With tales of the marginalised, Aishah Zainal is off to a flying start

MALAYSIANSKINI | Not many have experienced the sort of meteoric rise experienced by Ipoh-based author Aishah Zainal.

Her debut novel Hades made it to the longlist for the Dublin Literary Award 2024, something the 27-year-old really couldn’t have anticipated when she signed with local publisher Gerakbudaya.

Hades is a gritty tale set in a world of low-cost flats and centres around the relationship between troubled teen Kei and single mother Maryam. She calls it a tale of the underdogs and what living in poverty can do to people.

In an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini, Aishah said the motivation to get her book out came partly from her late grandfather who was an unpublished author with big dreams, yet settled down to a life tending the Taiping Lake Gardens.

She said in this world, the potential achievements of many people are lost due to their poverty.

Here is the story of Aishah Zainal, in her own words:

Although I’d always wanted to be a novelist, Joan Didion’s Why I Write was the reason I began writing seriously. She was considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism (alongside the likes of Hunter S Thompson and Tom Wolfe) and reading her views on writing really spoke to my heart.

Especially since I’d had the same thing in my mind but struggled to pen down the thoughts into words.

I’ve always wanted to be able to write like her even though she was more inclined towards non-fiction and I’m more into fiction and literature. I’ve always wanted to produce a piece of work that has a great depth to it.

I am greatly influenced by Donna Tartt too. All three of her books, especially The Little Friend, changed my whole take on storytelling.

Back in school, I always believed that in order to write a good story, you need something big to constantly happen, but that’s not the case with her story.

Her plot is quite linear but the way she tells the story promises us something spectacular is going to happen, but then nothing ever happens or changes in the end.

Instead of feeling betrayed, I find this remarkable every time I finish her books. I experienced the same thing with Kurt Vonnegut.

I have also read a lot of articles about Ursula K Le Guin but sadly haven’t read any of her works. Her works date back decades but her fame is still recent. Although, I’m still confused as to whether her genre is sci-fi, speculative fiction, or fantasy.

I’ll be checking out her works in the near future soon. For now, I’m quite fixated on Philip K Dick.

Giving a voice to the marginalised

I shared two pictures of places that haunted me during the production of Hades. I chose to write about the relationship between marginalised people because I was a part of this community and fully aware that the root of their suffering is poverty.

Racism and patriarchy also contribute to this suffering a lot. I want people to be aware of the roots and I want to write their story because people of this group also deserve to leave some marks in this world, no matter how small.

They deserve to be remembered and know that their suffering matters too regardless of their achievement or social standing.

Those two pictures came from my childhood. I used to live with my relatives in a small kampung near the Flat Taman Mewah Bercham (in Ipoh, Perak) and the sewage plant.

My older cousins used to walk me to the sundry shop at the flat’s compound in the evening and we would pass by the plant and the sickly green view and the smell remains with me up to this day.

These two places feel like a fever dream but it truly happened and I experienced it. So I wrote Hades with them in my mind, to prove that these places and communities exist and it’s not just me hallucinating because I can recall them perfectly.

Beginning with no plot

The plot evolved as I was writing, and I didn’t have a fixed picture with planned alternate endings and plot twists. I was clueless since it was my first time writing a novel. Shockingly, I didn’t have any alternate endings or plot twists.

Once the scenes flashed in my mind, I simply stuck with them and penned them down even though I did modify them here and there to make the plot consistent.

What I changed most in the novel was the point of view from first person to third, and my writing style, making it less brash and trying to hide my naivety - although I kept some naivety so that the narration sounded like a 16-year-old in 2012.

To conclude, I didn’t worry much about the plot because it was very predictable by the end. I focused more on the language, point of view, writing style, and motifs.

I am actually writing my second book. I can’t tell you what it’s about because it hasn’t fully developed but it’ll be realistic but romantic, that’s all I can say.

Romantic as in romanticism, not romance, though I wish I could write a romance novel that sells or a fantasy fiction that will make Malaysia proud.

I’m still mediocre and in need of some courage to venture out of my comfort genre. However, my books are always going to be about people being structurally discriminated against and poverty-stricken, I think.

Maybe, in the future, once the world’s wealth is suddenly miraculously distributed fairly, I’ll be able to write about living in a magical world of flowers and trees.

Stunned by the recognition

I was in disbelief about being long-listed for the Dublin Literary Award. I truly didn’t see it coming. Didn’t expect anybody would nominate a book by a rookie from nowhere.

I always think Hades is an unfashionable tale to nobody’s taste except me and my friends. I mean, people are uncomfortable reading about poverty. Romance always sells but Hades is anything but it.

There aren’t any plans to adapt Hades for the screen. My mother asked me the same question just yesterday. I think we should allow Hades to remain as a tale told through words instead of motion pictures. I don’t want it to lose the magic that I weaved into it for two years.

Every day I envisage a scenario where I might be writing full time. A few days ago, I had a conversation with my fellow author, Farah Liyana (she wrote Be Kind, Rewind) and we talked about how taxing it is to want to write while you’re struggling to make ends meet, especially when you’re still in your 20s and living in Malaysia.

I envy the writers and poets of old when literary patrons were a thing. But in Malaysia, I don’t think this kind of patronage ever existed.

As for me, time is the real enemy in writing and also the need to sleep and eat. I think the first step we need to do is to change the people’s perspective on arts, literature, and music.

Our society tends to believe that this “holy trinity” is a waste of time because they aren’t able to generate concrete results like what Stem (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) does.

Something from Stem might be able to solve a water crisis or a plague but without the big three, the sun will still rise from the east and the world will move on like usual.

We need to make people respect these three for the authorities to take them seriously and, who knows, maybe in the near future, we might have a ministry exclusively for arts, literature, and music instead of being lumped together with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.

Perhaps then, literary patrons in Malaysia will be a thing and instead of forcing writers to have another job to make a living, writers can focus solely on their works.

But for now... I always make myself write at least a sentence no matter how busy I am just to be true to the craft and make sure to never lose the magic.

Politics, religion, art

I do have strong views on politics and religion. I think all works of fiction are political regardless of the writer’s intention. Joan Didion said, “Writing is an aggressive, hostile act.”

A writer is basically forcing her views on others and politics is the thing that permeates every aspect of our life whether you’re aware of it or not. It’s harder to be apolitical than to be political.

As for religion, I believe the world will be a better place if people keep it between them and God. I believe in religion and God but not the religious leaders.

I used to love skateboarding but when I graduated from IIUM and started working as a teacher, I stopped and the dust that has accumulated on top of my skateboard is getting thicker!

I’m bad at art but very interested in paintings, especially the works of Caravaggio.

I also like progressive and psychedelic rock bands and I wish I could play the bass. I always fantasise about buying a bass guitar and have pretended to be in a band ever since I was six but that just never happened!

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