Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For March that debut is An Onslaught of Light by Natasha Rai (Pantera Press), a luminous, beautifully observed novel about migration, diaspora and queer identity.
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was highly commended for the 2020 Ultimo Press/Westwords Prize and longlisted for 2017 Richell Prize and KYD’s own Unpublished Manuscript award.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.
What books have you loved lately and what’s on your TBR pile?
I read Emily Maguire’s Rapture last year and loved it, it still stays with me. It follows the story of Agnes who has the shear audacity not only to read and write, pursue learning, but perhaps even to become the first female Pope of the Catholic church. Definitely well worth reading, it is so beautifully written, the era so well captured, it’s just incredible.
The other book that I’ve loved is Michelle de Krester’s Theory and Practice. It is just such a gorgeous interweaving of memoir, fiction, musings on craft and creative flow, and I just really loved how she’s blended all of that in to this wonderful narrative.
On my to-read list is The Degenerates by Raeden Richardson. I’m really looking forward to this, I’ve heard lots of wonderful things about this book, so I’m excited. The other one is Last Shot by Emma Pignatiello. It’s a debut book that just came out a couple of weeks ago and, from what I know, Emma wrote this book because she says she loves crime and she loves romance but not enough books merge the two. So, she decided to write a book with crime and a romance. The other book that I’m really looking forward to reading is Mirandi Riwoe’s Sunbirds. I read Mirandi’s Fish Girl, which I absolutely loved and adored so much, so I’m really looking forward to that.
You can pick up a copy of An Onslaught of Light at your local bookstore today.
