Debut Spotlight: 5 Questions

Can you tell us about your journey to publication?

My journey to publication was very long, with many starts and stops along the way. The starts were important for me because they taught me a lot about my craft and how to make my writing better. It also taught me that there is no one way to publication. A really good example of that is when I met my publisher, Pantera Press, at a publisher introduction day held through Writing NSW. I went in having no idea that my life was about to change when I submitted that manuscript.

So, my advice to any writers out there is take every opportunity that comes your way and grab it with both hands, especially if it involves getting in front of a publisher.

An Onslaught of Light was highly commended for the 2020 Ultimo Press/Westwords Prize and longlisted for 2017 Richell Prize and KYD’s own Unpublished Manuscript award. What role have these recognitions played in your career?

Having my work, An Onslaught of Light, recognised in some major prizes gave me the confidence that I had a story worth telling, and it confirmed for me that it was a story that might be worth reading. So, while it didn’t have a direct impact on my career, it definitely helped me with my confidence, and it helped me persevere every time I got a rejection after that because the memory of that recognition kept me going.

Despite covering some heavy topics, including racism, homophobia and mental health, the writing feels gentle and steady. Can you tell us how you went about creating that balance for the reader?

I didn’t set out to specifically investigate or explore those themes and topics. Rather, my starting point was some questions around migration and how the experience of migration might affect or impact our identities. When I started with these questions, these characters came to mind (Archana, Vijay, Indu). As I started writing these characters, I realised that in the dark there’s always light, in the struggle there is always joy. We don’t live a life that is completely bleak and every time there was a glimmer in that, every time there was hope in that, it helped the writing become smoother I suppose. Also, when we are able to really capture the nuances of human experience, it helps with the storytelling.

What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

I hope readers will take a few things away from this story. The first thing is an understanding of the types of questions that someone like me gets asked almost every day, in terms of my identity, my cultural heritage. While it’s okay for me to answer them, it’s an experience that’s almost daily and frequent and it’s not always great to be having to explain myself. I suppose as a sense of empathy for readers.

Most of all I hope readers will enjoy the story, I hope they find points of connection with these characters, and I hope they love the journey that I take them on.