Interview 

Betool Khedairi & Her World of Words

“I feel in Arabic, I dream in Arabic and I write in Arabic.  When I write I feel as ancient as my civilization, there is an enchanting dialogue between us.”  Betool Khedairi.

Who is Betool Khedairi?
Betool Khedairi was born in Baghdad in 1965 to an Iraqi father and a Scottish mother.  She was a child who was torn between the two worlds.  She received a B.A. in French literature from the University of Mustansirya.  A child who did not know to which culture she belongs to or whom to please, she lived an atmosphere full of family tensions.  She tried to find an outlet through art and she chose writing.

Are you still confused about belonging to both worlds “East & West”?
I transformed my contradictions into words on paper and I produced my first novel “Kam Badat Al Sama Qareeba.” (published by The Arab Institute for Research and Publishing in Lebanon in 1999).  Instead of fighting the differences, I tried to mesh and to benefit from both cultures. One learns from experience and with time you learn how to make the most out of it. In the end, it is about bridging between cultures rather than denying them.

When did you publish the English Edition?
The novel was translated to “A Sky So Close” by Dr. Muhayman Jamil.  In 2001, Pantheon, New York published the first American Edition (hard cover).  Then the (paper back)’s Edition was published by Anchor, New York, 2002.  My literary agent also signed publishing contract with Gallimard- Paris. The French edition is expected to be released in Summer 2003.

Who do you write for?  Do you have an audience in mind?
I write for myself.  I started Kam Badat Al Sama Qareeba in 1990, I used to write one hour per day to practice writing, then realized that I was coming up with a novel. Publishing was not the issue.  I even left  the script in a drawer for four years when I was living in London.  It was only afterwards, when I came to Amman in 1995 that I decided to go ahead with the novel and ended up being published. 

What and who inspires you to write?
When I was a child, my mother was my first source of inspiration. She used to be a librarian in Edinburgh, she loved books and taught me how to respect and treat them. Every night, she used to read me a story. I remember vividly when the weather was sizzling hot in the summer in Baghdad, she used to place a mattress for me on the cool tiled floor and hand me some reading material in English. Meanwhile, she would indulge in a novel herself and at times start giggling  saying “How witty, other times she would utter “how sad” or “good research this writer has done”. I realized that  books changed her mood and then as I grew up, I started understanding the relationship between writing and psychology .

My mother also enjoyed writing letters to her family abroad. She taught me typing on her old fashioned green typewriter. I always held this image of a woman at her desk typing away in the evenings. At the same time, she used to encourage me to write a few lines myself and helped me develop my imagination when she used to ask me to go out in the garden to wake up the sleeping pixies in the roses.

I once read the shortest story ever in a translated  “Mickey Mouse” book that we used to get in Iraq from Egypt. The Story was in the Egyptian accent, it went like this:

“A father was carrying his daughter on his shoulders in order to cross the street.  Suddenly the father tripped on the pavement. The daughter gripped her father tight by the shoulders and said: don’t worry baba, I got you.”

I was around ten years old. I remember that this story made me think. 

On the other hand, I must say that my father also had a huge impact on me. He was very interested in Iraqi arts and exposed me to paintings, music and sculptor. He used to read me Children’s poetry in Arabic and gift me translated books and plays into Arabic. Wherever he traveled, he used to buy me beautiful hardcover diaries to encourage me to write in them.  He used to ask me daily at lunchtime to write the proverb of the day and what I did at school.  But the contradiction part was that he wanted me later on to study accounting at university.

… so, after the little girl within has grown up, what inspires you now?

Any word I read or hear might inspire me. Human beings are what makes a story.

From your experience, do you think you could come up with a formula for writing?

I don’t think anyone can fix a formula for writing, but it does take wit, anger, imagination, and definitely lots of patience while your at your desk. It is called the lonely career and discovering a talent could take a lifetime in some cases.

Do you face a Writer’s Block?
Yes, it happens.  But when I write the first draft of the text, I force myself to write.  It is a whole day business.  I have rituals, I dress up in the morning and get ready to sit and write as if I am going to work.  I wrote every day from 8-2 for two years in a row.  Then I take a break and continue in the afternoon. After finishing the first batch of writing I might leave the first draft for months without touching it, eventually, I would feel ready for editing, and come back to it.

Since you studied French Literature.  Did that influence you?
I learnt from many great French writers. It ranges from  Fancoise Sagan up to  Alain Robbe- Grillet.  Also, I owe a lot to my mentor, Dr. Muhannad Younis at the Mustansirya University. He was a real eye opener into the beauty of literature and the importance of self-expression. He taught me a lot  about writing techniques and vision.  I hope he is still showing the way to other students.

What other career would you be doing if you were not a Writer?
A writer.  I can’t imagine myself in another career yet it is not an easy one.  By being a writer, you could be any of the characters you create, live in any of the cities and places you paint, adopt the voices, trip in and out of history, plots of different descriptions and nuances.

Does Amman give you the atmosphere to write?
After Baghdad, Amman is one of my favorite cities. I am here by choice and I decided to settle in this familiar  warm place a few years ago. I have memories here since my family and I have pleasant friendships with the Jordanian society, and both my brother and sister were born here.

Do you follow up what is written about your work and your writing in the media?
Out of curiosity, I read what critics publish. Some of the articles help me learn more about my work, and some I disregard.
… Could you give us some examples of what you learnt from others analyzing your work?
Opinions vary. A Jordanian literary critic, Dr. Lailah Naeem described the work : “It is a democratic text.  Each character sees and has the right to express itself separate from the rest and the narrator disappears neutrally.  Despite the differences between the characters and their languages, they are still homogeneous.  There is no war between the characters.  It is a democratic picture of the society with its eastern and western nature.”
 
Iraqi poet Abdul Razzaq Abdul Wahed described it in a more humorous way :  “Your novel is like the insect called in Arabic “mother of the 44 legs”, it has so many feet yet they never trip over each other while the insect carries on walking.”
 
But, it is not always about literary critique. I mostly listen to what people try to tell me about my work. A friend once wrote to me that this novel made him think of how trivial his goals were in life. Another letter I received was from a lady  who was about to undergo a heart operation. She told me that she is going to be alright, because she imagined that I will be taking care of her in the hospital just like the protagonist in my novel took care of her mother when she was sick.. Another person linked between the bus number 27 that went to Kensington in the novel saying it was the same number of bus that went to Zafraniya from Baghdad, which I was not aware of.
Anyway, I have heard so many different comments form people. “It is a cold story without emotions”. “ It is a disguised autobiography”. A novelist even wrote me that if she had read the script before publishing, she would have suggested deleting the second half of the book since she thought it was irrelevant to the story! When I first started writing, a poet told me that my  writings will never be fit not even for a cook book! You really can’t please every body, that is what I have learnt.
… so in the end your writings were fit for a novel. Yet it is hard to believe it is not an autobiography.
In this case, I hope I managed to apply a literary theory that states : “ the novel is the art of convincing”.
 
 
Betool, do you have any advice for aspiring young writers?
I can’t give advice.  I am an amateur myself.
 
From www.babelmed.net /Mediterranean Cultural Website/ Rana Safadi