Tayyba Kanwal has been a member of the Writers’ League for 3 years. She lives in Houston, Texas and will be attending the Agents & Editors Conference in June.
Scribe: In what genre(s) do you write?
Tayyba Kanwal: Literary fiction and YA.
Scribe: What authors would you like to have coffee or a beer with and which beverage?
TK: Neil Gaiman, for sure. He does these deep, bold, zany things that I admire so. The meeting would most definitely have to be over Irish coffee, so you know, one can have the best of both worlds, and Neil Gaiman is so good with worlds. Words. Worlds.
Scribe: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book would you want to have with you to keep you sane?
TK: A notebook. But if that’s cheating, I’ll take Proust’s Swann’s Way so I can ache with the human experience under a microscope whenever I start to feel empty. I’d also need a pencil, to write between the lines.
Scribe: What have you learned from your association with the Writers League?
TK: Most importantly, to keep working at my craft, and as cheesy as it sounds, to not give up hope. Watching the active learning and progress that takes place in the WLT community keeps me moving and inspired.
Scribe: Where do you see your writing taking you (or you taking it) in the future?
TK: I hope to grow into a cranky old lady who has consistently produced a meaningful body of literature. Each one of us is a unique creature in time and space, and what we have to share with the world is precious. I feel blessed to have the drive and ability to bring my observations to life through my work, and I hope that it will add at least a smidgen to humanity’s understanding of itself. That sounds awfully lofty, but there we go, these are the stars I am reaching for.
Scribe: Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with the world?
TK: I used to be a mathematician, and patterns still turn me. This comes screaming into my writing, but I’m probably the only one who knows this about my pieces. My completed YA novel has many layers, and I hope one day a reader will have as much fun digging them all out as I had writing them in. I will expect a letter from that reader.
I share more of my thoughts and news on my website: http://mayakanwal.com and I can be found on twitter @mayakanwal.
Catch some of my recent published pieces in these neat journals:
- “Here’s the Thing” – experimental humor in The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review http://thedoctortjeckleburgreview.com/2014/02/06/essays-heres-the-thing/
- “Mailee and the Saint of Horses” – a short story in Quarterly West http://www.quarterlywest.utah.edu/iss_80/iss_80_maileeand.html
- “I Breathed you First” – experimental fiction in Squawk Back http://www.thesquawkback.com/2013/07/mayakanwal.html
