TFT: Which writers – especially women – have been major influences on you? Are there any South Asian writers who inspire your work in particular?
Raniya Hosain: A major influence has been Arundhati Roy - God of Small Things is stylistically everything I want my writing to be. I also love Kamila Shamsie; HomeFire is one of my favourite novels.
TFT: Is this a good moment for emerging Pakistani writers, especially those writing in English?
RH: l definitely think social media and small publications, like my own literary magazine Spacebar (@spacebar.mag on Instagram), afford a lot of accessibility and opportunity to emerging writers. It’s probably the easiest it’s ever been to put your work out there and have your voice heard.
The winner for 2020, Raniya Hosain
TFT: This year’s competition focused on non-fiction writing. In your own writing so far, do you see more of a fiction trajectory or a non-fiction one? And where do you see your work going from here?
RH: I’ve only recently begun to get into reading, and writing non-fiction. I’ve been inspired by writers like Joan Didion, and by the pressing urgency that I feel we’re all experiencing these days - that we live in extraordinary times, and it’s important to document them as they are. I have no idea where my work will go until it gets there - I just try to constantly evolve. I am currently working on a fictional short story, and hopefully that should be out in January. The form depends on the story I want to tell, which changes by the day. But it’s all personal - even the most surreal fiction I write can’t escape being a little bit about me.
“There’s an onus on women writers to somehow be the voice for all women, which is a tokenistic attitude that detracts from the vast array of talent female writers possess”
TFT: Your entry for the ZHR prize focused on women’s pain. Do you think there is something ubiquitous about this pain across time and space – and could writing about it help empower women, especially in the Global South?
RH: I definitely think that pain is a consistent side effect of patriarchy. And I think it’s important and empowering to identify the sources of this pain, how we contribute to it, how to counteract it. But I also think it’s important to indulge in stories by women, about women, that don’t centralise pain. Writing by women doesn’t have to empower any more than writing by men does, nor does it have to specifically focus on the ordeals of womanhood. There’s an onus on women writers to somehow be the voice for all women, which is a tokenistic attitude that detracts from the vast array of talent female writers possess.
TFT: What sort of forums do we need to improve Pakistan’s literary culture – both in terms of quality of output and inclusiveness? Do you think the culture of lit-fests helps or hinders this process?
RH: I think most lit-fests are by nature exclusionary, but I also think they broaden conversations and identify interesting things within the literary scene. I’m quite conflicted about them, but on balance, I think they do more good than harm. I don’t know how to improve Pakistan’s literary culture - if that even is something that can be consolidated - other than by encouraging young people to read, and to write. And also by valuing Urdu writing, and local inflections on writing, rather than striving toward an English Western ideal.
