogun

The Literary Studio: About Us | The Literary Studio

The Storm, with original cover painting by Arantza Pardo: The Storm – Written Gallery

Akeem’s book recommendations:

Richard Ford, Canada (2012): Canada (novel) - Wikipedia

Tibor Fischer, Good To Be God (2009): Good To Be God by Tibor Fischer | Waterstones

Ted Chiang, Exhalation: Stories (2019): Exhalation: Stories - Wikipedia

Kerry Hadley Price, Gamble (2018): https://www.waterstones.com/book/gamble/kerry-hadley-pryce/9781784631307