My article, Thoughts on a Pandemic Book Club, an illustrated essay with Rowan Hisayo Buchanan was published in Wasafiri Magazine Online Edition. Here is the link:
https://www.wasafiri.org/article/thoughts-on-a-pandemic-book-club/
‘The M & Ms’ is a short story I was commissioned to write for 2022 Manchester-based Comma Press's history-into-fiction British superhero anthology THE CUCKOO CAGE, ed. Ra Page. Here’s my British superhero, Virat Parmar, who is based in Ashby-de-la-Zouch and becomes Major M, leader of The M & Ms (a group of mind-reading teenagers against deportation). I never thought I'd write a superhero story and really enjoyed working with historian, Ariel Hessayon. Here is an excellent portrayal of my character, Virat, by artist Steve Moyler. Hope you'll check out the anthology sometime as it has been getting great reviews: https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-cuckoo-cage
Here is a blog I wrote for Comma Press about my research/writing process: https://bit.ly/363cWBb
My British Superhero story, ‘The M & Ms’, is about a teenage boy called Virat who lives in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. When we meet him, he is feeling hurt, depressed, and powerless because his best friend – Martin Marprelete – has been deported to Jamaica as part of a cynical vote-grabbing scheme called The British Values Initiative. He is in his living room, shouting at the Prime Minister on the television, when he realises he can read the Prime Minister’s mind, seeing through his lies. Virat soon finds he can do this with other people too and informs his friends about his new power. Together they use it to threaten the PM to force him to bring Martin home for good. During their quest, the teenagers realise their project is bigger than any one person and decide to take on the government with exciting results.
This story is inspired by a brief but electric moment of protest in Elizabethan history: the Martin Marprelate controversy, a pamphlet war created by English puritans to attack the control of the Anglican church. The tracts were often satirical and playful and created a large enough readership that the government hired their writers to pen counter-tracts. A key aspect of the controversy was the identity of Martin Marprelete, a long-term subject of speculation, which I wove into my story towards the end. To learn more about this history, see this blog by the wonderful historian Ariel Hessayon, who helped me understand it for my story to come about: https://arielhessayon.substack.com/p/martin-marprelate.
‘The M&Ms’ is set in a dystopian near-future wherein ultra-nationalism is a prominent feature of the government’s strategy, all at the expense of the most marginalised in society. It was inspired by British immigration policies and the jingoistic sentiment behind Brexit and Trumpism. It is about a population’s apathy and the ramifications of surveillance culture.
We aren’t far off the dangerous politics of my story. It was chilling to watch the Windrush Scandal unfold, wherein it was revealed that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens had been wrongly detained, deported, and denied legal rights. I understood the scandal was not an aberration but by design, an inevitable result of immigration legislation across decades and party-political lines designed to limit the number of non-white people from the Commonwealth in Britain. More recently, the proposed Nationality and Borders Bill as well as the Home Office’s plans to block refugees from entering the UK with taxpayer money, further suggests a belief in government that some citizens are more equal than others, that some humans deserve a home more than others, and that citizenship itself is conditional.
I had always considered Boris Johnson to be a dangerous figure. When I first saw his antics, he made me think of the character of Polonius in Hamlet: a long-winded, shrewd, cynical, verbose, hypocritical, amoral manipulator willing to use any tactic to gain power. When he launched his Brexit campaign as a bid to win control of his party, I wondered what sort of person would instigate such a cynical and racist campaign. I wanted to read his mind to find out what he was really thinking, what he truly believed. I explored this desire in my short story via Virat’s superhero power – an ability to read minds.
I dislike shouting about issues online and prefer to explore my politics more thoughtfully in my work. The teenagers in this story, however, manage to do both, using social media creatively to critique the government and bring about change. Part of their initial struggle lies in figuring out how to disseminate the information they have gathered about the PM and his henchmen so that the people – manipulated by lies for years – listen and take action. In my version of the Martin Maprelate pamphlet war, the boys use memes, comedy, and satire to engage with the truth behind the lies in ways that activate people towards action. For this, I was inspired by the history of Martin Marprelate but also popular musicians such as The Sleaford Mods and Stormzy in particular, who spoke powerfully about Grenfell Tower and against Boris Johnson’s government. It speaks to my belief in the power of art to pierce falsehoods and make space for the truth.
Virat Parmar, leader of The M and Ms
Visit: The Reader Berlin for more.
New Fiction By Women & Non-Binary BIPOC: A Summer Reading Series *WEDNESDAY CLASS*
Course Tutor: Divya Ghelani
When: Wednesdays 19:00-21:00
Start date: 23 Jun 2021
Where: Online
Number of Sessions: 7 (fortnightly)
Maximum Participants: 12
Cost: €140
Divya’s reading series back for a second year running. Think of it as a dream book club, focused on contemporary fiction by non-white women and non-binary BIPOC. Participants will meet online once every fortnight to discuss texts, and will be supported by a curated online forum.
You’ll talk about issues of craft, voice, style, arrangement, taste, canonicity, issues of race and and gender, as well as how you feel about the books and why. Conversations will be expansive, personal, political, and fun – for all you readers and writers out there who love the possibility of a joyful and refreshing summer!
As with last year, Divya will host two bi-weekly online groups. She’ll kick off on Wednesday 23 June and Thursday 24. The Reading Series takes place on Zoom and is accompanied by a lively Slack channel featuring articles, author interviews, as well as the chance to participate in chat threads while reading for a truly immersive experience.
Divya has selected 6-8 titles that will be revealed on June 1st, giving you plenty of time to read the first book.
**Email hello@thereaderberlin.com to reserve your seat.
This series is open to all. Readers/writers who self-define as BIPOC, disability, working class, LGBTQ+, and anyone who feels underrepresented by mainstream publishing are particularly warmly invited.
DIVYA GHELANI holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and an MPhil in Literary Studies from the University of Hong Kong. Her novel-in-progress has been longlisted and shortlisted for four literary awards. She has published short stories and judged story and flash fiction competitions. Her words are in Issue 1 of The Good Journal and she is represented by The Good Literary Agency.
I loved Divya’s course. It was an open, welcoming space that carried both intellectual depth and accessibility, a tricky combination that Divya was able to deliver masterfully because of her depth of knowledge and experience, her warm demeanor and engaging personality, and her skill at navigating a room of people who may have been coming from vastly different backgrounds and experiences. It felt as if everyone left those classes feeling richer for the experience. Also, the choice of books for the course was wonderful. We were examining a range of PoC contemporary novels, from many different perspectives. The space also felt warm enough for us to bring our own personal experiences into the mix, and I always came out of the course with my views on the texts challenged, enhanced, or expanded. It felt as if everyone in the course made valuable contributions. In summary, Divya’s space-holding skills, combined with her intellectual depth and her commitment towards inclusivity made the course a real pleasure to attend, and I’m grateful to have been a part of it. – Ayesha
“I really loved the Reading Series. The selection of books was incredible and, for me, most of the books were new. Divya prepared well and the discussions were super-interesting!” – Anon
What I liked the most about this reading series was that there was no pressure to give the right answer or correspond to certain academic standards. Everybody learned from one another. As Divya said, it shouldn’t be “like University” and it sure felt a lot more relaxed and joyful, while still intellectually stimulating. This was the highlight of my corona summer! – Bruna
“The course was just the thing I expected it to be. A whole new world of literature was opened up to me – I was the oldest participant! Divya was hugely enthusiastic about the books she chose for us to read and was open to any level of opinion. I always looked forward to the course regardless of whether I had read the book or not.” MTH
If you asked me 16 weeks ago, I would not have believed I could read 9 novels in 16 weeks, next to everything else. But I did it! And it has been one of the best experiences with @divyaghelani and @thereaderberlin and the other participants of the New Fiction by Women and Non-Binary People of Color book club. I recommend each of these books to all of you. Get started! Looking forward to what Divya will give us all of the joy from words and books around the corner. This was the best gift I have had this year! ♥️ If you ask me which one I liked the most I cannot say. I love them all. [ … ] I am not gonna lie, these books can also uncomfortable and full of pain as they explain how racism and sexism are drenched through everything from academia, to fashion, through work, love, friendship, childhood memories, and parenthood. I know there will be a version of the book club in 2021 I really recommend you save your spot!” – Mette
Tutors: Divya Ghelani
Start date: 28 Nov 2020
End date: 28 Nov 2020
Time: 10:30-16:30 (1-hour lunch break)
Where: Zoom
Maximum Participants: 15
Cost: €75 incl MwSt
This one-day generative fiction workshop invites you to conjure new story ideas through the close examination of passages from contemporary novels by women & non-binary people of colour. You will be galvanized to write via a series of reading-related prompts, asking you to emulate style, explore imagery, refashion themes, transform characters, and shift perspectives.
Through pre-workshop reading, lively in-group discussion, and a series of tailored creative writing exercises, this course presents reading not as passive consumption but as inherently productive; a creative experience that can catalyze reader-writers in new imaginative directions. Writing will take place in short bursts throughout the day and everyone will leave with nine story ideas and inspiration for many more.
This hybrid creative-critical workshop requires that you engage with selected novel passages beforehand to maximize time for deeper discussion and creative writing within the workshop. Passages and questions will be emailed one week prior, whereas writing prompts will be delivered on the day.
The material for this workshop is based on Divya Ghelani’s 2020 New Fiction By Women and Non-Binary People Of Colour Summer Reading Series*. It includes work by Akwaeke Emezi, Hanya Yanagihara, Diane Evans, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Meena Kandasamy, Sayaka Murata, Leila Slimani, Celeste Ng, and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (who was the commissioned illustrator for this series, and whose watercolour paintings will form part of the prompts!).
*Please note that you do not have to read any of the selected novels or previously taken Divya’s course in order to benefit from this writing workshop.
This course is open to all levels and is particularly suited to fiction writers looking to generate new ideas. Writers of colour, working class, LGBTQ+, disability, and anyone who believes their stories aren’t being heard are warmly invited.
Email hello@thereaderberlin.com to reserve your seat.
DIVYA GHELANI holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and an MPhil in Literary Studies from the University of Hong Kong. Her novel-in-progress has been longlisted and shortlisted for four literary awards. She has published short stories and judged story and flash fiction competitions. Her words are in Issue 1 of The Good Journal and she is represented by The Good Literary Agency.
“Divya’s workshop helped me not only to expand my writing skills, but also to find amazing like-minded writers and a warm community! Thank you the Reader Berlin for breaking distance barriers, challenging difficult times, and bringing this opportunity to me.”
“Divya is an excellent teacher and the class has inspired me in so many ways. I feel much more confident and am attempting to publish things for the first time ever! I always looked forward to Tuesday evenings.” —AMSF
“As an emerging writer, I find that I often struggle with finding a community to exchange experiences and inside knowledge with. The Reader Berlin offers exactly that community and Divya the inside knowledge. I’d do the course all over again, in a heartbeat.” —Francesca F.
4 SEPTEMBER 2020 – OCTOBER 10, Online and live from the kitchen
Home by 10 Fest is a new writing festival designed to help take your writing career to the next level.
To celebrate its 10th birthday Dahlia Books presents #Homeby10 Fest, an online event taking place across 10 days in October. Bringing various strands of our our work together for the first time, #Homeby10 aims to support new and emerging writers by offering advice and inspiration through a series of talks and workshops.
Featuring myself, Laura Besley, Susmita Bhattacharya, CG Menon, Rebecca Burns, Deepa Anappara, Rishi Dastidar, Emma Smith-Barton, Laura Pearson, Vaseem Khan and Kia Abdullah alongside exciting new voices.
Divya’s Pre-festival Zoom Creative Writing workshop:
Friday 4 September - Short Story & Flash Fiction Charity Workshop with Divya Ghelani, 7.30-9 pm
This is the perfect generative workshop for those wishing to experiment and play by creating new short fiction! Participants will be offered a range of stimulus-based writing exercises to help them conjure new settings, characters, and voices. Expect to leave with new story drafts and ideas for many more!
Suitable for: Aged 16 plus
Cost £10 (minimum donation)All money raised goes to the charitable organisation Quetzal and their Breaking The Silence Initiative. Through this initiative, the charity aims to raise awareness about the trauma of childhood sexual abuse and the value of counseling in South Asian communities in Leicester City using a community-based approach. To highlight Quetzal’s important work, Divya will close her workshop with a specially designed writing prompt based on healing and recovery. Read here for more information on what Quetzal do: http://quetzal.org.uk/breaking-the-silence-initiative-leicester/
Divya Ghelani was born in Gujarat and grew up in Loughborough. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and an MPhil in Literary Studies from the University of Hong Kong. She lives between Berlin and the UK where she has published short stories and judged story and flash fiction competitions. She is working on her first novel. Visit www.divyaghelani.com
This is the story of the slow disintegration of a marriage and the consequences for friends and family. Ama loses her sista; Kareem learns to distrust a good friend; the siblings Ash and Beth have to struggle for their mother's attention; Till and his partner slip away from each other. Sensitive, relentless, and told with subtle humor, this is the tale of a multi-faceted narrator who ends up revealing a darker side.
https://www.edition-assemblage.de/buecher/the-things-i-am-thinking-while-smiling-politely/
Otoo was the 2016 winner of the Bachmann Prize for her story ‘Herr Gröttrup’. Having published two novellas and edited several collections, she is now writing her first novel in German.
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan: “Repost due to dyslexia: I was both nervous and delighted when I saw that @sharondoduaotoo was on the @thereaderberlin Summer reading list that @divyaghelani commissioned me to illustrate. There is something particularly intimidating about painting someone you’ve had the pleasure of meeting. We were on a @wordfactoryuk panel together. I miss live events! If you go online there are many photos of her laughing beautifully but, I particularly enjoyed the few that had a gentle raised eyebrow. This quote is from a really smart @writersofcolour interview she gave a few years ago about politics, motherhood, Germany and writing. Oh and slide over for a little U-bahn sign for the area lived in by the protagonist of the things i am thinking while smiling politely. Those of you who’ve read the book will understand the stickers on it!” #illustration #watercolor #thingsiamthinkingwhilesmilingpolitely. Follow @rowanhisa on Instagram
Otoo’s unnamed narrator feels increasingly liminal and this has repercussions for her relationships and choices, both in her childhood and the present. Our Book Club considered the ways in which friendship and love are assessed and critiqued as a result of this, as well as the theme of ‘frenemies’ and friendships.
Readers spoke about how their allegiances shifted in response to characters’ behaviour towards one another. They felt safe within the narrator’s perspective as a Black British woman in Berlin, until she revealed her big secret. It was as if the author was causing our relationship with the narrator to become estranged, and in doing so asking important questions about power and privilege among people of colour: How is our empathy for the narrator affected when she chooses to hurt a woman of colour in a more precarious position than herself?
A couple of readers showed Agatha Christie-levels of detective flair by studying the text forwards and then backwards, after which they proceeded to decode its secrets for the rest of us. We discussed the deliberate rupturing of time’s flow within the story, and felt excited by the writer’s structural prowess, her sense of playfulness within the tightly knit architecture of the novella form (also evident in Otoo’s second novella-in-flash, Synchronicity).
We agreed the conversations around veganism and customer service were ‘so Berlin’ when viewed from a non-German perspective, and the racist micro-aggressions were ‘so Berlin’ from a Black or POC perspective. (We also talked about the ways in which the city had changed and remained the same from the moment in which the novel was written.)
Readers loved the theme of naming in the things i am thinking while smiling politely. What does it mean to feel unnamed, trapped within a name, caught between names? And what does it mean to want to make a name for oneself? What is lost and what is gained in the process? We discussed the subject of intergenerational trauma, how it is processed by characters in the novel, and the ways in which it plays out in the narrator’s relationship with her daughter Beth. Themes of identity and belonging are present throughout this tale, including what it means to be seen as exotic and then cast aside. We admired Otoo’s many beautiful images on these topics: Auntie’s thrifty squishing together of old bits of soap, the stopping of the water clock at the Europa Centre, the narrator’s bleeding foot, the misplaced yet highly creative decision of an eight-year-old British-Ghanaian girl to choose her place in the world.
Those who could read in both English and German (as well as readers who were bi or multilingual in other languages) felt enlivened by Sharon Dodua Otoo’s decision to move between languages in her creative work. This, alongside her evident joy in structural play, made readers want to take more imaginative risks.
Here’s a great consideration of Sharon’s writing to date.
Here’s a link to her recent Bachmannpreis speech (for German speakers only).
You have a single day to plot a little story and then write it backwards. Begin writing at the end and work your way to the beginning. Pay particular attention to the question of time. How does this theme change the structure of your story, if at all? What happens to your story when you read it from front to back? And how about from back to front?
I highly recommend you visit @RowanHisa on her Instagram page to see her specially commissioned paintings in response to this Reading Series (ongoing experimental works).
For our next Book Club we’ll be reading both Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata and When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy. I can’t wait to tell you what we discussed!
I’m thrilled to be hosting a ‘New Fiction by Women and Non-Binary PoC’ Summer Reading Series with The Reader Berlin. It features novels and novellas by Akwaeke Emezi, Hanya Yanagihara, Diana Evans, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Meena Kandasamy, Sayaka Murata, Leila Slimani, Celeste Ng, and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan.
We are now three books into this bi-weekly online Book Club of dreams! We’ve been looking at issues of craft, style, language, authorship, as well as the politics of reading, including questions of methodology and alternative literary canons. I support the reading experience in-between our meetups with an ongoing online Slack forum, which I host, curate, and moderate, using articles, reviews, author interviews, podcasts, and more, to create an immersive feel throughout.
My heartfelt wish for this series has been to create a soft, safe, political, and fun space where readers can exchange ideas on the texts in whichever way they wish to. There are no rules other than warmth, generosity, and a very deliberate focus on craft (because nearly all of the readers are writers too).
I get so excited and nervous before our online meet-ups because the engagement is always enlightening, absorbing, and generative. We laugh a lot too! I run fortnightly groups on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and maybe it’s a bit dorky to say so but I always light a candle for the duration of each meetup. (It reminds me to put the right sort of energy into moderation, a ritual I began during my Short Story & Flash Fiction Workshop here in Berlin’s Covid-19 lockdown.) It is evident that readers care for one another’s ideas, and, as they are all writers from very different backgrounds, it feels very unlike a university seminar or regular book club.
The novelist and artist Rowan Hisayo Buchanan has agreed to add more imagination and colour to the Reading Series with watercolours paintings. Rowan is the brilliant author of Harmless Like You, Starling Days, and editor of the Go Home! anthology.
I emailed Rowan after asking talented Berlin-based writer and artist May-Lan Tan. I have now commissioned Rowan to create whatever she wishes inspired by our Reading Series, in a time frame that suits her, and with a focus on joyful process, play, and experimentation. So far, Rowan has responded by paintings that are in dialogue with the authors, texts, and our rich and expansive Reading Group conversations. I am in love with her new paintings, as are members of my Book Club. See below for Rowan’s first image, a response to Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, which she converted into a very cool Gif that had everyone rushing to her Instagram page! Follow @RowanHisa on Instagram for images related to Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, The People In The Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, Ordinary People by Diana Evans and more. Watch her beautiful experiment unfold as our Reading Group journeys into new story worlds …
Image by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan. A response to Freshwater, the debut novel by Akwaeke Emezi and the first book in our Reading Series. See @RowanHisa on Instagram for more images in conversation with authors, texts, and readers.
Ada has always been unusual. As an infant in southern Nigeria, she is a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents successfully prayed her into existence, but something must have gone awry, as the young Ada becomes a troubled child, prone to violent fits of anger and grief. But Ada turns out to be more than just volatile. Born “with one foot on the other side,” she begins to develop separate selves. When Ada travels to America for college, a traumatic event crystallizes the selves into something more powerful. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these alters—now protective, now hedonistic—move into control, Ada’s life spirals in a dangerous direction.
Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the author's realities, this raw and extraordinary debut explores the metaphysics of identity and being, plunging the reader into the mysteries of self. Unsettling, heart-wrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan: “I’ve been doing some illustrations for @divyaghelani and @thereaderberlin. So here’s my second Freshwater outtake. It’s of Akwaeke Emezi—the author. The illustration is based on publicity photos at the time. But their hair has changed since I believe. In any case, one of the things that is lovely about this book club is that @divyaghelani selects quotes from interviews as well. And so I thought I’d share one that I found particularly beautiful. “I realize that for me I only belong in places I create and that has been, I think, the most important thing I have learned in my brief life so far. I can make worlds. That’s literally my job, to make worlds […] Instead of searching for people to give me a place to belong, I just bent one into existence myself.” —@azemezi #illustration #freshwater #watercolour #authorportrait #bookstagram” - Follow @RowanHisa on Instagram
Freshwater explores Emezi’s Igbo heritage; concepts of gender; Western and indigenous constructions of mental health; and the issue of ontological ‘being’ in the world. Ada is an ogbanje (a child who has a connection to the spirit world and usually dies young only to return to earth and repeat this cycle). In one of her interviews, Emezi describes Ada as “a plural individual and as a singular collective.” The multiplicity of selves that exist within the Ada confronts readers with their own colonization, not just in terms of gender, but the ways they experience their own realities.
In our Book Club, prompted by an author interview, we talked about marginalization not just in terms of skin colour but that of our own inner worlds and experiences. Which aspects of our mental landscapes are allowed to exist as ‘real’ in which societies and why?
We read the story as a profound and surreal questioning of gender binaries, Western and indigenous ideas of mental health, concepts of embodiment, neuro-divergence (as opposed in madness), and an exploration of Igbo cosmology. We found Emezi’s decision to write a spiritual novel from the point of view of a plural self (and later selves that are precipitations of that plural self) to be breathtaking and creatively exciting.
Freshwater confronted us with our own binaries, our own limitations, but it also opened us up to our multitudinousness; the ways in which we are mysterious to ourselves, and many.
Imagine there are spirits in and around you, based on aspects of your personal histories. Who they are, why they are there, and what do they want? Write from their collective ‘we’ perspective …
A powerful work of visionary literary fiction from the bestselling author of the Man Booker Prize and National Book Award-nominated modern classic, A Little Life.
It is 1950 when Norton Perina, a young doctor, embarks on an expedition to a remote Micronesian island in search of a rumored lost tribe. There he encounters a strange group of forest dwellers who appear to have attained a form of immortality that preserves the body but not the mind. Perina uncovers their secret and returns with it to America, where he soon finds great success. But his discovery has come at a terrible cost, not only for the islanders but for Perina himself. Disquieting yet thrilling, The People in the Trees is an anthropological adventure story with a profound and tragic vision of what happens when cultures collide.
Source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/221628/the-people-in-the-trees-by-hanya-yanagihara/
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan: “Some little illustrated excerpts from my work on the @thereaderberlin New Fiction By Women & Non-Binary People of Colour summer reading group. They’re read the People in The Trees for their second week. This quote is from an @guardianbooks interview with her about her second novel A Little Life, though I personally think it applies equally well to either book. She is one of the most divisive authors I know. My feelings about her books are too intense and personal to go into on an Instagram post, but I will leave it that I admire deeply her comportment in the world. (Also for anyone with a soft spot for peering into other people’s homes, google hers. It’s beautiful.) Thank you again @divyaghelani for commissioning this.” #illustration #hanyayanagihara #watercolor #thepeopleinthetrees #alittlelife #bookstagram Follow @RowanHisa on Instagram
We discussed what a visceral reading experience this was, how the novel unsettled, dazzled, and pulverized us. We discussed themes of racism, child sexual abuse, neo-colonialism, the concept of moral relativism, as well as anthropology and science in the 1950s and now. We talked about the many ways in which academic language has been used to collude with violence. We also considered the character of Norton Perina in relation to Daniel Carlton Gajdusek but also to modern-day celebrities like Michael Jackson or R Kelly: ‘great men’ whose moral failings have brought their achievements into question.
It was fun to consider this novel from a craft perspective. We spoke about how the story was book-ended by press reports and prefaced by the sycophantic Ronald Kubodera (who introduces us to the equally unreliable and highly suspect narrative of the Nobel-prizewinning Norton Perina). We marveled at how Yanagihara could maintain our interest in accounts written by deeply abhorrent white male narrators, the level of skill involved in this suspension of belief. We were shocked and amazed by the novel’s ending, which felt like it came from nowhere, and yet had been seeded into the story all along. Yanagihara unsettled us, amazed us, devastated us, and she blew our minds with her skill and unflinching multi-layered look at difficult subject matter.
You are deep inside a forest. Describe the various shades of green, the quality of light as you move through the landscape, the different types of plants, fruits, and animals. Why are you there? How does your description of the forest relate to and reflect your feelings? Write in first person point of view. What happens to you there?
Two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning. Melissa has a new baby and doesn’t want to let it change her. Damian has lost his father and intends not to let it get to him. Michael is still in love with Melissa but can’t quite get close enough to her to stay faithful. Stephanie just wants to live a normal, happy life on the commuter belt with Damian and their three children but his bereavement is getting in the way.
Set in London against the backdrop of Barack Obama’s historic election victory, Ordinary People is an intimate, immersive study of identity and parenthood, sex and grief, friendship and ageing, and the fragile architecture of love.
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan: “As mentioned before, I’ve been doing some illustrations for @divyaghelani and @thereaderberlin for their New Fiction By Women & Non-Binary People of Colour summer reading group. They’re reading Diana Evans’ Ordinary People. A book I highly recommend if you like books about marriage, homes, love and families. It is smart and political about the truly ordinary parts of life. (And yes for those of you wondering it did come out the same year as Normal People. The two books do have some cross over material—difficulty in love, questions of the role you want to play in life, by Evans’s characters are older and more deeply entrenched in their chosen lives.) The quote is from an essay she wrote called “Racism 2020: The heart of the matter.” It’s up on the @bazaaruk website. I know a lot of people dismiss what a fashion magazine can do. But this is as smart and thoughtful a piece of writing as any you could find in the broadest of broadsheets. Also please scroll for a little rodent—who has scuttled out of the infestation that causes one of the characters in Ordinary People quite a lot of stress. In other Diana Evans news, I believe she has just signed a two book deal with Chatto & Windus (a branch of Penguin) for a new novel and an essay collection so we all have that to look forward to.” #illustration #dianaevans #bookstagram #watercolor Follow @rowanhisa on Instagram
Our Book Group used the Obama-victory-party opening scene as a springboard to discuss themes present in other parts of the novel: success versus ordinariness, fashion, class, gender; the deliberate, specific focus on everyday Black metropolitan lives (juxtaposed alongside global Black success). We also talked about the strangeness of reading that Obama victory from today’s point of view, the ways in which the novel itself might be remembered in light of changing global politics.
I like to break up our conversations with videoed author interviews. We watched one such interview wherein Evans talks about only knowing her book would be a success in the sixth year of writing it. We talked about trusting our own writing processes in relation to this, the bravery required to complete, the daily leaps of faith.
We admired how layered and intricate Evans’s ‘crystal house’ of a novel is. We were enamored of the supernatural element, which we all felt gave the novel a real feeling of ‘lift’ and moved it out of the territory of traditional realist fiction. We talked about the building and destruction of the Crystal Palace, which inspires and frames this remarkable novel, and we spoke about the many ways in which Ordinary People, in its specific, beautiful, and detailed focus on Black Londoners’ lives, touched us all.
Create your own party scene linked to a significant moment in history. Depict the host(s), partygoers, fashion styles, conversations, music, politics, and flirtations. What happens to your central character(s) during the party and/or soon after they leave?
Our next book in the Reading Series is ‘the things i thing while i’m smiling politely’ by Berlin-based author Sharon Dodua Otoo. Can’t wait to tell you about it and to see what Rowan produces by way of response!
My latest short story story, 'Heart Skips', will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Friday 24th July 2020 at 15:45. I'm excited to hear it voiced by the talented Indira Varma & hope you'll listen in! Heartfelt thanks to producer Jeremy Osborne, reader Indira Varma, and everyone at Sweet Talk Productions. #radiostory.
I’m leading a ‘New Fiction By Women and Non-Binary PoC’ Summer Reading Series with the wonderful people at The Reader Berlin. My Reading List includes works by Akwaeke Emezi, Hanya Yanagihara, Diane Evans, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Meena Kandasamy, Sayaka Murata, Leila Slimani, and Celeste Ng.
We’ve been looking at issues of craft, style, language, authorship, as well as the politics of reading in our times, including questions of methodology and canonization. We meet online once every fortnight via Zoom to discuss texts. I host, curate, and moderate an online Slack forum alongside (to make it a fun and immersive experience). I’m delighted to report that my two groups and I have managed to co-create an experience that soft, safe, thoughtful, and inclusive, a space in which readers and writers can exchange ideas on texts as well as what these stories mean to their own lives. Being that so many of the readers are writers themselves, there is a very deliberate focus on craft.
We’re two books in and the conversations so far have been nourishing, fun, expansive, and beautiful. It has been an honour to consider stories and craft during our horrible Covid-19 time. On a personal level, I feel the preciousness of meaningful discussion now more than ever.
Claire Adam, Emily Devane, and Divya Ghelani at Waterstones Piccadilly - Writers in Residence 2016
On May 1st my fellow Word Factory apprentices and I joined the politically charged Writers of the World Unite! Festival as Writers In Residence. It was full of Russian revolutionary poetry, debates on identity politics and globalisation, Caribbean literature, and looked at the radical potential of graphic novels with writers from across the globe.
I ran a weekend-long Write In! as part of the #WOTWlitfest, with the aim of encouraging passersby to write about issues of injustice and social change. I asked myself, “How might storytelling by everyday people differ from political/media narratives?” and “How might such storytelling challenge indifference to injustice and promote human rights?” These questions were at the heart of the festival, as well as part of the Word Factory’s 2017 theme of Citizen: the New Story. My challenge was to incorporate the big questions of our day into little creative writing tasks. But would people want to engage?
I enticed passersby towards our Embertons Cafe Word Factory desk by offering up black boxes filled with writing stimulus labelled Characters, Desires, and Disruptions. They chose something from each box, chatted about it with Claire, Emily and I, after which they sat in silence, writing a new piece of flash fiction with us. If “hands on” stimulus wasn’t their bag, they chose a book from our Citizen Library (a brilliant list of political writings, recommended to us by the Word Factory team). I told them, for example: “Turn to page 74, line 6, and start writing!”
The results were fantastic! I don’t just mean the wonderful flash fictions people came up with. I’m talking about the fact that everyday people were sitting with strangers, chatting freely or writing quietly, whilst engaging with big topics of the day, in ways that felt accessible, fun, and creative.
We weren’t Suited Politicians, Media Moguls, or Famous Authors. We were readers, sometimes writers, everyday citizens, reclaiming narratives for ourselves, learning to take risks by trying on new ideas and characters – stepping out somehow.