Anagha Devarakonda
ORP: What inspired you to begin writing or creating? Has that source of inspiration changed throughout your life?
Anagha Devarakonda: My writing is, above all, a love letter to my family. I learned to speak by watching their mouths form syllables; learned to write while their hands traced letters over mine. My writing is an acknowledgment of the sacrifices my family members have made; it is the way I show their voices to the world just as they helped me find mine.
ORP: Do you know more than one language? How does this influence your art and/or writing?
AD: I have never been sure what my first language was, learning Telugu and English in tandem. As I've grown older the line between the two languages has blurred: my American accent sharpening my Telugu into shrill fragments, bits of Telugu softening my pronunciation of certain English phrases. My writing blends the melody of Telugu and the definition of English, bringing the misty area between both languages into focus.
ORP: What would you say is your most interesting writing and/or artistic quirk? Do you have any habits that you believe help or hinder your creativity?
AD: I base every one of my pieces on a single concrete thing: a food, an heirloom, a piece of furniture. To me, this object becomes something of a paperweight, something to ground the ideas that swirl around in my head, lest they fly away from me until I am unable to chase after them.
ORP: What books have you read many times?
AD: I find myself returning to books that instill a sense of peace in me, that remind me of the calm and simplicity of my childhood. Salt to the Sea, Percy Jackson, The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Books I read and reread as a child, hoping to miraculously find more of the story, an ending after the end, have taken on a new meaning as I've grown.
