Sonora Jha with E.C. Murray, 2019

    1. Congratulations on the recognition your novel, Foreign, (Finalist, The Hindu Prize for Fiction 2013 · Finalist, The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, 2013 · Longlisted for the DSC Prize for Literary Fiction.) What were some of the hurdles you faced switching from non-fiction writing to writing fiction and how did you overcome them? 

Fiction has some unique demands, like a plot and a character arc. Neither journalism not academic writing had prepared me to encounter those, although I had used the tools of research and questioning to do the background work. Fiction also demanded that I use my research as a base, yes, but also build a whole story from thin air. I plunged into the task by reading a whole lot of novels, particularly literary fiction. I then went to Hugo House in Seattle and took class after class, learning the craft of the novel. And, I applied for a writing residency at Hedgebrook, which I was fortunate to receive. There, alone in a cottage for a month, I completed a first draft of Foreign. 

2.     How does researching for fiction versus non-fiction differ? What research did you feel compelled to do hands on - meaning visit people, places, and events?

I don't see too many differences in the research, especially if you're writing fact-based fiction. My first novel - Foreign - was set in a story of farmers dying by suicide in India. Naturally, I had to research that by reading everything I could get my hands on and then going to India to meet farmers - men and women in the villages of Vidarbha in Maharashtra. I didn't know at the time that I would write the story as fiction, so my research was academic and journalistic, which is good, because I had interviews and observations. What I didn't have was notes on the more sensuous and luyrical parts I'd need for my story - the sound of the river, the shape of the trees, the smells of the village. I had to construct those from memory and from Youtube videos. 

3.     With journalists often threatened, demeaned, and with media outlets closing, how do you encourage your journalism students? What is it they want to hear from you? 

First, they want to know it all still matters. I tell them the truth - journalism matters more than ever before. I tell them that there will be new means for telling stories - new platforms, new technology - but the age-old desire of one human to hear another human's story is not going anywhere. If they harness the new tools and learn sound principles of news-gathering and storytelling, they will be fine, we will all be fine.

4. During the past fifty years, from Tom Wolfe and New Journalism and so on, journalism has become more malleable in terms of the role the writer plays within an article. At what point do you think a non-fiction writer should inject themselves into an article or story ? 

I still believe this should be a rare thing. There's no need for me to be in my stories unless I was an eye-witness to something AND directly affected by it. But, yes, occasionally, in the tradition of new journalism or narrative journalism, it's a beautiful and powerful thing if your presence in the story makes it more compelling. One recent example of this is Ijeoma Oluo's telling of her interview with Rachel Dolezal in The Stranger. The story was titled The Heart of Whiteness. Oluo is a black woman, writer and race scholar meeting a white woman who had appropriated black identity and culture and benefited from it in employment and more. Oluo's body and mind in Dolezal's home are important to the story.

5. You clearly have passionate feelings about issues of race, feminism, and raising feminist boys. How do you meld your political feelings into a story, like your work in progress   The Wolf Who Cried Boy, and keep the story flowing well? Who are your influencers in this realm? 

My political feelings live inside me and are mixed in with my blood and breath. My stories flow from them and I couldn't keep the politics and the storytelling apart if I tried. All storytelling is political. For instance, the writer makes choices on the behavior of characters of different genders... the desires, the push and pull. My influencers - Arundhati Roy, Barbara Kingsolver, maybe even Michel Houellebeq. 

6. With your repertoire of academic research, essays, political opinion pieces, and fiction, what is your favorite and why? 

Oh, this is so hard. 

Academic research helps me when I want a precise answer to a precise question - quantifiable, replicable, documentable. Political essays and journalism help me express my thoughts and emotions and build an argument. Ah, but fiction?  I'd say fiction is the one where I learn most about myself and other humans. I lose myself and find myself when writing fiction. I transcend something.

7.What are your tips for aspiring creative non-fiction writers?

Use the journalist's toolkit and ask sharp questions. Use the academic's toolkit and think critically. And then just go enjoy the craft.

Thank you, Sonora. It’s a pleasure to learn from you and read your riveting work. ECM http://sonorajha.com/