Meet SORAYYA KHAN

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful SORAYYA KHAN a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

SORAYYA, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I found my purpose slowly. It didn’t occur to me to write fiction until after I’d gone to university to study political science and international studies. I grew up in Pakistan and always intended to work for an international organization and travel the world, if only in a small capacity like handing out water in disaster zones. Then I was hired as a research assistant to conduct statistical analysis on an education project at an international organization and everything changed. In the jumble of days filled with numbers and graphs, I asked myself, Where are the people? Who are they? And that’s how I came to character and story, and eventually began to write. I can’t say what came first – wanting to write or finding my subject matter. I knew I wanted to write about how people lived and loved and laughed and died while the larger world and all its political events went on happening all around. WE TAKE OUR CITIES WITH US: A Memoir emerged from a similar impulse, except the lens was on my life.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m the author most recently of WE TAKE OUR CITIES WITH US: A Memoir, and three novels, NOOR , FIVE QUEEN’S ROAD, and CITY OF SPIES. In my work, I’m curious about the relationship between personal lives and the larger world in which they unfold. For many years, my novels were set in South Asia, particularly Pakistan, but my novel-in-progress is an unexpected story of migration and love that’s mostly set in Indonesia in the shadow of Dutch colonial legacy.

Writing makes sense of the world and allows me to explore how we are all interconnected. I love being transported outside of myself into a fictional world that is as real to me as the desk at which I sit. Nothing beats the feeling of a word or a chapter falling into place. I love that writing stops the clock and that time careens backwards or forwards or stays frozen on the page.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Loving what I do has almost everything to do with my devotion to writing. The three qualities that have served me best are discipline, belief in my work, and resilience. But these qualities did not come easily to me and I continue to work on them.

My advice for folks early in their writing journey is to read widely. Try to carve out a piece of your day to establish a writing routine, and write what is meaningful to you rather than writing for the market which is a fickle, fickle thing.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

The most impactful thing my Dutch mother and Pakistani father did for me was to shower my siblings and me with boundless love, and to show us the world.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Credit to Barbara Adams for author photo.

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