Jasmin Attia is a 2021 graduate of the MFA program at Bennington College, and 2022 winner of the Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature. She has attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and served as a mentor for the Cream Literary Alliance in West Palm Beach. Her writing appears in AWP's The Writer's Chronicle, Lit Hub, Electric Lit, the Jewish Book Council’s’ Paper Brigade, and The Millions. She also holds a bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Florida and an MBA from the University of Rochester. Jasmin lives with her family in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and came to writing as a second career. The Oud Player of Cairo is her debut novel. @jasmin_attia/

Where were you born and raised? How did it influence your writing and your thinking about the world? I was born in Detroit, Michigan, but my earliest memories take place at the age of three or four in our small, green-carpeted apartment in Boston. My father was a medical resident there. I vaguely understood the duality of our lives then, the two places that were both called home, Egypt and America. At the time, my parents spoke to me mostly in Arabic, and it was in this mother tongue, which I consider a gift, that they told me stories of those left behind, aunts and uncles, grandparents, neighbors. I think these early experiences really influenced my art because I was able to develop my characters with a bird’s eye view of the world. It also helped me understand and see myself as a whole that contains many linguistic and cultural parts. This appears in my writing thematically and stylistically.

My father, a big influence in my life, is the quintessential immigrant who believed in the American dream and the promise of America. He lived it, breathed it, and because he was secular, he gave us (my sister and I) broad physical and intellectual freedoms that were atypical for immigrants from the Middle East, particularly Egypt. My mother was a little more religious than he was and so there was always this kind of “Scopes Trial” tension in our house, but this spiritual vs. scientific debate enabled me to understand at a young age that nothing was absolute, that what is true to one is not true to another. And yet, although, we were not raised with much religion I had a beautiful nonrestrictive Egyptian cultural infusion in my life. We listened to music and watched imported films. My mother cooked and taught me how to cook Egyptian cuisine, and so in a way art and culture was our binding religion. This also played a pivotal role in my writing.

What role did books play in your early life—and which ones made the biggest impression? I remember vividly the thrill I felt when my mother would buy me a new Little Golden Book. It was my first relationship with words, story, and imagination. But it was Roald Dahl who captured my imagination with James and the Giant Peach. I still recall trying to conjure up the characters who lived inside the fleshy fruit. It was a marvelous journey. I read almost everything that Judy Blume wrote. Then I had my Jules Verne era which was mostly influenced by my father who told me his own conjured adventures of Jean Passepartout when I was a child.

Describe your typical writing day. When I decide to write a story, I will spend a lot of time researching before I plot because I need to understand the possibilities. I research through reading, watching film, interviews, old news reals, radio from the era, music, literature, whatever I can get my hands on.

The next step is plotting, and I buy partitioned notebooks like the ones our English teachers used to make us buy, and then I write out my detailed plot broken into sections. This is what I will use when I start writing. Next come the sticky notes on which I write out the questions to myself or other options for where the story can go. I have a column where I list all the world events that were taking place when my characters are in certain stages of their lives.

Once the plotting is complete (and it is actually never done), I start writing. I write for about 4 to 5 hours a day. I never edit after the writing session. I edit at night. This gives me space and time away from the work.

I read out loud when I edit. It helps me hear the flow of my words. If it doesn’t sound good to me, it’s going to get deleted. I’m hard on myself with my work, and I will mercilessly delete a day’s work if I don’t like it.

Tell us about the creative process behind The Oud Player of Cairo.
I research, plot, then write, but there is an added layer to the creative process, and that is how I rev up the emotional engine. I listen to music or watch drama from the era I’m writing about. It helps me get into the right frame of mind. If there is a dance I’m writing about, I learn the dance and dance it. I need to get inside my character.

In The Oud Player of Cairo there are many scenes where my main character, Laila, is singing. She, like nearly all Egyptians, admired Om Kalthoum. So, I listened to and watched a lot of Om Kalthoum to get into Laila’s mental and emotional space.

I’m working on a new novel now and there is a scene in which my character, an Egyptian Nubian, is dancing a traditional dance to a drum called the Bendir. It wasn’t until I danced that I was able to write the scene. I believe that good writing is framed by technique, but it is fleshed with emotion, and if the writer doesn’t go there, the reader will never be able to follow. Writing takes good leadership.

Do you keep a journal or notebook? If so, what’s in it? I don’t keep a daily journal, but I do have a plotting notebook for each project.

How important is background research in your writing?
In the beginning I start stocking up on books, mostly non-fiction about the timeframe in which I’m setting my novel. I typically look for non-fiction published by university presses. For The Oud Player of Cairo most of my research came from work published by the AUC press, and I’m very greatly for their work because it has been instrumental in my gaining a deeper understanding of very specific aspect of Egyptian society. I have my own 8-point checklist for world building, and I will try to find books on each topic. I look at social structure, religion, politics, economics, film & music, literature, and language in terms of social strata. Once I’ve done this “heavy lifting” I start to consume the film, drama, music of the era. I also try to listen to (if available) radio news from the time.

Which writer, contemporary or historic, would you most like to have dinner with? That would have to be the Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. I read his Cairo Trilogy when I was sixteen years old, and his work has had a great influence on my writing. I read that he never left Egypt. Even when he won the Nobel Prize, he sent his daughters to Stockholm on his behalf. What pains me is that he was a good friend of my grandfather’s, actually he was my grandfather's patient. From my understanding they had a great relationship. Unfortunately, both he and my grandfather passed before I had the maturity to understand the connection. I would give anything to have dinner with him.

Do you draw inspiration from music, art, or other disciplines? Yes, of course. As I mentioned above, one of my greatest inspirations as I wrote The Oud Player of Cairo was Om Kalthoum for her voice and style. Also, her lyrics were written by prominent poets of the day. I might often read a poem that I like, or listen to it being recited. One of my favorites if Nizar Qabbani. I quote him a lot in The Oud Player of Cairo. Also, while writing this novel, I drew from several collections of Arabic poetry. I also read a lot of literature from my genre while I’m writing. I read Naguib Mahfouz and Ihsan Abdel Kuddous. It helps me stay in the zone.

AI and technology are changing the ways we write and receive stories. What are your reflections on AI, technology and the future of storytelling? And why is it important that humans remain at the center of the creative process? I often ask myself the same question. I do believe that AI will have a place in assisting artists enhance their art. This could be in something as simple as summarizing research quickly, but I don’t believe at AI will be able to create the kind of literature or other types of art that are driven by authentic emotions and life experiences. It will mimic, but it will not, in my opinion, be able to invent the depth of the human experience in all its nuanced layers and complexity. I look at AI like a giclee at best, a well rendered copy, but in the end, it will be a copy. The more ubiquitous AI art becomes the more valuable rare human art will become.

Which writers shaped your early thinking—and who shapes it now?My favorite writer of all time is Naguib Mahfouz. My favorite work of his is the Cairo Trilogy, and as mentioned above he is a very big influence in my writing. Jane Eyre is also another big book that lives inside me. I love Jane as a character. Her fortitude and resolution always find their way into my female characters. Another huge favorite of mine is Jhumpa Lahiri. Her novel The Namesake is one of my favorites. I’ve also enjoyed The Lowlands. Min Jin Lee is another big one. I read Pachinko just before starting my novel The Oud Player of Cairo.

Other works I’ve enjoyed recently though they are not all recent are Hala Alyan’s The Arsonist’s City, Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, Verghese’s The Covenant of Water, and Alaa Al Aswany’s Yacobian Building.

Exploring literature, the arts, and the creative process connects me to… the experience of living, breathing, and perceiving in wondrous dimensions that go beyond those we fully understand.

Interviewed by Mia Funk - Artist, Writer, Founder of The Creative Process and One Planet Podcast. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.