Anjail Rashida Ahmad

Oyster River Pages: Why do you write and/or create?

Anjail Rashida Ahmad: I have to express what my experience as a human being is/ means in words.

ORP: What do you think is the best way to improve writing and/or artistic skills?

ARA: Read more widely, write more, study poetry in general.

ORP: What books have you read more than once in your life?

ARA: Letters to a Young Poet by M. Rilke.

ORP: Do you know more than one language? How does this influence your art and/or writing?

ARA: Yes, knowing something about other languages, forces me to think more deeply about my own word choices with the ultimate goal being communication.

ORP: What does vulnerability mean to you as an artist and/or writer?

ARA: It enhances the accessibility of my art.

ORP: Do habits help or hinder creativity? Why or why not?

ARA: One main goal of all art is communication, what goes on between people, if the work is in some ways accessible, a reader can be invited to enter the work.

Anjail Rashida Ahmad, PhD, is a published poet, educator and advocate, a professor of poetry and African-American literature, founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

READ Anjail’s poem “O Sonny Boy” FROM ISSUE 6.1 HERE.