Interviews

A Conversation with Jason Tandon

by Dan Manchester

“I think my view as a writer is primarily external. I do a lot of looking, observing, listing, describing to get started, rather than rolling an idea around in my head. The biggest criticism I got in workshops was that everyone wanted to know more about my speakers. I didn’t think they were all that important. That’s how I came to write “I Don’t Speak Donkey,” a response of sorts to those comments. I just seem to be more interested in the people I’ve encountered and places where I’ve lived (or imagined). I guess places and people are what most attract my eye. And I want to represent them and render them so that anyone from anywhere can briefly imagine or commune with other lives and spaces.”

by Dan Manchester

“I keep saying this over and over again—Syracuse was the best thing that ever happened to my writing. It was the wisest thing I ever did in terms of my writing. Because the Syracuse program is a very small program, you get to know everybody. Everybody’s interested in your work. Of course, I was different, in that my aesthetics were different. My work attracted a lot of attention, both positive and negative. Which helped me, ultimately. People were interested in my being in their workshop because I brought a whole new aesthetics to the process. My critical values were really different. I thought that a work had to…For an African writer, the whole idea of art for art’s sake is just self-indulgence. We think a work has to engage society, be socially conscious. So I would always ask awkward questions in workshops. Like, “Yeah, this is beautiful and all, but the fact that you went to a bar yesterday—how does that change society?”

by Dan Manchester

“For me there are quite a few themes or situations or character types or personality types that just pop out that I’m not really even noticing until someone says, “That character is really similar to that character” or “You’re really preoccupied with this type of situation.” Or people say to me, “A lot of your work is about loss.” I wasn’t aware of that! I don’t feel like my life is permeated with loss and I certainly don’t sit down and think, Loss! I can do something for the world along the lines of loss! I don’t think that at all. Which again is a little embarrassing to admit. There’s so much that’s not controlled. And if I tried to control it, I don’t think that would have a good effect on the work.”