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'I am bearing witness to the times I live in'
Sharbari Z Ahmed is a Bangladeshi American fiction writer. Her first collection of short stories The Ocean of Mrs Nagai will be launched on the second day of Hay. Daily Star Books has brought out the collection. She talks with The Daily Star about the upcoming launch.
The Daily Star: Your first collection of short stories is going to be launched during Hay. How do you feel about it?
Sharbari Z Ahmed: I am incredibly excited. I am also very happy to be part of the groundbreaking Hay Festival in Bangladesh where I was born.
TDS: Do you think Hay is emerging as a strong platform for Bangladeshi authors, especially for those writing in English?
SZA: Most definitely. This year I think there are more workshops and interactive sessions with professional writers that will inspire writers,especially young Bangladeshi writers, to start seriously working on their craft.
TDS: Tellussomethingaboutthebook.
SZA: It took years to write. This collection has my first published story, among others. I worked on it at New York University and then finally sent it out. So, it reflects my growth and evolution as a writer and a person. Well 1 am still working on both, to be honest. I don't think I will ever be finished growing and trying to evolve.
TDS: Some of your readers are already saying you write as an international author since your stories are spread over many continents and they involve characters as diverse as Japanese, Ethiopian, Bangladeshi and American. How could you construct so many diverse characters so convincingly?
SZA: I am happy to hear I am convincing! I was very blessed that from a very young age I lived and traveled in different places. I used to bemoan my rootlessness and felt like I didn't belong anywhere, but that just might be what helped me see an elderly Japanese woman or a malnourished, snot-nosed kid In Addis Ababa clearly. I also have this strange theory that I try to apply to my life and I hope that is reflected in my stories: That no one is a stranger to me, that we are all connected, by our basic humanness of course, but also by our needs, our pain, our fears, our search for love and recognition, and our happiness. I was once walking down a street in Manhattan and I looked around-writers are always observing-and it struck me that no one on that street, and there were thousands of people around me, no one was really a stranger to me, or had to be. I also go by the idea that every single person has a story to tell, and that there is no such thing as a boring person. I think that is what I tried to work out in my stories.
TDS: The narrators in many of your stories are overtly politically conscious such as in 'Alexander Detained' and 'Not Raisins, But Virgins'. Tell us something about this aspect ofyour stories.
SZA: Well I am a politically minded person, whatever that means. It creeps into my work sometimes, though I am trying to temper that, or rather let it happen more naturally. 'Alexander Detained' was written at a time when (actually we are still in that time) Muslims in America were public enemy number one. There is a history you know. The American government sent thousands of Japanese Americans into internment camps during WWII, citing them, law abiding, tax paying citizens, as potential enemy combatants. 1 do not think it is entirely outlandish, given the US's propensity for witch hunting, to start herding Muslim Americans into special camps as well. But the main point is, as a writer of the 21st century, I am bearing witness to the times I live in. I am telling stories that hopefully will be read by generations from now, so I guess I am giving my take on what the environment was like politically. Though I am getting more fascinated with the politics of human relationships, I believe if the story's arc naturally bends towards geo politics then so be it.