El Akkad and Edugyan are both renowned authors whose books broach timely topics that encourage the reader to look within themselves as well as examine the society in which they live. Both authors currently reside in Canada but draw on their own lives to tell stories of those whose voices are often silenced.
The restrictive governments and societies he experienced as a young person impacts Omar El Akkad’s writing. | Photo by Michael Lionstar
Edugyan is the daughter of Ghana immigrants and grew up in Calgary, Alberta before going to the University of Victoria to study creative writing. She published her first novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, at the age of 24, which was shortlisted for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.
El Akkad is a successful journalist who has covered some of the most important stories of the last decade, including the military trials of Guantanamo Bay, the Arab Spring, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, Missouri. After many years of reporting, El Akkad delved into the fiction world and published his first book, American War, in 2017.
The Influence of home
Born in Cairo, Egypt, El Akkad spent a large portion of his childhood in Qatar before moving to Canada at the age of 16. The restrictive governments and societies he experienced as a young person has since influenced his writing and desire to write about those who are making change.
“I’ve long been influenced by the collision of the story and the state, in large part because I grew up in places with very deep and rich storytelling traditions, but [are] also under the control of governments that have employed all manner of methods to silence storytellers,” says El Akkad. “That sense of storytelling as an illicit thing, a means of resistance, has heavily influenced my writing.”
American War and the future
That theme of resistance is very prevalent in his work and reflected greatly in his novel American War. The book follows a young woman named Sarat Chestnut in the dystopian landscape of the United States in 2074. Sarat is born shortly before the second American civil war and by the time she is a teenager, she and her family are put in a camp for displaced persons as the country continues to fall apart around her. Both El Akkad and Edugyan’s characters face tremendous adversity in the face of a society that couldn’t care less about their struggle, but that does not mean El Akkad is bereft of all hope for the future.
Esi Edugyan reads from her book Washington Black. | Photo by Daniel Harasymchuk
“My writing doesn’t tend to be hopeful, but I am. And I’m always inclined to believe kindness and fairness will win out. There’s a tendency to ascribe many of our current problems, particularly in the West, to a generic kind of ‘polarization.’ But I don’t think that’s accurate,” says El Akkad. “I think our problem is a resurgence of fascism as an acceptable political identity and the willingness with which a myriad of so-called principled conservatives have acquiesced to that form of extremism. And so my primary course of action is to call out that fascism for what it is and do my best to shun everyone who practices it or supports it from public life.”
These tensions are prescient, and people can expect a thoughtful dialogue between Edugyan and El Akkad at SFU as they further discuss these themes in their novels as well as their relevance to current tensions surrounding today’s society.
“Esi is such a magnificent writer and so well-versed on so many topics. I’m reluctant to predict where the conversation will go,” says El Akkad. “I hope I can do justice to her talent and the quality of the work she produces. Beyond that, I think it’s difficult to listen to a writer of her caliber speak and not come away inspired.”
For more information, please visit www.lib.sfu.ca/about/reach-us/news-events/one-book-one-sfu
