20 questions: how do children inspire us to write for them?

Basma ElKhatib, an award-winning children’s author, answers 20 questions for those who are passionate about reading and writing and are curious about the process, while addressing the different issues authors champion in their works.

When you were a child, what did you want to be?
At the age of ten, I wanted to be an actress. I used to think that actors wrote their own scripts. Later on, I discovered poetry through my father. I remember hearing him in his room humming obscure words that were quite rhythmic, which I later learned to be Tafail (poetry rhythm unit in Arabic), as he used to write traditional poetry following poetry meters. I tried to imitate him, but I didn’t understand the rules of Arud (Arabic prosody), so I found myself writing prose, which gave me a unique happiness. And I haven’t wanted to stop since.

What inspired you to write?
I was born during the Lebanese civil war. We had no time for leisure or social activities, so I found joy in nature, with wild plants, garden insects, scraps of fabric that my mother used to sew our clothes, and the crops my grandmother used to grow, like olives and thyme. All these things brought me closer to writing and inspired ideas, so I created a world of my own, while waiting for a tomorrow that would bring peace, where I could follow my dreams and meet the authors and artists I love – and allow me, eventually, to become one of them.

How does one become a writer?
I don’t know how exactly; it’s not a standard process for everyone. It happens much like fate. I am certain that every writer needs to possess passion first, and then talent can be developed and refined with experience. You do not become a writer just by reading, but by having an openness to everything – to arts and sciences – and by respecting our place in the universe.

What is our place in this universe, and how do we prove our belonging to it and therefore respect it?
Our place in the universe is a humble place among trees, planets, and chemical elements… We are the weakest and newest link in life. Everything we create has been discovered by nature before us. We only quote it from nature and reformulate it to prove our belonging in this creative and yet terrible universe, not to transcend it and plunder its wealth, because the result of such an action is catastrophic. We can see it in the massive fires due to global warming, and the re-emergence of extinct epidemics in various forms due to the melting of ice glaciers and the decomposition of animal corpses.

What was your first published piece of writing as a children’s author?
The first thing I published was a comic strip in the Kuwaiti magazine Al-Araby Al-Sagheer. The stories were inspired by my day-to-day life working with the children in kindergarten.

Is writing for children more complicated than writing for adults?
Yes, it is more complicated. The difficulty lies in the fact that adult writers have disconnected themselves from the child within them, and so when they write for children, they do not take into account how children think and interact with the world around them. The magic formula here is to write through the child within you and not the child to whom you are writing.

Every mother at some point is a storyteller, inventing and telling her children bedtime stories. What do you tell your children as a writer?
Telling stories is a daily tradition in my children’s lives, as it was in mine. I was part of the last generation who got used to the stories of grandmothers in the villages. Today, I tell my children those same folktales, stories from Kalila and Demna, and other masterpieces from world literature.

I also get inspiration from my children when they ask questions about the world around them – about the birds, and about the birth of stars and the sun. My attempts to answer them generate stories with multiple twists and plots. This was particularly important after I left Baraem TV and stopped interacting with children, and so looked to my own children to motivate me to continue writing.

What is your relationship with Qatar, and how does it inspire you to write?
I moved to Qatar in 2005, and when I left two years ago to be closer to my aging parents, I discovered how attached I am to the country. Though I am no longer there, I have realized that Qatar will never really leave me: the desert, the sea, the Indian jasmine trees enduring in the intense heat while their flowers bloom. I, by nature, love deserts, and find similarities within myself – like solitude and perseverance.

How did Education City inspire you to be creative?
Qatar has played a part in shaping my personality, and the structure of my texts. Working within QF, which values creativity and rewards innovators, helped me develop my skills and unlock my abilities. Without QF, Uncle Mosleh's Tales, The Light of Hope, and Jassem and the Pearl of Aspiration – along with many other stories – would never have seen the light of day.

How did HBKU Press add to your experience, contribute to the development of your skills, and strengthen your relationships in the world of authoring and publishing?
Working in the media exhausted me: it became a routine job and I lost my passion. When I started to focus on my own writing and shifted into the world of publishing, it was a major turn in my career – and in my life. Thanks to HBKU Press not only was I able to pursue my own projects, but I was able to develop my literary editing skills, hone my craft and voice, and share my talents with others.

You speak French, English, and Spanish, but you prefer to write in Arabic, why?
When it comes to creativity and ideation, the only language that I can express myself in and that inspires me is Arabic. Not because it’s my mother tongue, or because I was born to a father who specialized in Arabic, but because I fell in love with it and am fascinated by it. I feel like I would betray Arabic if I tried to write in any another language.

What is the real motive that pushes you to write at a time when our children are attached to electronics and video games? And do you believe that you are struggling to survive in a fast-paced, volatile, and materialistic world?
I work with others who also believe in the need for children's literature, and the need for high-quality and beautiful books, alongside electronic content. You find this idea in most of my works, specifically in The Forgotten Garden. Also within my writing is the idea of encouraging our children to join us in our journey towards re-discovering human meanings that we forgot as we grew up.

The Forgotten Garden issued by HBKU Press this year, which won international awards, promotes the concept of sustainability. How did you manage to convey this idea to children?
The book talks about how children help shape the features and spirit of cities. Children do so through their places of play, the corners of their encounters, and the intersections of their dreams. Every day, I see streets and neighborhoods getting more and more crowded, so while sitting in traffic on an ordinary day, I asked myself what would happen if children grew up indifferent to the environment around them. Wouldn't the gap between us and the green spaces and playgrounds widen? I began to imagine that these places had been forgotten and were waiting for us to remember them, which inspired this story.

What does nature need from us?
We must respect the ecosystem that has preceded us by millions of years – respect similar to a child's respect for their parents and grandparents. We need to appreciate this system and enjoy it. The rhythm of modern life forces us to rush around, to be busy. The least we can do is to manage our time and devote a portion of it to cultivating the relationship between ourselves and the environment.

How do children learn about the importance of preserving environment through your book?
This is one of the core ideas in The Forgotten Garden. The book does not deliver a direct lesson, but rather invites children to ponder the world around them, to wipe the dust from the shades that obscure the beautiful spaces around us, to search for a forgotten garden in their city, and to build strong relationships with nature, including trees, plants, and birds.

How can we enjoy the simple things around us that we often neglect?
Everyone is invited rediscover what has been neglected and forgotten. Children are not passive recipients that we can control, but rather an active part in the development process that society must adopt to save the planet. We can help them fulfill this role by trusting them, and by believing in their imagination, intelligence, and interaction with nature.

As an author interested in environmental issues, how do you view the Qatar National Vision 2030 which considers sustainability as one of the most important pillars?
When I realized the large space that this plan allocated for sustainable development and the relationship with nature, environmental protection, and rationalizing the consumption of natural resources, I felt safe amid the storms of turmoil and anxiety that are blowing over the fate of the earth and the future generations.

There is a lot of work ahead of us. I believe that children's literature, the publishing sector, and authors and creators play an important role in implementing this plan.

What does writing do for you: does it make you happy or does it exhaust you?
I write out of passion, without planning or organization. The many responsibilities of life affect my writing time without a doubt. I sometimes go months without writing a sentence, but when that sentence needs to come out, it defies all circumstances, and the words flow uninterrupted. It seems that inspiration and passion transcend the ordinary considerations of time.

If your daughter was inclined to write, what three tips would you give her?
I would tell her to read a lot, and to follow her spontaneity, honesty, and feelings. I would tell her not to write for readers or investors, but to write for enjoyment.

How would you describe your feelings when you write the last word in your book?
When I finish a novel or a story, I feel a sense of victory. Sometimes I raise my hand in the air as a conductor concluding a successful symphony, or as a painter striking the last stroke of his brush that impresses him before anyone else.

Bio:
Lebanese writer Basma Elkhatib has a degree in journalism and a diploma in early childhood education. She was a correspondent for the BBC Arabic radio between 2015–2017, a script writer on Baraem TV, and a journalist at the Lebanese Al Safeer newspaper. She also worked at Al-Arabi Al-Saghir magazine. Basma is the author of the My Smart Family series, Jassem and the Pearl of Aspiration, Alphabet Song, the Karim and Hanan Are Learning series, and The Forgotten Garden. Her books have been recognized at the International Book Awards, the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and at the National Indie Excellence Awards.