DIDIHOOD ~ Issue 90

Welcome to November, Didis!

As we wind down and get ready for the end of the year, we want to take a moment to recognize all of our mentors and mentees this season and thank them for all their hard work. If you’re doing the mentorship program this year, we want to hear how it’s going! Send us a note (and photo)!

Meet the Didi

This month we speak with author Tasneem Jamal. Jamal is the author of two novels and numerous essays and short articles. Her latest is I Never Said That I Was Brave.

How did you get into writing in the first place? How did you know this was a viable career option?

I’ve always loved telling stories. As a child, I somehow knew this was what I would do: be a storyteller. I had a vivid imagination and loved writing about things only I could see and feel. I needed to give that inner life expression, to make it exist in the world.

When I discovered novels — not children’s stories but adult novels, Margaret Laurence in particular — I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to write novels. Whether I could was another matter. For many years I didn’t believe I could. So I tried academia, then journalism. I didn’t sit down and make a serious attempt at a novel until my mid- to late thirties.

You’ve written both fiction and nonfiction. What’s your experience with both?

Fiction is something I love to do in book-length form. Nonfiction I tend to keep to shorter pieces, mostly personal essays. I don’t feel expansive or free in nonfiction. I tried a book-length project once and learned that it wasn’t a good fit.

But life changes, and so do we. Maybe one day it will fit. For now, fiction is where I feel most creative. Nonfiction constrains me a bit. I think it might be the journalist in me. I feel as though I’m reporting facts rather than exploring the unknown. And I want to explore the unknown.

As a brown woman, have you faced any pressures to tell specific South Asian stories? If so, how did you handle it?

I’m deeply interested, as a novelist, in structure, character, and voice. Yet I find readers and critics of my work aren’t always interested in those elements of craft. They often want to talk about race, or notions of home. In fairness, I do address those themes in my work. But I’m also an artist, a craftsperson. I feel writers of colour tend first—and often only—to be seen through the lens of identity.

What has your experience been navigating the publishing space as a South Asian woman?

I’ve been quite privileged for the most part—having started my career at major Canadian newspapers—and have felt supported. That said, when I was working in media in Toronto twenty-some years ago and poking around the publishing world, I didn’t see many people who looked like me. There were certainly some celebrated South Asian novelists, but as far as editors and others in the industry here, they were almost exclusively white. Things are changing now, but back then when I was aspiring to be a writer, I felt like an outsider. I felt I needed to shapeshift to be acceptable. It was exhausting. And I think it contributed to this belief that I couldn’t write a novel, that I lacked the pedigree or the right.

What advice would you have for Didis who want to write?

Oh, please write. Just write. Don’t wait for someone to ask you to do it. Or to tell you you’re good. (Most people aren’t good at first.) If you feel the desire to write, then you must. We need your voice. Something is calling you to tell your stories. Don’t ignore that call.

What are you working on next?

It’s very early days, so I can’t say too much. But I’m playing with a novel—an almost play-like novel—set during the time of the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. It sounds grand—Partition is a grand subject—but my story focuses on a small part of it. It feels more like a sketch, maybe a small gesture. We’ll see where it goes.

What we’re reading:

What we’re watching / listening to:

Cha Da Cup With KayRay - Cults, Cannibals & Chaos!

See you next month!

— Arti Patel

Issue 90
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