Naveed Alam
|
Naveed Alam is a creative writing mentor whose classes become the hub of young enthusiasts. Their admiration for him matches their own keenness to learn, and at times it becomes difficult to separate the two.
Born in Jhelum, Alam left for the United States after high school where he received his MFA in Creative Writing. Since then, he has been teaching creative writing at different platforms, including the City University, New York for over a decade. He has been holding different Creative Writing workshops at various universities in Lahore. His first collection of poems, A Queen of No Ordinary Realms, won the Spokane Poetry Prize. His works have been published in several literary journals and magazines including the Prairie Schooner, American Poetry Journal, Poetry International, International Poetry Review, Cimmaron Review, and the Canadian Dimension. These days he’s translating Punjabi poet Madho Lal Hussain and the book is expected to come out in January, 2016. Recently, TNS got a chance to interview him in Lahore and talk to him candidly about his love for teaching creative writing. Excerpts follow: The News on Sunday: Having stayed in the US for two decades, what brought you back to Pakistan? Naveed Alam: I came back to Pakistan because of some personal issues and was sceptical that I wouldn’t be able to adjust. What compelled me to stay back were the youth that I met here. They had as much exposure as any student in the US would have. They were different from what we were at their age and I prefer communicating with them. Also for a person like me who is involved in writing, art or literature, moving back was natural. When you re-connect [with your own land], it’s a re-supplying of energy and re-invention of your own thoughts. You realise that actually these were probably some of the missing dots — literary dots — from your goals that are coming back. TNS: While teaching creative writing you have to lay down rules and make outlines. Does that not kill creativity? NA: For many in Pakistan, the term ‘creative writing’ means: to be creative and allow your creativity to run and get over with it. But in academic terms when we talk about creative writing (from the experience of training where I come from) we are specifically talking about fiction and poetry. When people enroll for a creative writing class, they all come with the same expectation — that they would have all the freedom to write in any way they want. The first lesson is that creative writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For instance, if you go to a music class and say that I want to play an instrument ‘creatively’, you won’t just pick up the instrument and start playing it by yourself. You need to learn it first. Creativity comes at a later stage, once you’ve mastered the technique. Same is the case with language; language can’t be learnt without rules and if you don’t know the basic rules, you are like that person who wants to write poetry and has just learnt the alphabets. Once you’ve learnt the rules, feel free to break them, but first demonstrate your ability to master those basic rules. In creative writing, you don’t need to listen to your teachers in a conventional way but to find your favourite poet or writer and see their techniques and crafts closely and see the long process of their development as writers. TNS: Why do you think introducing creative writing would be a good idea in Pakistan? NA: It existed earlier as well, but there was no formal channel for people to produce and to develop that class. In fact, so many students sent me their work independently. So in a way students are the ones who started it. Once the students found a formal setup, their response was overwhelming. As a creative writing mentor, I just want to give the students that environment where they can share, learn and help each other to get to their next process. They might discover that process on their own but as a teacher you want to be part of that process of discovery. Creative writing can be a process of understanding literature. If you can deconstruct a story and reconstruct it, I think you have a better insight into a story out of that rather than reading the analysis of many different scholars. A creative writer has a better chance to understand any piece of literature than traditional students of English. TNS: When we think of creative writing, why does English literature come to mind? Why is being creative and writing in English so mutually inclusive?
|
Birth—
Cambridge Company
London Company