From Pakistan to the Sophomore Class: A Conversation with Mohsin Hamid

Thanks to Alya Satchu, her entire sophomore class engaged in a scintillating conversation with author Mohsin Hamid. English teacher Cory Zeller and her World Literature students facilitated the discussion. Hamid has lived in the U.S., the UK and Pakistan, and his works have been translated into more than 40 languages, featured on bestseller lists and adapted for cinema. For the past several years, sophomores have read Hamid’s work, with this year’s World Literature curriculum including The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West.

For a whole block of their day, sophomores connected with Hamid at his home in Lahore, Pakistan and asked him an array of questions. Topics included the ways his experiences shape his books, his inspiration for becoming a writer, lingering questions they still had after studying his works in class, his writing process, the effect of politics and 9/11 on his work, the process of and his feelings after adapting one of his novels for film, the effect of sales dictate his opinions on books and more.

Through this in-depth conversation, the students heard directly from Hamid about aspects of his life, including growing up in California and suddenly moving to Pakistan at age nine, being a dreamer with a huge imagination even at a young age, discovering his love of creative writing and fiction in college, and gaining more confidence in creating diverse characters after growing older and having children. In discussing his writing process, he explained how he begins with a kernel of the story, then experiments with multiple drafts trying to “unlock the story” because “each story has the right language and the right form.” Hamid referenced the Douglas Adams quote, “The secret to flying is throwing yourself at the ground and missing” to summarize his approach to writing, and “You keep writing and it doesn’t work until you find a draft and it misses the ground.”

Zeller said, “I was so incredibly moved by how generous Mr. Hamid was with his time and his responses to my students’ questions. He answered each one with such respect and thoughtfulness. As we ended our conversation, Mr. Hamid noted that he writes about the world in which he wants to live. He inspired us all to embrace our ‘misfitness’ and imagine the stories we want to experience.”