Hussani Abdulrahim
Hussani Abdulrahim is a Nigerian writer. He has a degree in Pure Chemistry from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. Hussani’s short story ‘Arewa Boys’, which won the Toyin Falola Prize (2022), was shortlisted for the 2024 ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award. He won the 2023 Writivism Short Story Prize, Ibua Journal’s 2023 Bold Call, and the 2016 Green Author Prize. He has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Afritondo Prize, Boston Review’s Aura Estrada Short Fiction Contest, and the BWR Summer Fiction Contest. He was a participant in the Flame Tree Writers’ Workshop co-facilitated by award-winning writers Abubakar Adam Ibrahim and Chika Unigwe in 2024. He also participated in the 2025 Kokonut Head Media Virtual Residency Programme. Hussani’s work has appeared in Boston Review, Wilted Pages, Ubwali Literary Magazine, Tasteful: A Literary Cannibal Anthology, Brave New Weird Anthology (Tenebrous Press), Brittle Paper, Evergreen Review, Solarpunk, Ibua Journal, The Flametree Project, and Afritondo Prize anthologies. He lives in Kano, Nigeria, and is working on both a novel and a short story collection.
The Magic of Titles
I can’t remember exactly why I wrote ‘Gold-Plated Boy’ or how the flesh of the story came to me, but one thing I recall vividly is that the title was the first thing I jotted down, before all other aspects of the story fell into place.
When I was informed that I would be required to write this note, I began to wonder how one writes about a creative work they have written, or about the creative process itself. This is why I find this task somewhat demanding, because I pride myself on being a storyteller—nothing more. Everything that comes out of me is a result of a basic desire to tell a good story. In this regard, I’d say I am a lot like Cyprian Ekwensi.
But let’s stick to the script.
In writing this, I had to return to where the title of my story originated. I knew it came from a short story written by someone else, but I couldn’t remember who wrote it, as I had never actually read the story, even though the title fascinated me. I searched using the keywords “Coin-Operated Boy”, and Google only gave me details about a song and an animated short film I didn’t even know existed. What I was looking for, however, I eventually found on X. It clicked that this was where I had first come across the title ‘Coin-Operated Boy’, a short story written by Aia Järvinen and published in Issue 014 of Dark Matter Magazine.
It was somewhat odd that, until that moment, I had never thought to read the story whose title had inspired mine. The story, set in a post-apocalyptic world, focuses on human survivors after an unspecified, world-ending disaster. Cora, the main character, fixates her attention on a mechanical boy housed in a glass cabinet. The figure, with its shiny texture and colourful outfit, represents a striking contrast to the toxic, grey reality around her.
In comparison, Coin-Operated Boy, the song by The Dresden Dolls written by Amanda Palmer, depicts a narrator yearning for a relationship without complications. The mechanical boy is employed as a metaphor for emotional escapism, the desire to be with someone who can be controlled and managed.
Meanwhile, in the animated short film Coin Operated by Nicholas Arioli, we find a boy who spends all his life selling lemonade to save coins, all in pursuit of fulfilling his dream of riding a rocket machine into space, one which he discovered in a grocery store as a child.
On one hand, it was fascinating to encounter these independent works, each using different mediums to convey their messages, yet all connected by a unifying thread: the mechanical. The mechanical becomes a medium through which deep human emotions can flower, revealing our wants and vulnerabilities. I find this thread to be present in my story, ‘Gold-Plated Boy’, as well.
On the other hand, I felt a brief sense of worry. It seemed almost careless that I hadn’t done this small bit of research before writing my story, and I wondered if ‘Gold-Plated Boy’ might have followed a different trajectory had I done so. Perhaps a sentence here or a paragraph there could have made way for something entirely distinct. I dismissed this thought quickly. If anything, I take pride in having created something worthwhile from a simple fascination with someone else’s title. To now discover this broad connection, spanning multiple media, is a joy to behold—something magical. It shows that even when we don’t intend to, our ideas find siblings, both near and far, alluding to the fact that no art exists in a vacuum.
As for the mechanics of writing ‘Gold-Plated Boy’, they are not something I can now clearly remember. Yes, the idea metamorphosed from a chance encounter with the title of Aia Järvinen’s story, but how the main components came together—the idea of Nigerian buka food vendors using culinary droids not only to improve the quality of their meals but also as a side attraction—is now lost to me. However, I must credit writers like Lesley Nneka Arimah and Pemi Aguda for showing me that one can dream up a world and make it believable. It is from the worlds they themselves have imagined that the spark for my own instinct to write stories, stories that are unique and shaped as I wish them to be, was ignited.
As for my writing routine, I’m not much of a routine person. I write best when a story wants to be written, when a sentence begs to be put down on the page. I often find myself waiting for those moments, anticipating the metaphorical itch. Words have found me so far, and I trust that they will continue to do so.
Lastly, I want to thank Aia Järvinen for writing ‘Coin-Operated Boy’, because ‘Gold-Plated Boy’ might not have been born otherwise. I thank The Dresden Dolls for singing Coin-Operated Boy. I thank Nicholas Arioli for the 2017 animated short film Coin Operated. I thank them all for the magic of titles—for in our small worlds, across texts, lyrics, and visuals, across oceans and landscapes, and across time, we are a legion.
Released 1st March 2026.
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