Writer Spotlight: Shanti Thirumalai

 

Almost-real elephants, Indian mythology, words and magic, and rain after a drought: Shanti Thirumalai shares her writing journey

Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet artist, reader and writer Shanti Thiumalai.

What do you remember about your childhood?

Young Shanti and her father

I grew up in a home full of books in India, with a herd of elephants that were almost real. My father was a writer, mainly of short stories and a journalist, and the sound of his typewriter meant that we had to be quiet. 

Many of his friends were writers, artists, photographers, journalists and poets, writing in Indian languages and in English, and I assumed that all dads were writers. Every night he told us in Tamil a freshly invented bedtime story. I can’t remember his stories because he never repeated them, but his elephants never stopped dancing in my heart. 

Storytelling seemed to be a big part of your upbringing.

My grandfather would tell the six or eight grandchildren gathered at his bedside, stories from Indian mythology, from Lamb’s tales, from Shakespeare, and fairy tales from Grimm and Anderson.  Fortunately, he would repeat them on request. I thought all grandparents were story-tellers.

I listened more than I read, even after I could read, and I loved being read to, which created in my mind an unshakeable association between reading and warmth, books and safety, words and magic.

When did you know you were a writer?

I declared at age six that I was a writer. Wasn’t everyone a writer? My first story at that time was published in my school magazine.  It wasn’t a big deal somehow. I wrote off and on for school and college magazines, and served on editorial boards. 

A short humorous piece I wrote at age 14 was published in the Times of India and I thought I had it made. Every rejection I’ve received since has made it abundantly clear that I had been severely deluded. 

I am still trying to write good sentences while improving pacing and conflict.  The literary fiction I read helps my first goal and hurts the second.  The worlds I create are much too gentle and peaceful for this time and this remains a struggle for me.

What is life like at present?

I now live, in Ann Arbor, in a house full of books. I read literary fiction for choice but I make it a point to read children’s books in all categories, picture books, middle-grade and young adult.  You could say I am always double –booked.

What's next for you?

My middle grade novel, The Elephant’s Child, is still looking for an agent and a publisher to welcome it home. In the meanwhile I read and write and keep the faith.  I make sure to walk, and I paint, draw, sew, knit and play guitar as I keep the well that feeds the writing from running dry. 

Sketches by Shanti

 I don’t write every day. I don’t force myself to write and I don’t punish myself for not writing. I remind myself, as Hemingway did, that I have written before and I will write again. That is not easy to trust though and I try not to get frantic when I’m not writing. 

When, at last, the words do come, it feels like rain after drought and I am at my happiest.