Hey Eager Readers!!
Its been a very long time since our last post on this blog! Today I have my 2nd interview with Diana Farid!! The first one was this linked post about her picture book When You Breathe!
Wave is one of the best all the feels middle grade to Young adult cross over books ever! I will have her introduce the book and herself. Then we will start the rest of the interview!
There will be a later interview and blog post with reader questions from Books Inc Palo Alto's Independent Bookstore day celebration on April 30th 2022!!
Please visit any Books Inc in person especially Books Inc Palo Alto all year long and anytime online and on our social media pages!
Now on to the interview with Diana Farid about her new book Wave
Please introduce yourself and your new book Wave!!
Hi. My name is Diana Farid and I am the author of When You Breathe and , my new book, Wave. Wave follows 13 year old Ava, a Southern California surfer girl, as she experiences the ride of her life in the summer of 1987. Through family expectations, prejudice, and a changing relationship with her best friend, she finds the healing power of the waves of the ocean, poetry and music.”
1. In previous interviews, especially the amazing interview by Children’s Book Review, you spoke about how your picture book WHEN YOU BREATHE and your new novel in verse WAVE are related. You spoke of coming from the “same space” — a space rooted in science and captured through your evocative poetry. Why are both told through poetry? How are these fundamentally different works of word art so intricately related?
The stories in WHEN YOU BREATHE, a picture book, and WAVE, a novel, are both told through poetry for several reasons. Poetry is a natural structure I turn to when I’m exploring. One of the reasons I write is because it is an act of curiosity. And when I can play with words the way poetry allows me to, the way it lets me play with space and structure, I make discoveries about the topic I am exploring in my writing. I love that learning, those surprises that the act of writing can reveal.
Another reason both WHEN YOU BREATHE and WAVE are told through poetry is that the topics each book explores, the rhythm of breath and the waves of the sea, remind me of the cadence of lines of poetry. In fact, in Wave, many of the poems take the shape of waves, and I wouldn’t have been able to get that visual detail across in prose.
And then there is song. Songs were my entrance into poetry. They were the first thing I loved to read (the liner notes of song lyrics folded next to my favorite cassette tapes). And for me, both WHEN YOU BREATHE and WAVE are songs — songs ultimately about what we are made of, what moves us, our awesome worth simply for being, recognizing our fundamental connections with each other and the universe. So though both are different in format, yet they are deeply related in fundamental ways.
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| Wave by Diana Farid cover |
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| When you Breathe Picture book by Diana Farid |
2. What put WAVE in motion originally? What was the moon pull of your writing process like for WAVE? How was it different from the picture book?
Originally, I had a glimpse of Ava and her friendship with Phoenix. I knew I wanted to navigate how music holds us through hardship. I knew Ava was a surfer and that the ocean was her solace. But the story really found its anchor while I was walking at the beach one day and wondered about the waves and what the sea would be like without them, what the world would be like without the waves that carry sound and light, without music and sunset hues. Once I had that wonder, the final scene of WAVE presented itself to me and I wasn’t going to be stopped until the story was out — originally in a spiral bound green Mead notebook. I wrote my first draft by hand, pen to paper. When You Breathe had many revisions over many years until it took its final form. Wave took about 2 years.
3. All throughout WAVE, readers enjoy clearly crafted poems that evoke so many therapeutically deep and staggeringly authentic feelings for all readers. I have heard from many readers of all ages crying waves of tears for various feelings throughout the book. Seems you have shared experiences with the main character. How do you connect so well to readers' feelings?
I’ve heard the same, that readers have found deep emotional connections to the characters in WAVE. And, yes, I do have some shared experiences with the main character Ava, especially the cultural and religious background and family structure. That certainly helps authenticity come across. I tried hard to express feelings truthfully. Even if I didn’t ever experience what Ave does in WAVE, I pictured the experience. And I think it would be accurate to describe myself as an empath. So, once I pictured the experience, I always also felt it viscerally. Then, I tried to describe that feeling as accurately as I could.
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| Author Diana Farid |
4. In other interviews you spoke of wondering about what if the world had no waves. How did that influence WAVE?
On a very fundamental level, WAVE is my answer to that question: “What would the world be like if there were no waves?”
What other questions did you want to investigate in the book?
There so many other questions I investigated. Some of them explore the power of poetry and music to heal, what the definition of a meaningful gift is, what it is to be present, and what’s missing from our healthcare system.
How does your poetry explore these things differently than prose would? Nuances with fewer words??
Exploring these questions with poetry allowed for layered meanings depending on the structure and order of the words and allowed for invitations to sit and think about the implications in the phrases.
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| Wave cover! |
5. How did you create and craft Ava? She is Clearly a crucial new voice in diverse voices, a non Islamic middle eastern girl.
Some of my own personal experiences are layered into Ava. I noticed that a lot of “middle eastern” kid lit revolved around characters who identified as Muslim. And while that is a vital need, missing from the landscape was the representation of the diversity of faiths in the middle east. Specifically, Ava’s family identifies as Baha’i, as does mine. Her family experiences religious persecution and had to leave Iran quickly during the revolution. So did mine. Her mom is an immigrant, single mom, and obstetrician/gynecologist. So is mine! These shared experiences were perfect backdrops to explore themes of identity, meaning and worth.
6. Ava's closest friendship with Phoenix is crucial to the story. What makes their relationship so transcendent and unique? How did you create Phoenix?
I love Phoenix and Ava’s friendship so much. It’s transcendent because they see, respect, and understand each other’s deepest aspirations and share a love for the ocean and surfing — which serves as a constant reminder in their lives, and in the book, of the richness we have to be able to experience such grandness, when it’s just tickling the tips of our toes or taking us on our biggest rides. I created Phoenix as one of the catalysts for Ava seeing herself, her worth, and the joy in the ride of life.
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From Wave, text© 2022 Diana Farid, Illus © 2022 Gotobean Heavy Industries, LLC. Published by Cameron + Company, a division of Abrams.
7. Ava’s desire to express herself is juxtaposed by doing her best to find a sense of belonging in her community are both universal elements of the experience of children of all ages. How do your own experiences growing up match up with Ava especially in terms of exploring that juxtaposition?
What Ava experiences ring true with emotions I experienced growing up, not being fully one culture or another. And I worked hard to show how that plays out in specific contexts, like family traditions, meals and expectations and how those can contrast with the culture outside of one’s home. Some of the contrasts mentioned in WAVE are ones I actually experienced, especially when it came to food, music, and language.
8. Mixtapes from the 80s and surfing are crucial to the flow of the book . Explain your feelings on mixtapes and surfing and why you chose those two core elements.
This is an easy one. I was obsessed with both growing up. I wouldn’t have been able to write a book set in 1987 without those both being elements of the story.
From Wave, text© 2022 Diana Farid, Illus © 2022 Gotobean Heavy Industries, LLC. Published by Cameron + Company, a division of Abrams.
9. Rumi is preeminent In the book. How does his spirituality and poetry impact Ava and Phoenix? How does Rumi impact you?
Rumi’s poem comes to be a solace for Ava. It’s a space where she finds spiritual wisdom that directly reflects an experience she is having, or it comments, almost like an omniscient guardian angel, on how to move forward. Rumi did the same for me as a younger person. I love that some of his verses have made their way into a book accessible to the middle grade and kidlit audience.
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From Wave, text© 2022 Diana Farid, Illus © 2022 Gotobean Heavy Industries, LLC. Published by Cameron + Company, a division of Abrams.
10. You speak in a previous interview about creative self expression being the key to real connection, explain? I remember your answer included an elephant.
I think of the world like that elephant in the south Asian parable about the people or mice who are blind and are each at different parts of a huge elephant arguing about what it is they are feeling. A tree trunk, a snake, a wall, a large floppy leaf — depending on where you examine, different parts of an elephant could be mistaken for each of those things.
I think of our creative expression as the access we have to describe the world how we see it, where we are. And I think of our sharing it, the space of shared art, museums, fairs, bookshops, galleries, concerts, and the such, as our chances in our lives to see another perspective, and get that much closer to getting to know the reality of the elephant, or our world. Without each other’s stories about the elephant, aka the world, we wouldn’t be able to get the full picture or understand how fundamentally connected all the parts are in making the grand whole.
11. My blog is called the worthy reader in part because reading books like yours connect me to my self worth, if nothing else then I see myself as a witness to great art and how Your words transcend Ava’s story and apply so strongly to what I can do in my own life story. Thank you for all of your art, and your illustrators art!! What’s your response to those truths?
You are, indeed, worthy.
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From Wave, text© 2022 Diana Farid, Illus © 2022 Gotobean Heavy Industries, LLC. Published by Cameron + Company, a division of Abrams.
12. What are you reading now? What are you reading with your kids? What are your kids reading?
I am reading this brand new translation of Rumi’s poetry, GOLD, edited and translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori. With my kids, I am reading PAX, by Sara Pennypacker.
13. What’s next for you professionally?
I am working on a bunch of picture books. And, I have started my next novel in verse!
14. What do you want all your readers to gain from Wave?
How fortunate we are, to breathe, to sing, and to ride, the waves.
Thats all for now. There will be a later interview and blog post with reader questions from Books Inc Palo Alto's Independent Bookstore day celebration on April 30th 2022!!!
Don't forget to buy a copy of Wave at this link from Books Inc
Thank yous listed with hyperlinks!! Endless thanks to Diana Farid and Cameron Kids and Abrams Publishing, and Books Inc and Children's Book Review
My family and I would also like to thank all my viewers and Subscribers to this blog and all my other social media!
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