Avant-Pop Literary Magazine

Author Interview: @amaranthinepoetry

Now for an incredible young author who's pretty much undiscovered. When we first found his story 'A Storm on the Mountain', it immediately made us feel something right, something that told us we had to feature it on our profile, in our 'Holden - Bildungsroman' reading list. If you don't know him yet, this is your chance: Dayal Punjabi, amaranthinepoetry , for Avant-Pop!

How long have you been writing?

I've been writing fiction for more than a year now. But I started with poetry in 2016.

Who are your biggest influences? What inspires you to write?

As a reader, I grew up reading a lot of children's stories. But in my teens, I started reading Blyton. It was the first time a writer had captivated me with their charm. In fact, I wanted to be a child-detective. But it was Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter Of Maladies" that made me want to write fiction. I've read her entire catalogue and I connect with her work and ideologies a lot. More recently, I've read quite a lot of Anita Desai- honestly, a writer like no other. But a lot of short stories by Tolstoy and Chekov. A little bit of Woolf and Maya Angelou. Even modern poets like Rupi Kaur and Atticus have influenced me.

Strangely enough, I'm not sure what inspires me to write. I can give you all the cliches of expression and meditation and it will all be true as well. But, one of the things that helps me write or inspires my work is quite often just an image. My ONC entry "A Storm On The Mountain" was quite literally inspired by an image of a mountain I saw on Pinterest. I felt so awestruck, I began looking at that post and started writing a small piece of poetry to describe that mountain with a small wooden house on top of it. That's where my character, Aanav came from. He lived there- on that mountain. My works come from a lot of fragmented images- whether place or people or emotions. They somehow exist at the back of my head, and once very rarely, they occur out of nothing, out of time, and take a prime seat in front of my mind.

What's your biggest challenge/struggle as a writer?

Not being able to control myself. I'm one of those few weird writers who is just incapable of controlling their characters or elements or the emotions in a story. Even the language slips out of hands sometimes. When I write, the characters narrate the story, it's like they speak from behind me. And their stories are what has already happened. I only write what they tell me. And so, a lot of things that a writer usually has power over, I don't. And that's what I feel is my challenge, because I keep wondering how other writers do it.

Who do you think your readers are?

I don't really think I have an ideal reader. I don't anticipate one either. Readers come and go, like life. Although, it keeps me on my toes, to welcome them and know if they felt the way I did while they leave.

What do you like to read outside of Wattpad?

Literary Fiction. All the names I wrote above. Lahiri, Desai, Tolstoy, Woolf, Chekov, Kaur, Atticus and sometimes Angelou. I indulge myself into poetry quite often, not everyday. And it helps me model my work too.

How do you feel about the works here on Wattpad? Do you struggle to find what you like?

Cliched. Most of it. I read some cliches too, unfortunately, because I do find it hard to read all the books I'd like to. There are literary books on Wattpad, just not as well-known. They're often treated as dust under the rug or snakes under the boulders. It's hard to penetrate the pattern of standard Wattpad books. Also because Wattpad has General Fiction as a genre but not Literary Fiction.

But thanks to your page, I found two books I'd love to read. I found two more books from an award book in a community. They do exist, but on a rather smaller scale for now.

Do you have a favorite or two out of everything you've written?

I usually do not keep a connection to any of my books after I'm done writing them. They die. And I find it important for it to happen because writing is a very intense process and a private form of conciliation. So they need to go away for my mental peace. But I am definitely proud of my novella "A Storm On The Mountain" because I feel like I wrote exactly what I'd meant to write with that story.

How do you feel about literature in this age? Do you think it's harder now for Literary Fiction writers to get a good following?

I can only say what I've observed and it is that literary books have, if anything, thrived since the beginning. The greatest of our writers are often built up of Magical Realist writers or Fantasy or writers that used larger than life plots and plot twists to fair their stories in the market. A book as great as "The Great Gatsby", was considered a flop until Fitzgerald died. Today, it is widely considered as a masterpiece of not just Fitzgerald but of the American literary scene. So it takes time. It always has.

Even today, Literary Fiction thrives and it takes it's time. Of course, I believe it to be harder to get through the taboo of it because publishers also need to earn and so the criteria is too limited.

Do you have any advice for Literary Fiction writers trying to find their place here on Wattpad?

The first thing I'd say, and I cannot really advise but just contribute, is that keep writing what you love writing and how you write. No other genre has the power to bend language the way LitFic does. Be proud. It is tough, because people keep saying to "write this way or that way" or "don't write this or that, it won't work" and somehow, what bores them, makes us boring to them.

I also wished Wattpad would add a genre saying "Literary Fiction".

Give us three books you love from the real world and three books you love from Wattpad.

Real world:
Interpreter Of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Clear Light Of Day by Anita Desai
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Wattpad:
Everything That Can Never Be by desrelly
That Of A Nostalgic Future by @immatrytoread
Lawrence Looks for Treasure by JonaElliot

Keep reading for an essay written by Dayal Punjabi!