Kamila Shamsie

Kamila Shamsie wrote her first book, In the City by the Sea in 1998, while still at university. Five other novels followed: Salt and Saffron (2000), Kartography (2002), Broken Verses (2005) Burnt Shadows (2009) and A God in Every Stone (2014). Her first and third novels were both shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys prize. In the City by the Sea also received the Prime Minister's Award for Literature in Pakistan in 1999. Salt and Saffron won her a place on the “Orange list of 21 writers of the 21st century”. Both Kartography and Broken Verses have won the Patras Bokhari Award from the Academy of Letters in Pakistan. Burnt Shadows was shortlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize in fiction. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2013 was included in the Granta List of 20 Best Young British Writers.
Daughter of literary journalist and editor Muneeza Shamsie, granddaughter of the writer Begum Jahanara Habibullah, Shamsie grew up in Karachi and now lives in London. She is also a reviewer and columnist and has been a judge for several literary awards.
In this editorial interview with SLR, we get a closer appreciation of the many pens that Shamsie makes her mark with, her thought processes and the deep pleasure that drives her.

SLR: You come from a literary line that includes three generations of women authors. Please tell us a bit about growing up in such a creative atmosphere.

KS: Your own childhood is always the norm to you, so I never saw anything particularly remarkable about it at the time. But looking back what strikes me most is how much literature in different forms and languages was always part of the atmosphere and conversation - from my Nana reciting the Odyssey in Greek to my Nani discussing Urdu couplets with her brother to my mother subscribing to Granta magazine so she could keep up with what was happening in contemporary Anglophone fiction at a time when Karachi didn't have the kind of very good bookstsores it now does. So there was never any kind of pressure for me to be a writer - but the atmosphere made it very easy to be caught up in the world of books.

SLR: You have been described as a 'political writer', one who is passionate about “the novel as a place for politics”. Yet, many authors will argue that fiction is best left alone, minus the politics of the world, because it can either get preachy or you can alienate readers who do not agree with your political viewpoints. What is your counter-debate to this?

KS: If you're getting preachy, that's bad writing - which should be avoided in any kind of novel, political or otherwise.  As for alienating readers, that's fine. Any novelist who wants to please everyone will never actually get a novel finished. My further counter-debate: Toni Morrison, Michael Ondaatje, George Orwell and all the other brilliant political novelists.
SLR: Who are some of your favourite authors?

KS: Aside from those mentioned above, Marilynne Robinson, Virginia Woolf, Gabrien Garcia Marquez. Among poets, Agha Shahid Ali has probably been more influential than any other writer - both in his work and in his person (he was my teacher at university).

SLR: How have your sensibilities as a writer changed from novel to novel? Do you still get that same nervous energy like a first-timer or do you feel more of an added pressure to live up to the successes of your past novels?

KS: I started writing my first novel at 21, so it's inevitable that 20 years later my sensibilities have changed. The sentences have become more compressed, and I use far less dialogue that I used to - I think those are the most obvious changes in terms of the writing style.
I don't think nervous energy has ever been part of novel writing - it's too slow a process for that to occur. But yes of course you're aware of more pressure with each novel - most of which is internal. Every writer wants to keep getting better, I would imagine.

SLR: With so many published novels to your credit, you must have also been subjected to variety of book reviews. How, if at all, do these affect you?
KS: I'd much rather get a good one than a bad one, of course. But I'm not tremendously affected either way. Having said that, I'm sure if a novel received bad reviews across the board it would have a serious impact but fortunately that's never happened so far.

SLR: Flipping the coin now, as a reviewer and judge of literary prizes, what do you look for in a new writer?

KS: I think it's best not to have a set of boxes to tick. There are some novels that are baggy and uncontrolled but win you over because they have energy and ambition and hit dazzling heights in their best moments.  And others are masters of control, and work in very quiet ways, so it's only when you come to the end that you understand their power. So I think you have to approach each one on its own terms.

SLR: Every year more and more writers keep vying for the same prestigious literary prizes. Your response to this was that there should be more prizes, maybe even “ten versions of Booker”. Hypothetically speaking, if you could make one of your own to award, what kind would it be?

KS: I don't even remember saying half the things I say! If we're being really hypothetical, then it would be one where the judges could read all languages and you could have novels from all over the world on the longlist. But such a prize could only exist in a fictional world.

SLR: Do you think there is a gender imbalance in the way fiction written by women is marketed? If so, what should be done about it?

KS: Yes, absolutely. Many things should be done about it, which makes it hard to answer in any concise fashion.  But there needs to be a broad-based decision to tackle problems around gender discrimination, involving publishers, booksellers, reviewers, literary festival directors, prize administrators and judges, etc.

SLR: What book by a woman writer is in your recommended must-read list?

KS: Let's start with an essay - Virginia Woolf's 'A Room of One's Own.' Everyone male and female should read it and consider how depressing it is that it remains so relevant 85 years after it was first published.

SLR: What do you love most about being a writer?

KS: The writing itself, when it's going well.  There is no deeper pleasure.