5 Questions with Ayesha Inoon
Ayesha Inoon is a Sri Lankan-Australian writer with a unique cultural perspective, which she brings to her writing. Born in Colombo, she travelled widely and worked as a journalist in Sri Lanka before immigrating to Australia in 2013.
Winner of the ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize 2022, her debut novel, Untethered, is partly based on her experiences as an immigrant Muslim woman. In September 2022, she was awarded a KSP fellowship by the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre in WA to work on her second novel.
Her feature articles have been published by SBS, The Sunday Times Sri Lanka, Serendib and Explore Sri Lanka. Ayesha lives in Canberra with her two children.
No.1
Untethered was the winner of the ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize in 2022. What lay behind your intentions while you were embarking on the manuscript for this book, and how was it conceived?
I had my main character Zia in my mind for many years, long before I arrived in Australia in 2013. She appeared to me on the night before her wedding, the way she does in the book: sitting on the floor of her room, looking at the henna patterns on her hands, both afraid and hopeful for the future. I always knew there was a story I was going to write about this young woman, but what I didn’t know was that I was going to have to live through some of those experiences myself—of leaving Sri Lanka and trying to find home in another country—before I could actually write this book.
Immigrating to Australia in search of what I hoped would be a better life turned out to be a far more complex experience than I had imagined. The full impact of the loss of the constant presence of family and friends, an established career and a life that is comfortable and familiar … that doesn’t really strike you until after you have left. While it’s true that there was political unrest and the country was often in economic turmoil, it was still home, with all the implicit security that I took for granted.
There was also my own experience of being a Muslim woman who had grown up in a very traditional environment and finding that in the absence of those boundaries I was free to choose which rules to keep or let go of. I found this choice liberating but also unsettling, and with it came a feeling of being untethered—of beginning to lose your roots but also of finding a more spacious way of living.
All my life I’ve written stories as a way to make sense of my experiences and the world around me, and writing Untethered was no different. I hoped that the novel would be published, and that immigrants would find something in it that they related to, and those who hadn’t ventured far from home might gain some insights into what it is like to leave everything and everyone you’ve ever known to look for a better future in a different country.
I also wanted to tell this story of a woman whose strength is inherent in her gentleness, who is both human and flawed in her desires and who navigates a multitude of challenges to break free of the constraints in her life and discover a stronger, freer version of herself.
No.2
It is a common trajectory for many young Asian migrants as they gain independence away from their home country and blood family to build a new life overseas. In Untethered, your main character Zia makes difficult decisions to get to this state of independence. Can you speak more to this?
When the novel opens, Zia, like many young South Asian women, is held very closely in the cocoon of her family. While she is denied the opportunity to pursue higher education, she is loved and supported through every stage of her life, from her parents choosing a husband whom they believe will care for her, to the nurturing and loving support she receives through pregnancy, childbirth and as a new mother.
Later, in Australia, Zia finds herself both devoid of the safe, supportive—sometimes stifling—presence of her family, and free for the first time in her life to potentially explore who she might be in the absence of the restrictions she’s always known. She makes new friends and is exposed to different ways of thinking, undergoing great challenges and experiencing deep grief, but on the other side of that journey she finds strength and resilience and begins to realise she has opportunities for freedom that she didn’t have before, that her old dreams might after all now be within her reach.
Similar to many migrants’ experiences, for Zia this journey to a new life doesn’t come without loss. Culture and traditions define us to a large extent and to lose some of that, however irksome they may have seemed at the time, is a losing and reframing of our deepest selves. There is also the fear and risk of losing the love and approval of those who have loved you and been with you for most of your life, when you make choices that are contrary to the beliefs you have been raised with.
To weigh these things in the balance and move towards a different future than the one that was originally envisioned for you can be both a frightening and exhilarating experience.
No.3
In the press releases for your novel, it’s said that Zia is partially drawn from your experiences. Can you discuss how your identity does and doesn’t inform your creativity? What incorrect assumptions about identity’s role in literature have you encountered?
I would say my creativity is closely informed by my identity. This doesn’t mean I am necessarily writing about something personal or private—but rather that my writing is shaped by my lived experience, my relationship with the world around me, how I am seen and defined by society, and how I choose to define myself.
In writing Untethered, I navigated my identities as an immigrant, a Sri Lankan Muslim woman and a mother. I explored what it meant to be free of old boundaries and exposed to new choices—how the very foundation of identity could change in the face of new environments and challenges. In my own life, and in the writing of this book, I have discovered that identity can be a fluid thing, that beliefs and ideas you once held with great certainty can be lost or transformed into something new.
One of the most obvious assumptions about identity’s role in literature is that cultural identity is set in stone, and in Untethered I have sought to unravel that assumption by portraying identity as something that can evolve and be determined by individual choices.
Another is uniform cultural representation, especially of minority religious and ethnic groups. Sri Lankan Muslim culture for instance, like other Muslim cultures around the world, is unique and distinguished by traditions that have evolved within the Sri Lankan context. There is also sometimes a tendency to exoticise the unfamiliar, which can unintentionally result in othering.
I hope I have portrayed some of the nuances of identity and culture in my writing, that by being authentic, I have depicted a realistic narrative that people can both relate to and gain insights from.
No.4
When self-doubt strikes, how do you work through it and move past it?
It may sound strange, but my way of working through self-doubt is to keep writing. There is so much pleasure in writing, in letting the words pour through you, seeing people and scenes come to life on the page. I try to set aside my fears of rejection and criticism and remind myself that I primarily write for the sake of writing.
When I have a finished a draft, I do the practical things: edit, check for structure, ask for feedback. Whatever happens to my writing when it goes out into the world, I try and make sure I have given it my best effort.
No.5
What tips do you have for first-time young novelists of colour who would like to embark on a book project like Untethered?
You have a story and a voice that is important, and there is a readership for your story—both people who will relate to it, and people who will be keen to broaden their perspective by looking at the world through your eyes.
Be true to the story that you want to tell. It is your own unique experiences and your emotional journey that will give it authenticity.
Read the types of books that you would like to write, both as a reader and as a writer, and look for how other diverse authors straddle different cultures in their writing and distinguish their characters’ voices.
Most of all, take the time to enjoy the process of writing your novel. It will be one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences of your life.
Find out more
Winner of the 2022 ASA/HQ Fiction Prize. A finely observed debut novel of a young Muslim woman's experience of immigration to Australia from Sri Lankan-Australian writer Ayesha Inoon.
Zia secretly longs to go to university but as a young woman in a traditional Muslim family, she does what is expected of her and agrees to an arranged marriage to Rashid, a man she barely knows. Cocooned by the wealth and customs of her family, Rashid's dark moods create only the smallest of ripples in their early life together.
When growing political unrest spurs them to leave Sri Lanka and immigrate to Australia, Zia is torn between fear of leaving her beloved family and the possibility of new freedoms. While on paper their new country welcomes them with open arms, their visas come with many restrictions and for the first time Zia faces isolation, poverty and an increasingly unstable marriage that forms a cage stronger than any she's known before.
Determined to carve a place for herself in this new country, Zia sets out on uncertain terrain and discovers friendship, devastating loss and hope for a different future. One that asks her to consider not just who she is, but who she might become.
Partially drawn from her own experiences, debut author Ayesha Inoon's novel weaves the threads of family, culture and tradition together with the uncertainty and freedom of starting anew to create a complex tapestry of identity, resilience and hope.
Get it from HarperCollins here, or at all good bookstores.