When Inua Ellams left his home, Nigeria at 12 and moved to London, he had no friends, no money and very little family.
So he immersed himself in another world.
"I would just borrow books and read. And I fell in love with everything I discovered. Not just about the world, but about myself through the world and it's definitely one of the reasons I started writing,” Mr Ellams says.
Now he's one of the international writers performing at the Sydney Writer's Festival.
Mr Ellams says his work is focused on his own history.
"Everything I write seems to come down to three words, which is identity, displacement and destiny. A lot of that has to do with my identity as an immigrant,” he says.
Nigeria is currently making international news over the kidnapping of more than 200 school girls by the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.
Boko Haram says it is opposed to Nigerian children receiving what it descripes as a 'Western' education but Mr Ellams says he's a product of Western education.
He says it's changed his way of thinking and influenced his poetry.
"I imagine I would have been thinking completely different things. I would respond to the world in very different ways."
This year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival will feature over 400 authors and artists from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.
One of the major focuses of the program will be on Indigenous literacy and story-telling.
Author Anita Heiss says not all Indigenous communities have the ability to take part, and is one of the many dedicated to improving Indigenous literacy.
She says access to learning materials must improve for Indigenous literacy rates to improve.
"It's about getting resources into communities to make sure that we've got kids that start school at the age of five or earlier, having had a relationship with books."
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