It’s the first Deubt-to-Debut of 2019! It’s still a bit hard to believe that 2018 and my own debut year are behind me—but at the same time, I’m thrilled to pass the torch to the debut YA novelists of 2019 because WOW are there some incredible books debuting this year! And I could not be more excited to kick things off with Sabina Khan and The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali.
If you’re joining us for the first time, here’s what this series is all about: as a debut young adult author myself, (See All the Stars released from S&S/McElderry in August 2018), I found myself eager to start a conversation with a variety of authors in the debut year before, during, and after my own about their books, YA and the writing life more generally, and the experience of putting a first novel out into the world. I wanted their wisdom, and I wanted to share it with other authors, emerging writers, and readers. So every month or two, I chat with a fellow young adult debut novelist, and then I share our conversation with you. You can find all the interviews in the series collected right here.
I recently corresponded with Sabina Khan about her debut young adult novel The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali (Scholastic Press, January 29, 2019).
From the jacket:
Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali tries her hardest to live up to her conservative Muslim parents’ expectations, but lately she’s finding that harder and harder to do. She rolls her eyes instead of screaming when they blatantly favor her brother and she dresses conservatively at home, saving her crop tops and makeup for parties her parents don’t know about. Luckily, only a few more months stand between her carefully monitored life in Seattle and her new life at Caltech, where she can pursue her dream of becoming an engineer.
But when her parents catch her kissing her girlfriend Ariana, all of Rukhsana’s plans fall apart. Her parents are devastated; being gay may as well be a death sentence in the Bengali community. They immediately whisk Rukhsana off to Bangladesh, where she is thrown headfirst into a world of arranged marriages and tradition. Only through reading her grandmother’s old diary is Rukhsana able to gain some much needed perspective.
Rukhsana realizes she must find the courage to fight for her love, but can she do so without losing everyone and everything in her life?
KIT FRICK: Hi, Sabina! I’m so excited to chat with you about your debut novel, The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali. Your acknowledgments reminded me that an earlier version of Rukhsana’s story was a Pitch Wars manuscript in 2016! Can you tell us a little bit about the role Pitch Wars—or mentoring or pairing up with critique partners or beta readers in general—played in getting The Love and Lies … in query-ready shape?
SABINA KHAN: Hi Kit! Thank you for having me! I still can’t believe that it’s been two years since I was stressing about the agent round in Pitch Wars 2016, and now TLLORA comes out on January 29, 2019. Pitch Wars played a huge role in getting it in query-ready shape. My mentor Natasha Neagle was amazing. She gave so much of herself in helping me shape and polish my manuscript, and I will always have a special place in my heart for her. The community itself was phenomenal, and I am proud to call many of the other mentees my friends. A few months before Pitch Wars, I wrote this story in sixteen days, writing ten to twelve hours a day as it came pouring out of me. I honestly didn’t think that it would see the light of day and didn’t have any CPs or beta readers, other than my long-suffering husband and daughters.
KIT: Wow, sixteen days! I think the fastest I’ve ever first-drafted something was two months. That is amazing.
Rukhsana’s parents react to the news that their teenage daughter is a lesbian by leaping into action—they take her to family in Bangladesh and begin to arrange her marriage (to a man, of course). But while their actions may seem extreme, in fact LGBTQ+ teens raised in conservative religious communities are snared between worlds constantly and are often put under unhealthy and very complicated family pressure and faced with the impossible choice between family/community and self. What drew you to writing about a Muslim teen caught between cultures, and how would you describe your ideal reader for The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali?
SABINA: This is going to be a long answer, so brace yourselves. I’m a South Asian immigrant who came here twenty-five years ago, and every day I live with two very disparate aspects of my identity. At home I think and speak in a different language; my actions are peppered with influences of my life in Bangladesh. But I’ve also lived in North America longer than I’ve lived in the country of my origin, and obviously that has had a huge influence on the way I live my life. For example, my husband and I have always tried to encourage open communication in our family—about love, religion, politics, racism, dreams, anything. So, when my younger daughter came out to us at seventeen, we had many honest conversations about her feelings and concerns. She also told us about friends who didn’t have a safe space to be themselves, and it broke my heart that these children, some of whom I’ve watched grow up, were now often afraid and/or depressed. No child should be made to feel like that, and that’s what galvanized me into writing this story.
But there is another reason I feel so passionately about this. As a Muslim woman my choice of marriage partner (my husband is Hindu) was not received well by both our families and many others in our community. As a result, I have first-hand experience of what it feels like to always be on the outside and to be unwelcome in my own community, especially being so far away from home. Although it may be for different reasons, the pain of rejection is the same. It hurts when people judge you for whom you love, be it because of their race, religion, or gender. So, I wrote this book for anyone who has ever been made to feel less than or unwelcome in their own community.
KIT: Thanks for sharing that, Sabina. This book is going to be important for so many readers caught between cultures. Tell us something about The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali that isn’t apparent from the book cover or flap copy. We want the inside scoop!
SABINA: Well there are a couple of things actually. There’s a lot of chai-drinking that goes on in the book because growing up in Bangladesh and spending summers with my mom’s side of the family in Pakistan, someone was always making chai for friends and relatives who would drop in. But I never developed a taste for it and to this day will not drink it. I had to really dig deep to remember the fragrance and taste and turn those memories into positive ones for the story.
The second thing is that the secondary characters, like Rukhsana’s parents and relatives in Bangladesh, are based largely on my many uncles, aunts, and cousins. I really enjoyed creating characters with quirks from some of my favorite relatives as well as from some I didn’t much care for.
KIT: I definitely never would have known you weren’t a chai drinker yourself; reading your book taught me a lot about real chai versus that “chai-flavored” stuff we buy at Starbucks, ha.
What gives you the most joy about your life as a YA writer right now? What’s bringing you satisfaction at this moment in time?
SABINA: There are so many things that bring me joy as a YA writer right now. First and foremost is knowing that I can finally share my experiences growing up in a different culture and now living and raising kids in another one. There are so many complexities that are a daily part of this and until very recently, sadly there were not a lot of books exploring this. So, I’m very proud and thrilled to play a small part in creating characters and stories that someone might see themselves reflected in when they most need it.
KIT: Fantastic! The publishing journey is unique for every author, but it’s safe to say that the road to book publication is filled with surprises, twists, and turns for all of us. What has surprised you most about the process of putting a first book into the world?
SABINA: I think what surprised me most was my own reaction to getting extensive feedback from everyone who’s worked on this along the way. I am very much a control freak and I was genuinely worried about how I would handle the feedback on my initial manuscript. But I was pleasantly surprised that everyone I worked with at Scholastic really connected with the characters and their experiences. And above all, it was clear to me from the very beginning that they respected the story I was telling, and the sentiments embedded in each character’s actions. I’m well aware that this is not always the case, and so I am immensely grateful for the amazing experience I’ve had working with my publishing team.
KIT: Drawing from your own unique experience, what advice would you to give to future young adult debut authors, or debut novelists in general?
SABINA: Don’t give up. Even when it seems like things aren’t happening as quickly as you’d hoped or the way you wanted, it will happen. And if it doesn’t work with one story then write another and then another. When the time is right, everything will fall into place. But it definitely won’t happen if you give up. I almost did, and when I think back to how I felt at the time, I’m so glad I did not listen to that negative voice in my head. Also, surround yourself with writerly people who are genuine and support each other. I’ve been fortunate to find several such people, and every day I’m grateful to have them in my life.
KIT: Agreed—finding your writerly support network is so important! Thank you for chatting, Sabina!
Sabina Khan writes about Muslim teens who straddle cultures. She was born in Germany, spent her teens in Bangladesh, lived in Macao, Illinois and Texas before settling down in beautiful British Columbia with her husband, two daughters and the best puppy in the world. She enjoys reading, spicy food and is obsessed with scented candles. She has a BA in Political Science and works as an Educational Consultant by day. By night she sings her heart out at Karaoke and dances like no one’s watching.
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Kit Frick is a novelist, poet, and MacDowell Colony fellow. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, she studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from Syracuse University. When she isn’t putting complicated characters in impossible situations, Kit edits poetry and literary fiction for a small press, edits for private clients, and mentors emerging writers through Pitch Wars. Her debut young adult novel is See All the Stars (out now from Simon & Schuster / Margaret K. McElderry Books). Up next: All Eyes on Us (June 4, 2019, also from S&S/McElderry).
The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali is out now! Allow me to recommend your local indie, in addition to Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
Stop back soon for future posts in the Debut-to-Debut Interview Series. I’ll be chatting with more fantastic authors throughout 2019!