Interview with Mary Anne Mohanraj
Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of Bodies in Motion and The Stars Change, founder of Strange Horizons and director of The Speculative Literature Foundation. Previous anthologies she's edited include The Best of Strange Horizons, vol. 1, Aqua Erotica, and WisCon Chronicles, vol. 9: Intersections and Alliances, which was recently long-listed for the BSFA Awards. Mohanraj is Clinical Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her research and writing interests include Sri Lanka and its civil war, transnationalism and diaspora, domesticity and parenting, chronic illness, science fiction, and sexuality
What's the story behind your latest book, Tornado?
According to the Online Diary History Project, my blog is the third-oldest on the internet, started in 1995. I’ve been compulsively blogging pretty close to daily ever since. So when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, it was natural for me to start blogging about it, from diagnosis to chemo, surgery, and radiation. I hoped that I could give other people helpful information, inspiration, and hope. I kept the public cancer log for two years, and eventually, turned it into a book, Tornado. It’s nine years now since my initial diagnosis, and so far as I know, I continue to be cancer-free.
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
Writing is really a two-part process for me: first, to figure out what I really think, and second, to communicate that to someone else. With my cancer memoir, keeping the public journal helped me process my thoughts and emotions while I was going through treatment; and hopefully, other people will read it and find it helpful. I love when people write to me and let me know that my writing has helped them.
Which other authors have most influenced or inspired your writing?
I’m an ardent fan of Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany; they not only shaped my writing, but they shaped the way I think and see the world. I have vast admiration for the experimentation of Nabokov, Calvino, and Borges. More recently, Roxane Gay consistently blows me away with her honesty and incisive wit; Lois McMaster Bujold and Terry Pratchett are my comfort writers; they both make me fall in love with humanity all over again, in all our wonderful absurdity.
What do you read for pleasure?
Everything? I can fall into a romance or epic fantasy series and whip through many volumes, but I also like a biting essay or a spare literary tale or a lyrical poem.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Keep going. Don’t take so many breaks.
What is the one thing you want your readers to know about your books?
I hope they bring you joy.
Describe your desk
I have ADHD, so even though my desk tends to accumulate all kinds of things when I’m not writing, I have to clear it all off before I can start writing, or I won’t be able to concentrate. So pre-writing for me is usually cleaning…
Describe your writing process
Sometimes I get frustrated enough about how something isn’t being written about enough (or well enough), that frustration lends me enough energy to write. Sometimes I just write because it’s fun, though.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Actually making myself sit down to do some writing?
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I was born in Sri Lanka, but came to the U.S. very young. I’ve lived in New Britain, Connecticut, Hyde Park, Philadelphia, Oakland, Salt Lake City, Chicago, and now Oak Park, Illinois. Every place I’ve lived (and every place I travel to), changes my perspective and affects my writing.
What are you currently working on?
Two SF novels, one SF collection of stories, one middle-grade fantasy (first in a series), one mainstream threesome romance novel, one YA fantasy (first in a trilogy), a set of food essays, two children’s picture books, and a collection of domestic poems.
What’s your vision for the future of publishing?
Chaotic in the short-term, but possibly hopeful?
Romance Daily News
