FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Los Angeles, California — June 25, 2026
Riversong Books, an imprint of Sulis International Press, announces the publication of I Did Not Come for Peace; Problems, Always!, a debut short story collection by Nigerian author Maria Oluwabukola Oni. Comprising seventeen stories — many previously published in literary journals across Africa, the UK, and the United States — this collection announces Oni as a major new voice in contemporary African fiction, one equally at home in biting social comedy and devastating psychological realism.
I Did Not Come For Peace; Problems, Always! is her debut story collection. Her nonfiction multimedia narrative “Achalugo, I Will Marry You” was long listed for the New Media Writing Prize 2025.
The opening lines of the title story set the collection’s irresistible tone: “People can be so annoying! I think as I march angrily down the street. You try to help them and they make you feel like a busybody.” So begins the world of Mary, a Lagos apprentice seamstress whose compulsive truth-telling and social interference make her the neighborhood’s most beloved nuisance. In Oni’s hands, Mary is not simply comic — she is a prism through which the reader sees street harassment, community hypocrisy, class anxiety, and the peculiar loneliness of being the one person who always says the quiet part aloud.
The collection ranges widely in mode and subject. The second story, “The Little Gap Between Not Being Happy and Being Sad,” pivots with disorienting skill to a second-person psychological study of a young woman navigating depression, family pressure, and the numbing aftermath of trauma — demonstrating that Oni is no single-register writer. Other stories explore food culture and gender dynamics on the streets of Lagos, the surreal friction between diaspora identities, the textures of grief, faith tested in crisis, and the quietly devastating economics of being a woman in contemporary Nigeria. A thread of Yoruba language, pidgin English, and cross-cultural tension runs through the whole, grounding each story in a specific, irreducible place while reaching toward universal emotional truths.
Stories in this collection were previously recognized by journals including the Hooghly Review, Black Glass Pages, Akowdee Magazine, Jellyfish Review, Ebedi Review, and Vagabond City, among others. Their gathering here for the first time as a unified collection gives readers the full measure of Oni’s range and ambition. Readers who appreciate the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lesley Nneka Arimah, or Ayòbámi Adébáyọ̀ will find in Oni a peer in the tradition of sharp, compassionate Nigerian women’s fiction.
I Did Not Come for Peace; Problems, Always! is now available through Sulis International Press and wherever books are sold. ISBN: 978-1-958139-78-3.
About Sulis International Press
Sulis International Press empowers authors and delivers global entertainment and information through select fiction and nonfiction. Based in Los Angeles, Dallas, and London, its Riversong Books imprint publishes historical, literary, contemporary, science fiction, fantasy, and religious fiction that entertains while inviting deeper reflection.
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9 responses to “New Short Story Collection from Nigerian Author Maria Oluwabukola Oni Arrives with Humor, Heart, and Hard Truths”
There are moments when even as a writer, words fail me. I can’t sufficiently enunciate how thankful I am to Sulis and everyone who saw the potentials of this book, and worked tirelessly to bring it to life.
Anthony, Cassie, Mark, Keri, Megan and others I’ll meet later, I thank you. Including the mags and anthologies that first liked and published the stories.
I sincerely hope that decades later, this book would have travelled continents to inspire and keep inspiring readers.
Oni ‘s book is one you will not be disappointed to have because she always pour the whole of her heart into writing, am sure this piece is definitelygoing to be an educative, inspiring and interesting one too.
It was our pleasure, Maria! Everyone who took part in the publication process expressed their delight in working with you, I just finished reading it myself—such an excellent work! Thank you for choosing us.
Maria is an exceptional writer and one whose words tell stories that invite you to pause, reflect, and laugh sometimes. She does this with honesty, with, and eloquence.
This is one of my writer friends.
Thank you, Jessica. You’ve always played an active role in my career.
Maria is my immediate older sister. I am proud of her. Writing as a full-time career is her childhood dream come true.
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