Zehra is a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School and a Muslim Chaplain intern at MIT.
In this conversation, Zehra stunned me with her nuanced understanding of art and what to learn about her writing at this year’s IWR workshops, which is simply “to understand how to engage readers…and help them see how movement is in everything we do and touch.”
In addition to her writing about her experiences in Palestine, she enjoys writing fantasy and magical realism. In her reference to Chinua Achebe and Toni Morrison, Zehra is, in her writing, chasing truth and the “easiest way I can do that,” she says “is by writing honestly.”
I invite you to relish this and other honest, scintillating conversations with this year’s IWR Alumni Award winners.
Congratulations on winning the Alumni Award. Where were you when you received the news and what was your reaction?
Thank you! I was in my screenwriting class when I received the phone call and saw a voicemail. I did not recognize the number so I wasn’t sure who it was, but saw an email saying that there was an update about the grant. I was thrilled to receive it, and it came at a point in the semester when I was feeling really overwhelmed, unsure about how I was going to keep working on the book. It’s one of the main things I’d wanted to keep working on, but so many other things kept taking up my time. It was a mix of feelings: immense gratitude, relief that I would be connected to a community of writers, and excitement that I would get to experience mentorship while being able to be inspired by the landscapes of Iceland.
I am glad that, with this award, you will keep working on that book, establish lifelong relationships and experience the satisfying joy that’s Iceland Writers Retreat. Tell me, which of the faculty members are you looking forward to meeting and why?
Hari Kunzru – “Research for writers” and “Organizing a novel” because these are the two areas that I am having trouble with the most. I am afraid of getting lost in the research itself. Normally, when I write or paint something, I see the finished project in my mind before I write or paint it. However, this novel seems so huge and complex that I can’t seem to pin down plot points.
Nii Ayikwei Parkes because he is a children’s author in addition to being a poet and novelist, and I’m curious to know how he develops voices for each of his characters, especially those who are at a younger age, and make them relatable for adults as well.
Manchán Magan – “Engaging and wooing your readers” and “Travel writing: An immersion in the heart and soul of your homeplace” because I have been moving since I was six years old, and the protagonist has travel as a part of her destiny in many ways. I want to understand how to engage readers who might have not moved to a different country, for example, and help them see how movement is in everything we do and touch.
How did you come to write? And what does writing mean to you?
I was too terrified to write. It had been fifteen years since I had taken a creative writing class and written anything seriously beyond scribbles, social media musings, a secret blog, or a poem here and there. Even the poetry was reactive, and would emerge years after a breakup. But, when I applied to take a fiction workshop at Harvard, I could feel that it was time because I was too saturated with stories at this stage of my life, and I had decided that they must spill out somewhere.
Chinua Achebe wrote, “There is no story that is not true.” Toni Morrison wrote, “I consider that my single gravest responsibility… is not to lie.” And this is where I find myself today as a writer. I am simply writing what is true to me in the realm of fantasy. It might be an emotion, it might be a phrase, it might be the detail of a landscape or sky, but every single piece of what I am writing today comes from a place where I cannot lie. To me, this part about truth-telling especially as a fiction, fantasy, or magical realism writer is not optional and it is non-negotiable. To me, this is who I am right now as a writer because I do not want to betray myself, and the easiest way I can do that is by writing honestly.
As a screenwriter, how do you think screenwriting has shaped and, perhaps, enhanced your storytelling skill as a fiction writer?
Screenwriting was very difficult for me because the backdrop of the semester overshadowed the class. The instructor was incredible, and the students were excellent writers, and I learned from how easily they took risks in their writing. I loved that, truly, about the class. It was difficult for me to think from a filmmaker’s lens, and develop character voices with using dialogue or description, but it was a class that pushed me to anticipate details and forced me to consider what was truly significant about each scene or sentence.
Tell me about the book, preferably fiction, that has influenced you and the way you see writing.
A literary work that has stayed with me for over fifteen years is The Famished Road, a magical realism novel by Ben Okri which I received as a high school graduation gift and spread out reading it over the next five years because I did not want it to end. The story of Azaro, a spirit-child who is reluctantly born into the land of the living and fights to keep himself from being pulled to return to the land of beginnings, was so immediately relatable to me – especially as a Muslim who is supposed to say as-salam-alaiykum upon entering empty rooms because the rooms are never truly empty. Okri’s writing seamlessly weaves in the spirit-world and the ‘real’ one while tackling issues such as poverty, suffering, joy, and the gift of dreams. What resonated with me was Okri’s choice to leave certain details of the story unspecified – such as the names of political parties and characters – which allowed me, as a reader, to place the experiences and characters in multiple settings.
In The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa, I appreciated the humor in and depiction of an otherwise generally unexplored community in literature – the Parsis in South Asia. This book allowed me to access a time, place, and community in pre-partition Lahore that, even today, I can only aspire to access. Sidhwa’s writing helped me experience Lahore and the Parsi community in a way that was simultaneously humanizing and humorous.
And, when I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, it was surprising for me to read a book that spoke so directly and convincingly from the first person perspective of a female protagonist and described the stages of survival through its characters in a way that is consistent with trauma research. “As long as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve,” Katniss’ father says to her. As I read her story where destruction reigned, his words, the glimpses of dandelions, the smell of bread – I clung to each of its small moments of hope. I wrestled with every choice that Katniss made as a character, and explored the concept of just-war theory along with her – there was something intimate about hearing the story directly from her. There was so much that she questioned and was unsure of, and ultimately made decisions that came from a surprisingly compassionate place – I appreciated how she slowly allowed herself to live a beautiful life despite the memories and terrors of her nightmares.
I hope to bring some of these elements into the characters I am creating and the stories I am trying to tell in several ways: (a) through developing a finer eye for reading and writing that I hope can translate into deeper awareness into my lived experiences and those of others, (b) to have an opportunity to honor the stories that have come before – I would love to create fiction that weaves in historical context, an allegory, and/or distinctive prose that supports the larger narrative, and (c) to walk into the depths of terror and beauty within my own soul and transform it into art, especially the story of a character named Layla-Noor who finds herself in places or among people who are at the precipice of change.
Since you received this award, have you met people who tell you it’s their first time learning of the retreat? And if yes, how did you encourage them to participate?
Yes 🙂 Most people I’ve shared this with have not heard of the retreat, and I immediately shared the information with them. Some of them are writers themselves, and also have either been to Iceland or would like to go there.
Have you watched Scott Hoying’s song, Parallel, on YouTube? The video of that song, I heard, was shot in Iceland and people have been thrilled by its breathtaking scenery. As a screenwriter, what would you say about the representation of the iconic and beautiful Icelandic landscape in more western films and TV?
Thank you for sharing this video. I feel like I know very little about the Icelandic landscape and it was really gorgeous to see the waterfall and the skies along with the rest of the scenery. I mostly knew Iceland through hearing about the Northern lights, and am curious to know if we will get a chance to see them during the retreat! There is a very haunting image of Iceland that I saw that has stayed with me, and I’d love to bring it into the story I am working on. Here it is:
Thank you so much, Zehra, for making out time to have this enriching conversation with me. Have a fabulous retreat experience in Reykjavik.
Thank you too.
Zehra Imam is a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School and a Muslim Chaplain-Intern at MIT. She is the founder of Illuminated Cities, an education organization that works with communities impacted by violence and adversity, and was an international teacher. She is writing about her experiences in Palestine as a Religion, Conflict, and Peace Institute summer intern at Harvard on Instagram @loveletterstopalestine.
This conversation was conducted by Okechi Okeke, a 2020 IWR Alumni Award recipient.
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