Interview With Author Saborna Roychowdhury
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and raised in Calcutta, India, moved to the U.S. for undergraduate work in chemistry. I live in Houston, Texas, with my husband and twin daughters.
In 2004, I took a writing workshop at Grub Street, Boston. The teacher gave us a writing prompt and I wrote my first story, “Bengal Monsoon.” When it came to sharing the story with the class, I was shy. I was a chemistry teacher and this was my first attempt at writing a story. But the class liked my story and my teacher said, “You take what could be unsympathetic characters and make them sympathetic as the reader comes to understand their travails and daily pressure. It’s not easy to craft such characters with nuance and sensitivity, and you do so beautifully.” He asked me to submit my work to literary magazines.
To my great delight, “New York Stories” published the piece. At the end of 2004, I received a letter from the magazine– “Each year we receive 3,000 stories. We publish 25. We nominate 6, the best of the best, for Pushcart prize, and yours we are happy to say, was among them.”
It gradually dawned on me that I should take my writing seriously. I wrote two novels after that—THE DISTANCE (2013) and EVERYTHING HERE BELONGS TO YOU (2022). The novels were very well-received in many publications in the U.S. and elsewhere. THE DISTANCE received a starred review in the “Publisher Weekly”. “Kirkus Reviews” called EVERYTHING HERE BELONGS TO YOU, “…a heart-wrenching family drama, as powerful as it is delicate.”
As a fiction writer, I see my novels as the chance to connect with a wider audience. I really enjoy the sacred bond with my readers; the amazing synergy that is created when readers live in the fictional space I created for them with my pen. Being South Asian, my stories introduce readers to a different culture, a different viewpoint. I often take a “macro” geopolitical situation and allow the readers to see it from the “micro” level where human lives play out.
And when I am not writing and chasing fictional characters, I am a very earnest Chemistry Instructor at various Community Colleges.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is EVERYTHING HERE BELONGS TO YOU. In this book, I wanted to ask why religious extremism and violence are tearing apart communities in India. It was important for me to explore why people get involved in this religious extremism that encourages violence. I wanted to identify its leading causes.
In my book, I talk about poverty as a root cause, but also blame lack of employment, education, healthcare, lack of political power among Indian Muslims. In recent times there is increasing surveillance of Indian Muslims youth similar to the rise of Islamophobia in the U.S. after 9/11. Violent ideology can attract disaffected youth who face daily prejudice and discrimination.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I always write in a coffee shop. I grab a snack and a beverage and open up my laptop to write. The hum of noises and smell of coffee takes away the pressure to perform. It is in the most crowded coffee shop that I find the peace and the inner quiet I need to write.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am a big fan of Jhumpa Lahiri. I think she writes linguistically brilliant and
innovative prose. I sometimes find myself drooling over her sentences. But my favorite author is still Rohinton Mistry. I have rarely seen an author choose such unremarkable people and turn them into such extra-ordinary characters in a novel. Mistry’s honesty and empathy has the power to melt even the stoniest of hearts. He understands Indian politics and class/caste issues like no other author I have known.
What are you working on now?
I have not started a new project. I’m so busy marketing and promoting my book that I haven’t had the time to think about the next book.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My website, https://www.sabornaroychowdhury.com/
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I have seen perfectionism often holds new authors back from finishing a book. They cannot stop editing and re-writing. My advice to these new authors is—don’t take yourself too seriously. Writing should be fun. Your story is important and it needs to be told.
Always think of your work as a first draft that no one needs to see. You will have many chances to make changes later. Let the writing flow and let the story come out naturally. If you put too much pressure on yourself, you won’t enjoy writing anymore.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
In my earlier drafts, my editor didn’t feel I had the chosen the right POV to tell the story. When we choose the right POV, the narration feels consistent and intentional. It is the overarching control we need to guide the reader through the story. When I wrote the first draft, some sections were in omniscient third person and others were in close third person.
My editor gave me very valuable advice. She said, “You know how it can be difficult to cook an elaborate meal when there are “too many cooks in the kitchen?” It’s difficult to orchestrate, to meld flavor, and generally organize structure, when too many people are running about with their own agendas (some of them wielding knives!). Well the same goes for crafting a story. If we allow too many characters to have narrative privilege, the story can become unwieldy, lose its flow, pacing, and center. You have created an ambitious story with many subplots and character lines. Now what we need to do is streamline and make some decisions. Covering too many points of view weakens the foundation of your novel. So a central question to ask is: Who do I think deserves narrative privilege?”
So when revising, I tried to limit between two central perspective, a toggle
between the two protagonists.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading, “Two Women” by Gemini Wahhaj. The author grew up in Bangladesh, but she left the country long ago and travelled far beyond its borders. So in her observation, I found both the intimacy of an insider and the distance and objectivity of an outsider. From her removed, abstract promontory she weaves her stories about lives in Bangladesh and USA—how immigrants belonging to different classes get treated differently in the USA, how meaning of development changes for a Bangladeshi man who experiences racism, how a woman who chooses the traditional path in life misses her freedom. Multiple themes come out beautifully on the page. All the characters are crafted with sensitivity and nuance. Their pain when faced with difficult life choices hit me right in the gut. I’ll wait for this author’s next book.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I hope my book, EVERYTHING HERE BELONGS TO YOU, is made into a series and I can help with the script.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
(1) Brick Lane—by Monica Ali
(2) Shadow Lines— by Amitav Ghosh
(3) Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman
(4) Interpreter Of Maladies— A Pulitzer Prize Winner by Jhumpa Lahiri
Author Websites and Profiles
Saborna Roychowdhury’s Social Media Links