Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

I’m always in a circle. Always beginning just when I thought I was finished. The function, the very true function of an artist is to dance to a different beat. So goes a grant writer. We write grants because we are always drumming a new tune differently. Grants invariable rebel against what is norm. If there is one form of solution to a problem, fine, a grant writer would think about another and write about it. It’s almost like they keep repeating themselves in a circle, beginning again, just when you thought they had ended. It’s why I say these days that to be a grant writer, you must keep the cyclic thought among the Igbos. 

Once shared by Achebe, the cyclic thought suggests that if something happened before, it will happen again. The world is not linear…it is cyclic. Achebe also shared that any Westerner reading his book is not doing him a favor. He is instead widening his scope, his awareness, his understanding of the world. The same goes for grant writers these days no matter if they have more than five grants or one. Anyone reading any of their grants is widening their scope, their awareness, their understanding of this world. Which is why to be a grant writer you must alway be clear on your vision and priorities. Achebe would go on to note that what we do is clear, always, we have to stick to our vision, our priorities, no matter what. The same goes for me these days. I am a grant writer and my vision of what this entails is clear.