Interview With Author Samman Akbarzada
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a female author from Afghanistan. Writing is my escape from a reality that gets hard to face sometimes. Working on projects such as writing novels and poems has become an indispensable part of my life. It is my weapon to support the silenced. I had to flee my motherland for the sake of my life, so now I’m residing cast away from it.
Two of my books have been published. “A Glimmer in the Dark” is my recently published poetry book, and my debut novel is titled “Life is a Movie”
Three novels remain unpublished that I haven’t queried for yet. And I will have at least two more poetry books once curated in a manuscript.
Through writing, I want to play my little part. I want to paint a picture of what I think the world should look like; how it should accept its collective responsibility to build nations where children are not victims of greedy warlords, where women do not have to fight to be seen as human beings, and where peace is real, tangible, and even palpable— not merely a wish on a shooting star. I will always strive to use whatever talents and abilities I have to do whatever I can, as best I can, for all my fellow citizens held hostage and suffering behind closed doors because I have so much love and hope for them.
While living in the saddest country in the world, enduring and overcoming had to be innate. Writing is my gentle respite, it takes me far away from all that overwhelms me. Puts me in a flow state where I can pour my heart and bleed on ivory pages until it is good again and time to withstand.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“A Glimmer in the Dark”
It’s inspired by the unyielding hope survivors find, withstanding their worst nightmares, and facing everything they once feared. I think that’s sacred. It’s a noble cause to write for, and as a way to cope with the grief that became a hand I got to hold, I wrote.
A Glimmer in the Dark’s beautiful cover depicts glimmers, but we can see a lively flower in it too. And it’s so beautiful.
Dandelions have always meant something even more than a favorite flower to me. In our culture, coming across its seed is believed to bring good news, or words from a loved one far away. Whether it does or not, I don’t think that’s important, what matters is the glimmer of hope it gives at that moment. And when life comes to a state where you write for the dead more than the living, hearing back from them is like your resurrection.
Sometimes on the verge of breaking points, when limbs are listless, the floor trembles as the sky falls; that hope can be enough to stop it for the time being. A tale, a legend, whatever it might be, these hopes become the will in meaningless realms.
Bad news after bad news after bad news… On unforgiving days that detaches us by murky haze from everything and everyone, a seed of this flower flowing by the zephyr beside you snaps you out of it. And we carry along wearing a smile. It reminds us, we’re not alone, we never were. That won’t ever be a mundane fragment adrift, it’s so much more than that.
Maybe tragedies will always have a place in our lives, but perhaps it’s these little things, these little signs that remind us, love is always stronger.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My room has to be pitch black for me to work on my novel. I can’t help it. The engulfed darkness and classical symphonies take me inside that blank page where I can become the art itself.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Khaled Hosseini is probably the one who has poignantly influenced when it comes to my novels. My poems are mostly inspired by my profound passion for music. The intensity of my sentiments and my helpless capabilities leave me open to write and write until I can breathe again.
What are you working on now?
Something close to my heart. I started this novel just when I evacuated my motherland, now I’m at its last chapter. It’s a story taking place in Afghanistan.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m the worst person when it comes to promoting/marketing, I have no idea. However, I do enjoy sharing my writing with my friends and supporters on Instagram.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write fearlessly, write for the sake of your heart, write because someone out there will breathe in your words like a breath of fresh air. Write because only that can ease your feral soul, feed it what it craves. Not everyone is going to like it, who cares! We as individuals each have a taste that differs, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You will get disheartened along the journey, your job is to not let it take over you. I have over five hundred rejection letters. Even now, I dread querying. But there’s one thing that I never did, I never gave up on my dream. And neither should you because what you write is worth whatever you want it to be. I believe in you and can’t wait to see you thrive. All the best🖤
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I have a lot of favorite advice from artists and loved ones, but I’m thinking of this one right now.
“Many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. And, indeed, in winter it is sometimes so bitingly cold that one is tempted to say, ‘What do I care if there is a summer; its warmth is no help to me now.’ Yes, evil often seems to surpass good. But then, in spite of us, and without our permission, there comes, at last, an end to the bitter frosts. One morning the wind turns, and there is a thaw. And so I must still have hope.”
_ Vincent Van Gough
What are you reading now?
Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor E. Frankl. And Hard Boiled Wonderland by Haruki Mukarami.
What’s next for you as a writer?
A cabin in the woods, and I the reclused, wandering within. Knowing no one and known to none. This is like the final dream, a very selfish one. I just want to see my motherland and loved ones happy and in peace before that, which I’m afraid will always make it an elusive longing.
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?
This is a difficult one to answer.
The Alchemist, and Manuscript Found in Accra, by Paulo Coelho. The Island of missing trees, and Forty rules of love by Elif Shafak… But I will also sneak in something by Franz Kafka and Dostoevsky 🙂
Author Websites and Profiles
Samman Akbarzada Amazon Profile
Samman Akbarzada’s Social Media Links