Latest / Book Flood Podcast / Padma Venkatraman on "Faraway Family" (E74)
Transcript
- Tom Nixon: Welcome to the Book Flood Podcast. I am your host, Tom Nixon. My guest this week is Padma Venkatraman. Padma is an author and oceanographer, a winner of the Walter Dean Myers and Golden Kite Awards, and her stories often focus on resilience, empathy, and marginalized communities. Welcome, Padma. Padma T Venkatraman: Thank you so much for having me back home. It's an honor and a pleasure. Tom Nixon: Absolutely, glad you could be back. So what led you to become an author? Padma T Venkatraman: So, so many things. One is I think that I absolutely loved writing ever since I was little, so I always used to write. And science and oceanography, which I also love, were more practical because I felt like I could get a job that would pay me a regular salary with those fields. And so that's partly why I did it. growing up as an Indian woman in India at the time I felt like I wanted to be able to make decisions on my own life, and for that financial independence was very, very necessary. And I felt like as a scientist I could have financial independence. and I wasn't too sure with you know with the creative stuff where it would go and I think it was kind of interesting because I think it was a very sensible thing because even to this day no matter how much success you might have had past success isn't really a predictor of what will happen in the future in this particular field Tom Nixon: absolutely. The the number of authors who I have on the podcast who actually are able to make a living as an author is a much smaller subset than than those who have other jobs for sure. Padma T Venkatraman: Yeah. Tom Nixon: your latest book is Faraway Family. Where did the idea for that book come from? Padma T Venkatraman: so we have an interesting family setup. My husband is from Europe. So my grand my daughter has grandparents who are in Europe, and she has, you know, grandparents in India. And so when she was little, even though these days, yes, you know, you have this flat little Zoom thing or whatever else you're using, and you have a screen that maybe gives a baby or a child an idea that there's somebody else. out there. But even so I was kind of surprised but the human interaction when this person who seems to the child to be a stranger is suddenly there, you know, in three dimensions and is being the child is being told that's your grandparent and there they are and they love you and they know you but the child is like, Who is this person that I've never seen before? And I thought about how, especially being an immigrant and you know coming to America all alone when I was 19, knowing nobody here, having no connections, and then having to make those connections, I think a lot about how family becomes you know, the friends that you have. And so we talk a lot about friends becoming family, but we forget that sometimes we have to make friends with people who are family. So they're family, but they're not really friends yet. They're strangers to you. And I think a child has that experience sometimes, whether it's you know going halfway across the globe or going somewhere else, sometimes when they meet a family, they have to sort of learn to make friends with them because that person in the family has been far away for most of their lives. Tom Nixon: Hmm. That's a great way to put it. I have three granddaughters, all who live in Chicago. And and so especially Padma T Venkatraman: Yeah. Tom Nixon: when they were were younger, yeah, very much that same sort of thing is, well, I know you're a grandparent, but I'm not even entirely sure what that means. Padma T Venkatraman: Right, right. yeah. And so I mean it was that and then also the fascination that I have always with the ways in which imaginative play and imaginative storytelling can bring people together. And, you know, we have wonderful things with technology like this. I'm able to speak to you, you know. And that's lovely. But then we also have like technology giving us pre-prepared stories, you know, where you don't have to exercise your imagination. You just have to sit there and consume and consume. And I think that is not not that interesting to me. And it doesn't have the sort of magic and the bonding that can happen when two people, and in this case a grandparent and a grandchild. bond and come together and you know bridge this generational gap, they bridge the a gap of culture in this case and the c you know gap of language. All of that is bridged by imagination and imaginative play and imaginative storytelling. Tom Nixon: So I would say and you might you can choose to disagree with me, but I'm gonna call you a successful author. I don't I d I don't know if that, you know, can can suddenly cause problems in your writing life, but Padma T Venkatraman: No, I think I think I can say that and I think I'm very, very, very, very grateful for that. I am able to make my living being an author, which is a wonderful thing. And I really hope that I'll be able to do that till the day I drop dead, which I hope is many, many, many years away. Tom Nixon: Yes, please. to what do you attribute your success? Padma T Venkatraman: I really don't know. I think that a lot of it is a matter of luck. And I have heard people say things like, you know, luck is when hard work meets meets opportunity or some there's some funny quote like that. But I don't think that that's true. I think there is such a thing as a hundred percent luck. And I think as a writer, you have to pour your creative energy into your work. You have to make it the best you can you can make it, but beyond that you have no control. And so after that, who it meets and how they receive it, you just really have no control over that. And I think that part is a matter of luck. So I do think there are brilliant books out there that don't get the recognition that maybe I think that they deserve. And I think there are books out there that get a lot of recognition, and I'm kind of surprised by that too. So I guess in my book I won't name them. I do there are some or in my view there are some books and some art, if you will, that gets more recognition than maybe I think it deserves. And I think that yeah, that's lo Yeah. Tom Nixon: I would absolut I would absolutely agree with you. you you look at some of the books that come out and you go, Well, that's interesting. Padma T Venkatraman: Yeah. Tom Nixon: and you know someone put their well, or at least you don't put their heart and soul into that, but you can do that, and yet sometimes it still isn't what one would hope. Padma T Venkatraman: Yeah, yeah. Tom Nixon: Do you have one of your books that you found to be the most fun, the most interesting, the most something to write? Padma T Venkatraman: So I think with like interesting and you know, I could say it all my books I find very lovely and interesting to write, otherwise I wouldn't write them. I do think that In a in a way, Climbing the Stairs was very my debut novel was very interesting for me to write because it was about my family's history and you know, setting this and was also exploring something that people hadn't really been talking about, which is India's place in the Second World War, having my mom grow up in a house where she was literally not allowed to climb the stairs to enter the upstairs library, which is why the book was named Climbing the Stairs, so it has that literal and that you know metaphorical resonance, but also my My granduncle being on you know one of the volunteers and what became the largest all-volunteer force in the Allied side in the Second World War. And I think that was just so interesting for me to, you know, intellectually to explore all of that. So that was a really interesting book to write. Born behind Bars and the Bridge Home were very difficult to write because they're about Very harsh topics, and so Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: I think they were probably some of the most difficult to write. And I think before I leave the most difficult and the most interesting, I have to tell you that I am writing now a book called Secret Agent Noor, because it is about a woman who was a secret agent in the Second World War. It's a true story, it's my first nonfiction. And it is super interesting to write because Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: she went undercover in Nazi occupied France, which was considered by some to be the most difficult and dangerous place in Europe during the Second World War, and sent radio messages. I mean, I could talk about that. I hope I will be able to talk about that when the book comes out in early 2028, it's scheduled to come out. So that's a book that I've been writing is absolutely fascinating and interesting to me. And I'm also Writing the prequel to The Bridge Home and that one, you know, tentatively titled Before the Bridge is also extremely difficult to write because it is about, you know, heart wrenching stuff. It's about the fact that we still have homeless children, children who are sort of, you know, enslaved by child labor in today's world after a millennium of existence. So those are very difficult books to write. But to end this question on a happy note, Faraway Family was the most fun to write because I think picture books are just by nature, you know, maybe Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: not all picture books. I shouldn't I shouldn't make that that sort of broad statement, because there are some that are, you know, heavy in a way. But this was just a it was a picture book about family, about joy, about imagination, about storytelling, about play, about, you know, running off into this sort of imaginary world. shadow puppets. So that was just just so much fun. Yeah. Tom Nixon: Nice. What is your writing process like? Padma T Venkatraman: So I think it it has differed for every book. Now for the nonfiction, it is of course very vigorous and it's you know almost like doing a doctorate in on a particular topic because Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: every little thing in a nonfiction piece has to be researched. So if you say if you add in anything that is a quote in a piece of dialogue, you better make sure that someone said that so-and-so said this and didn't just fabricate that. And you know, everything. So if it's if it's the time of day, was the sun shine, was the sun not shining? You know, you can't say it was. sunny day unless it really was a sunny day so you know there's a lot of that so that process is quite different I find from writing fiction and with fiction again you know a lot of my work has been emotionally sort of heavy so to sustain and to center oneself and and my role as a mother and as a wife I feel like I have to you know hold a lot so that's interesting and an interesting challenge for me but with far away family it was so much fun it was like Writing a poem, the process of writing Faraway Family was very much like writing a poem because it's about you know condensing your words in a way, it's Tom Nixon: Mm-hmm. Padma T Venkatraman: about looking at every single word because then it stands out in such relief because there are so few words. So, in that way as well, I think a a picture book and a poem. The writing process is very similar. And for me with a poem, I write it, then I let it go, sit, you know, in a drawer, look at it again after a little while. Let it sit for a while, look at it again for a little while. And that's how picture book writing is with me as well. So the process is a lot of breaks rather than with a novel you get into it completely, or with a nonfiction as well, a lot of sort of sitting in that same place. But for me, picture books and poems are writing it, stepping away, writing, rewriting, stepping away, looking it again stepping away so a bit different. Tom Nixon: Hmm. How do we get more children interested in reading? Padma T Venkatraman: I think one of the things that I always tell I'm sure with your three daughters you've experienced, but I think the newer generation of parents, I always tell them you have to read. You have to fall in love with reading. And you know, you have to look at the books behind you, Tom. That shows me that that's a reading household. And when your children, your daughters were born into that house, it sends, I think, a supplemental message. So I'm sure that if you did research, and you know, I probably should see if that's already done, I'm sure it is. I'm sure that if the Parents have beyond a certain number of books in the house, I am certain that the children are more likely to take to reading, you know? because they see it as something that is valued. They and then it automatically, I think, in the family. books enter the discussion at the dinner table or wherever, right? What book are you reading is already implying that you are reading some book. What book is by your and then you know, in a in our house there are books by both of our you know, my husband and I both have books by our bedsides. So our daughter grew up with that. And we of course we read to her. So I think reading to a child at dinner time or at sorry at bedtime is very important. You know, giving them books I was just actually had a discussion with Paul Zelinsky who is a marvelous illustrator and such a wonderful human being. Somebody I I really really think is a fabulous person. Anyway, he was talking about the fact that you know kids need to have board books or something. Even if they just chew on them, they Need to have books from when they're too little to read. And I think that's so important. I mean, I remember my daughter when she was little, now she's in college, we just dropped her off, you know, sitting there with her sort of with her one leg across the other and opening this book, which is this tiny board book, and reading. And she already knows something is going on there, and her brain Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: is engaging with this with this real thing. So it's not. It's not something that is overreacting and sending you all these images and things that the screen does. It is something that is inviting you to imagine with it. It is inviting you into a quieter space that is still that space of value. Tom Nixon: Hmm. Nice. Padma T Venkatraman: And fun and play. Tom Nixon: How important is having diverse characters in a book? Padma T Venkatraman: I think it's super important and you know, and you said that earlier and and it was so true when you introduced me. I think for me it has always been very important. And for those of us who started by you know, getting or got into the field of publishing about twenty years ago, which is, you know, a little bit after that maybe for me, or roughly twenty years actually now, almost. the thing I think is that maybe it is twenty years. Anyway, the thing I think is that when we were published about twenty years ago there were not Many of us who had diverse characters, especially not many of us who were ourselves in a community that did not have much representation, a community that had been historically marginalized, that were then writing our own stories. And I think that is vital to have. And when we don't see that representation, then we're sending a subliminal message to young people saying your stories are not important enough to be celebrated. your culture is not important enough to be seen. And I don't think that that's a kind message. And I don't think that that's a message that fits with a democracy or a place where we need to value difference and we need to respect our differences. Tom Nixon: What are you working on now? Padma T Venkatraman: So I am working still on the nonfiction, so it's not yet quite done. I'm looking at the source notes and things like that, hope to wrap all of that up by the end of the year so that we can have that come out. I think right now Macmillan has scheduled it for twenty twenty eight, so I'm crossing my fingers that that will happen. and I am in the process of revising doing the first revision for Before the Bridge, which is my prequel to The Bridge Home. So those are the two things that I'm most actively engaged in. And I'm also, speaking of picture books, revising a picture book for my my beloved editor, Nancy Paulson, my longtime editor at Penguin Random House. And I just finished a picture book which I absolutely adore. It's you know I don't know what the title will be so maybe I shouldn't say but so we have two other picture books coming out in in the years to come and the third one that I'm going to send her today so please cross your fingers and hopefully she will love it enough to take it on. Tom Nixon: I I think our listeners and watchers would be surprised with some of the timelines that you use. From from start to finish, how long does it usually take you to to get a book out on the streets? Padma T Venkatraman: I'd say usually five years. you know, two years sometimes that's the best case scenario, and sometimes a bit longer. And I think it's because I do so many different projects that I have something in the works and you know, in a with a picture book, for instance, it usually, like I said, is written. So if you look at the first draft of that picture book, it might have been written a long time ago. Revise it, then send it to my editor when I think it's polished enough to send to her, and then she has feedback and then until it comes out. And you know, with Secret Agent Roar, I've been working on that for easily you know, by the time it comes out it'll be easily five years because the research was so much and I would say even more than that in that case, because it's a book that I've been, you know, even just to get the proposal done, the nonfiction proposal for the book, sent off to the edit to the publisher to say, Hey, do you want to publish this or not? That already requires a lot of research. So that's a book that's been also in my head for a long time. And with I think with with the before the bridge, the prequel to The Bridge Home, it will be five years at least in a way, and maybe more, because it's a book that I thought of, sort of outlined a little bit, sent off, we signed on, and then I got very involved in the whole censorship and pushing back against censorship because Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: you know, unfortunately, Born Behind Bars, which was, you know, it it was on a list in Florida and got pulled off the shelves and got challenged and after that a bunch of my books started getting challenged. I just looked at other people who'd had even worse experiences and, you know, I got my fair share of, you know, violent threats and all this nonsense on online and And you know, on the one hand it made me feel unsafe, but on the other hand, I thought, no, I will not just sit there and be have all this sit there in my fear. I will actively push back against it. So I felt very much that authors needed to be recognized as parties harmed by censorship, which was not done actually in any of the laws that had yet been passed. And so myself along with somebody called Jeanette Bradley, who became my co- leader at Others against book bands in Rhode Island. We, you know, I I did it for a while with her and now I've stepped back because I just didn't get any work at all done on my books except for my picture book. But really together with a coalition of, you know, librarians and booksellers and And just Rhode Island citizens, you know, I live in Rhode Island and just getting everyone active and understanding that this sort of challenges and book challenges and pulling books off the shelves is happening even in you know, even in Rhode Island we've had book challenges. So it's not something that's limited to any particular belt or any particular type of state, you know, red states and blue states we talk about a lot. Well, this is a purple issue, it happens everywhere. So please let's make sure it doesn't happen because you know, I think Freedom of expression is something we need to hold dear if we're in a democracy, respecting other people's views as equal, whether you subscribe to their views or not. You don't have to agree with everybody, that's very important too in a democracy. But you have the right to disagree, but you have to do that respectfully and hold other people's right to tell their stories and celebrate themselves, right? And I think that's very, very important, whether it's a different religion, whether it's whatever it is, and a different gender, whatever you have, the diversity that you bring, who you are is so important. Your ethnicity, your culture, your identity, right? And I think that's Something that I felt was very important to me. So we did that again with the coalition. So I don't want anybody to think that it was just one person or just two people or whatever. It was the Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: entire coalition working so hard with so many different organizations. And finally, we were able to get a law passed or a bill signed into law in Rhode Island that recognizes is the first one to recognize authors as parties harmed by censorship in this country. And I think that's very important. And of course, it has a the legal protections for librarians which is vital and you know public libraries which I think are the bastion of our democracy really such an amazing thing that we have in our country. Tom Nixon: I was excited to see the the librarian's documentary win the Emmy Award. Padma T Venkatraman: Yes, yes. And I'm very excited that I next Monday actually I will be at an event sponsored by my publisher, Penguin Random House, which has been really at the forefront in terms of publishers like pushing back against book challenges and I'll be there with some of the you know Amanda and Becky and some of the people who are in the librarians documentary, these marvelous librarians, and also with the other featured authors at this event, and I'm so lucky to be one of the featured authors, include Maya Angelo and James Baldwin and Ibram X Kendi. so yeah, that would be wonderful. Tom Nixon: and what what event is that? Padma T Venkatraman: It is called Save Our Stories and it is happening Monday evening next week. So yeah. Tom Nixon: Mm. Nice. Padma T Venkatraman: Beyond that the publisher's doing everything else, so I don't really know. Tom Nixon: Well, and it's good that you you're able to call out your publisher for doing the right thing because there have been some publishers that have not. Padma T Venkatraman: Yeah. Yeah. Tom Nixon: Is there a book or a series of books this is the question I ask everybody every time, a book or a series of books from your childhood that still resonates with you? Padma T Venkatraman: you know I There are one book that I actually really loved and if there is some subliminal message in it, I really don't know. I haven't got it. So maybe there is and sometimes people are like, it's about this, and I think, maybe I didn't realize that was you Winnie the Pooh was just lovely to me. It was just this happy, happy place and my childhood was not very happy, unfortunately. It was quite terrible. So it was lovely to be able to sort of in escape into the enchanted wood with Winnie the Pooh. There is another book I think that stayed quite a couple but one of them was Sec The Secret Garden and I bring that up a lot because Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: there was this beauty in it, but there was also such a lot of violence in it in terms of racism and you know, people with brown skin like me from India, like me being called all these nasty things and, you know, ignorant and un incapable of this and all of that. So the portrayal of people that, you know, in the book she refers to as black. And really means people like me, with Indian origin, with brown skin, she felt well the she being Mary in the book is the protagonist that you're supposed to root for, but then says all these, you know, things that are really not very kind at all. And very, very racist, and yet that book was, you know, given to my daughter even. So it's still there in circulation. People hold it up as a classic and a wonderful book and And that's a little disturbing to me because when I read it, I thought, my goodness. And then there was this other thing with Colin in the book who has a disability. And now I have an invisible Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: disability, but I also, you know, I'm I'm hard of hearing. So if I'm not wearing my hearing aids, I cannot hear very much at all and I lose a lot. And You know, and people sometimes make silly jokes about this that are just insensitive and rude to my face. And I think that's it's very interesting to see that kind of behavior, even from adults who should know better. And I think that Having this kid with a disability in Secret Garden being also portrayed in a very problematic manner, somewhere as a child, maybe I couldn't articulate that, but those things really bothered me. And I Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: think I thought, but also that made me think I'm going to write a book, you know, for kids one day, which will not be like that. It will have people like me and show us as good human beings, capable of being heroic and capable of being. Everything can bling flawed too, but you know, heroes are flawed. But being Tom Nixon: Right. Padma T Venkatraman: just real people and I'm delighted that I've been able to do that and I I hope that all of my books do that. And I think that book was was very important for me that way. And you know, in a similar way the Narnia books, I did love them because the magic and everything else, but there was this very you know, underlying which I didn't realize later on. I guess it was a Catholic point of view. And when I got to the tenth book, I suddenly realized that there was something and there was this pushback against again people of other religions. And so, Tom Nixon: Mm. Padma T Venkatraman: you know, not being Catholic myself, I mean again I have friends who are Catholic who wonderful people, and I don't think that it it this is not against any particular religion, but I think when one religion is portrayed as somehow better than everything else, but also there's this subtle message that everyone is not who is not part of that religion is somehow less than. Tom Nixon: Right. Padma T Venkatraman: that's difficult to take, I think, in a children's book because suddenly you realize you're being told you're less than and that's that's a cruelty. Tom Nixon: Right. Absolutely. Padma T Venkatraman: Yeah. Tom Nixon: What are you reading now? Padma T Venkatraman: I am reading a lot. I am actually right now reading a book. I should have had it by my I can see it across the room, but it it's called Ply by Hernan Diaz. It's a book for adults. not for kids. I read a lot of books for kids, but right now that is the one that is on my table. Yeah. Tom Nixon: Hm. I want to thank you so much for being on the podcast, Padma. For our listeners and watchers, please remember to like, subscribe, and share wherever you can. And again, thank you so much, Padma. Appreciate you being here. Padma T Venkatraman: Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me talk. Tom Nixon: Absolutely.