“Making up stories is an inherently political act”: Mohsin Hamid in conversation

ABSTRACT

In this interview, conducted on Zoom on August 16, 2021 and continued via email, British Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid discusses his role as a writer, focusing on his 2017 novel Exit West which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize that year. Hamid reflects on a variety of issues, including the right to migration; “mongrelisation”; the politics of awards; censorship; identity politics; cancel culture (with reference to Afghanistan); his experiences of crossing borders between Pakistan, Britain, and the US; and his meticulous exploration of politically challenging themes. Hamid’s observations place writing at the locus of a complex web of social, cultural, and economic relationships. He also speaks about refugees, nation states, his connection with Kashmir, and other matters related to his writing, including the suspicion with which Muslims are viewed in many parts of the world and the use of a futurist time frame in Exit West.

KEYWORDS:

• Mohsin Hamid
• Exit West
• mongrelization
• refugee crisis
• censorship
• literary awards

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Muddasir Ramzan

Muddasir Ramzan is an emerging writer and researcher, who completed his PhD from the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, India. His doctoral thesis titled “Narrating and Redefining Muslim Realities: A Study of Select Contemporary Muslim Fiction” focused on British Muslims and recent developments in postcolonialism and Islam. His research interests include 20th and 21st century fiction post-9/11 literature, South Asian literature, Muslim writing, Kashmir studies, and contemporary migration, as well as Islam, postcolonialism, and postmodernism. His research and creative work have appeared in Scrutiny2, Women’s Studies, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Himal Southasian, Outlook India, The Hindu, Kindle Magazine, and the Critical Muslim (UK), and other publications.