How would you characterize the influence of your YWW experience in your life?
UVA changed my life, and YWW is what introduced me to UVA. I started writing in my teens, and my older sister was a First Year at UVA at the time. She recognized my passion and told my parents that there was a writer's camp at her university I should attend. That summer I went to YWW changed my life. I was this very sheltered teenager from Dhaka, Bangladesh dropped off at Balz dorm in Charlottesville, VA. I had no idea what camp in an American college would be like with so many other teenage Americans. I learned that writing was a skill I needed to nurture and grow. I learned it was something that people would take seriously if I took it seriously first. YWW marked the beginning of my love affair with UVA, a relationship that transformed my intellectual self. Meeting mentors like Margo Figgins at such a young age really impacted the development of my understanding of language, and how to use it. I was so lucky to get that experience before my last year in high school. I went back and applied early decision to UVA. My summer at YWW was one of the most transformative experiences of my life.
What’s the best advice you can give a Young Writer (in general or in your specific genre)?
Write. That is the advice I would give all writers. Be disciplined, practice and protect your skill. There was a good seven years of my life during which I struggled with a case of writer’s block I thought would never end. I so wish looking back that I had kept writing, even if I was frustrated with what I was producing, or not producing at all. Letting go and giving up on the skill at that time hurt me, and my confidence as a writer. Looking back, I should have had more faith in myself and just kept writing. Whatever your skill may be- writing, painting, never abandon it. I really believe that.
What do you find yourself most often reading or listening to lately and why?
A big chunk of my work is blogging, and writing for my online columns in Forbes and Huffington Post, in addition to my freelance work co-anchoring on Al-Jazeera English. I am a social-media-information-news junkie. I am always checking the news, always online. I follow all international news outlets in four different languages everyday. I am always reading news and features and political gossip online. Now that I can finally work fulltime on my writing, I love listening to Chopin on my Pandora station, in my study and write away.