Idza Luhumyo

"Thank you. It is thrilling. I’m glad that the story continues to resonate with people, but I certainly did not see it coming. So it’s a wonderful surprise!"

"Exploring that aspect bogged down the story. I wanted it to be about Pili, but introducing the aunt made it about the aunt and Pili. I also wanted to start the story as close to the end as possible, so as not to lose the momentum."

"Writing stories is not easy, but there are times when I have found out that this discovery process can be enjoyable. I once read somewhere that writing can also be thinking, which might explain why you might start out with one thing and end up with something completely different. Maybe because along the way you might stumble onto something you did not even know you knew."

"Yes The characters, for example. The only one I had at the outset was Pili. But the rest came about as she went about her world, so to speak."

"Yes, that’s what I mean. How I like to think about it is that it’s helped me write for the eye, and not just for the ear."

"We certainly can extrapolate and have it speak to bigger themes about Western validation, as you said, but it is also a commentary on human nature. We tend to become (more) interested in things/people once we have seen that we can benefit in some form."

"Yeah, that was a coincidence. What I mean to say is that it is not what I had in mind from the outset."

"It’s something that the story demanded. Once I had the main character – knew what she wanted, and knew exactly where she was located – then the story opened up and had to speak to bigger questions, even as it remained welded and attached to these few characters."

"Yes, I see how it is possible for the story to have multiple interpretations. I have heard it called ‘layered’ on numerous occasions and I suppose that’s part of what allows this multiplicity of interpretations."

"It’s the form I started out with – that is, without counting the awful poetry that I did in high school. I think the short story form is good practice for a writer just starting out. But even more than that: I think there’s something poetic about the form; it demands you to distil what you want to say/question/explore to the bare fundamentals; it’s a form that doesn’t reward lingering, and so you have to work hard to make it tight."

"I wanted to think a little differently about how race works, especially when we’re talking about a place such as the Kenyan coast, where there has long been a white presence because of tourism. Even though we have two women with diminished power – but who are in no way powerless – we find that the expectations are flipped: because of her hair, Pili is actually the one who has more power. I thought it’d be interesting to see how their relationship played out with this reversal as a framework."

"I’m working on a longer project at the moment. We will see how that goes. Thank you for having me."