What is the biggest source of inspiration for your writing? Who would you say are your influences?

Every one of my stories is born from a question, based on something I have observed or am curious about. But on a less esoteric level, other art influences my art. Some of my North Star writers are Jhumpa Lahiri, Karen Russell, Elena Ferrante, Kimberly King Parsons, and Yaa Gyasi; they are such distinct writers, who all write beautifully complex, wronged or wrong-doing women. As far as film and television media, I find myself constantly thinking about “Mad Men” and “Past Lives” — absolute masterpieces in writing, character development, and using setting as character too. I would be remiss if I didn’t credit my writing peers as influences (including my fellow Fellows!).

How did you find out about the fellowship? What did it feel like to get that acceptance?

I follow Blue Stoop on social and subscribe to their emails because I think these sorts of accessible writers’ communities are so important and beneficial. I was so grateful to see a fellowship specifically designated for women-identifying writers (we know how necessary but far and few between those opportunities are!) but never expected to be chosen as one of six fellows out of a thousand applicants. In this industry, there is such a long lead time between putting yourself and your work out there and knowing the outcome — for better or for worse. I applied with immense hope and serious desperation (more on that in another question!) and then had to forget about it for my own sanity. So to receive the notification about the acceptance, with a video note from Jennifer Weiner herself, felt like a stroke of good fortune from a literary angel, honestly.

How does your identity shape your work?

I am primarily a fiction writer, but everything I write starts from my truth. I think of my identities as the portals through which I enter the work, but not everything it’s about. My characters navigate circumstances that are specific to those identities — like being a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend, a South Asian person navigating a bicultural experience in a land that never belonged to them — but they are always illuminating larger questions that all of us have the capacity to relate to whether we share those identities or not (or at least that’s what I strive for!). I am very aware of the market’s realities and how different identity markers may contextualize where and how our books “belong” on shelf, but I do not let that play a role in the creation process.

What is the ideal next step in your writing journey? When/where can we expect to see you sharing your work with the world?

I am on my way to finishing the manuscript for my short story collection and would love to secure a dream agent! 🧿 Until then, you can read my work on www.reemarao.com. I’m also active on Instagram @reema.rp, where I frequently post about my writing and non-writing lives.

Do you have any dream collaborators? Publishing houses? Credits? Blurbs?

A loaded question! I relish so much of what FSG and Tin House publish. I am also so in my short story world right now that it would be very cool if one of my stories were to be anthologized. It would be a dream for any of my North Star writers to blurb my work. Separately, if Madeline Donahue ever decided to paint something based on or to complement my work, I wouldn’t say no 🙃. An image I often manifest is me on book tour and having my husband and babies in the room. That one makes me smile.

When did you know you were meant to be on your writing journey?

I’ve been a lifelong writer and still proudly carry the achievement of winning the Young Author competition in the eighth grade with a fifty-page novel 😂. While my writing has come a long way since, I do consider childhood to be the start of my writing journey with many detours along the way. Most recently, I got laid off in 2020 from a job in advertising that I thought I would be at for a significant time and which I thought was putting me on the ramp to an extraordinarily fulfilling career. The reality was, I worked ALL the time, rarely had time for my friends and family, was burnt out, and never writing “on the side” as I said I was. Although being jobless at the height of the pandemic was traumatic, it was such a necessary shock to the system and forced me to reevaluate what I considered my “legacy work” (a term a writer friend and I use to describe the spaces we put our souls, curiosity, and patience into). The answer was always writing. I’ve since found a healthier way to continue work in advertising (because we all need to make money somehow) while making literal and emotional space in my life to pursue writing. It’s never a perfect balance, and it took me a solid two years before I would call myself a writer instead of “someone who works in marketing.” But I have so much gratitude for where this journey has taken me and where it’s going. And lots more manifestations in the works!

Did you have any hesitation when applying for the fellowship? What helped you decide to pursue the opportunity?

I am never hesitant about applying to anything or vouching for myself and my work. You make your own luck! I was also feeling particularly desperate for creative support at the time. When the application opened, I was six months into being a new, working mother and creatively starved, yet so exhausted on multiple levels. Maybe others who mother would agree — by six months, I found myself falling into a new rhythm of caretaking and nurturing my son… of which no part involved caring or nurturing for my own self. Writing, which brings me so much fulfillment and healing, was simply not in my day anymore. And the whole write-before-your-family-wakes-up-or-late-at-night is simply a non-option for new mothers. On a practical level, it was a “no duh” to apply for an opportunity that would offer financial resources I could put toward childcare and to help me take time from my day job to write. On a larger, systemic level, whether a mother or not, women bear the load of care and invisible labor across all facets of life, often at the cost of their own pursuits. It meant something to me that this fellowship for women writers was founded BY a notable woman writer, who understands the true power of this kind of support and belief.

What are you working on right now?

I am working on a short story collection and in the very early stages of a fiction novel with a slight speculative angle. Both projects explore shame, willpower, and ungrateful daughters — you can't choose your preoccupations I guess!