NL: Can you share a bio with us?
BR: Bushra Rehman is a writer, teacher and cultural activist who loves all libraries. Her novel Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, about a queer Muslim girl from Queens was noted as a Best Book and Editor’s Choice by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Ms. Magazine among others. Rehman is co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism and author of the poetry collection Marianna’s Beauty Salon and the novel Corona, which was chosen by the NY Public Library as one of its favorite books about NYC. She created and facilitates the community-based workshop Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Memoir and Autobiographical Fiction.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
BR: I love everything I’m reading. These days it’s We are Not Here to be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love and Resistance by Linda Sarsour; Home is not a Country by Safia Elhillo; One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad, On the Books: A Graphic Tale of Working at NYC’s Strand Bookstore by Greg Farrell. Yes, I read many books at the same time!
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
BR: Linda Sarsour, Hala Alyan, Safia Elhillo, Edgar Gomez, and Torrey Peters (just to name a few!). They are all powerful writers with a strong message of liberation and justice.
NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
BR: The character who stands a bit back, who observes and gives humorous commentary, the one who still believes in the best of people.
NL: Do you have any book recommendations?
BR: Stag Party by Torrey Peters, Huda F Wants to Know? By Huda Fahmy, Shubeik Lubeik by Dina Muhammad, Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez Colored Television by Danzy Senna, Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje, SOS: Poems 1961 Amiri Baraka, and Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa.
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
BR: Agatha Christie novels featuring Hercule Poirot. Guilty!
NL: Are you a re-reader?
BR: Yes. The first time I read, I so want to know what happens next, I read too fast and miss a lot. With a second reading, I can enjoy the language and all the ways the writer is creating the world of the story.
NL: How do you get out of a reading rut?
BR: I hide my phone!
NL: Thoughts on prologues? Epilogues?
BR: Prologues and epilogues help me feel as if I’m being welcomed into the story and also seen to the door by the end. But I also love being dropped into a story cold and left with an open ending that will haunt me for a while.
NL: Are you a one-book-at-a-time reader? Or do you like reading multiple books at the same time?
BR: I’m usually reading dozens of books at the same time. I read for research (the new book is about working at the Strand Bookstore during the AIDS epidemic, Satanic Verses Controversy and Gulf Invasion) for teaching (a class on Memoir and Autobiographical Fiction) and for my own pleasure (Hercule Poirot!). Luckily, there’s overlap in all three categories, but it means there’s always an overflowing pile of books in every room of the house.
NL: Do you DNF (do not finish) books or always read until the end?
BR: I wish I could say I finished every book I started, but by the third library renewal (I get all my books from the library), I usually know it’s not going to happen! When I’m lucky enough to finish a book, I’m thrilled.