Big 4 With Bec: Ambelin Kwaymullina

Ambelin Kwaymullina loves reading sci-fi/fantasy books, and has wanted to write a novel since she was six years old. She comes from the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. When not writing or reading she teaches law, illustrates picture books, and hangs out with her dogs. She has previously written a number of children’s books, both alone and with other members of her family. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf is her first novel.

1.    Your first novel, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (The Tribe #1) was released this year. Prior to that, you wrote and illustrated a number of acclaimed children’s books. What prompted your shift to YA fiction, and the novel format, and which do you most enjoy writing?

I suppose I don’t really think of moving to YA fiction as being a shift, because I have wanted to write a novel since I was six years old, it just took a while to get there! I’m not sure I could even say I enjoyed much of the writing process for the novel, because it involved a lot of long, long nights and thousands of cups of coffee – I did actually wonder if I should thank my coffee machine in the acknowledgements section of the book. But I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. In many ways writing a novel is a lonely process, but in others I was never alone. I was with Ashala – sharing her experiences as she fought to escape the detention centre and protect her Tribe from the government. It was often a shock to look up from the computer screen and see the furniture of my lounge room instead of the crisp white walls of the detention centre, or the tuart trees of the Firstwood.

2.   Ambelin, you get to showcase two creative talents, as a writer and illustrator. Which interest came first and what are your earliest memories of engaging in creative activity?

My earliest memories are of writing. Art came later, in my teens. I wrote stories from a very young age, and they tended to fall into one of two categories – either fantasy stories, or stories based on the antics of my brothers. My little brothers were pretty much always up to something, so there was never a shortage of things to write about.  The behavior of one character in The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf in particular is influenced by the kinds of tricks my brothers liked to play when they were young. I think anyone who’s ever had a totally irrepressible younger sibling will probably identify with the character of Jaz.

3.   What were some of your favourite stories growing up, and how do you think they have influenced your writing?

I loved any story where people travelled to, or lived in, another world – so picture books like Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, fantasy stories by Tamora Pierce and, later, the post-apocalyptic Obernewtyn series by Isobelle Carmody.

I always knew I wanted to write about other worlds too, about the possibilities of different realities, different futures. What has always really inspired me about speculative fiction is the way that it explores problems we have in this world and brings us face to face with the great failings and the great promise of humanity, even though it’s set in times and places so far removed from ours (or perhaps not so far removed!).  Ashala is a sixteen year old girl who has to deal with the systemic discrimination of a society that views people with abilities as a threat. Although there’s nowhere in the ‘real’ world where people get locked away for having abilities (at least not as far as I know), Ashala is far from the only teenager ever to experience injustice or discrimination. Ashala fights against her oppressors and eventually triumphs over them, and I like to think that we could all eventually triumph over injustice too, in whatever form or time or place it exists.

4.    Which of your fictional characters Burns Brightest in your mind and why?

I love them all – but it is Ashala who I feel the closest to. The story is told from her perspective, and she’s the one whose voice guided the story, and whose thoughts and feelings I experienced the most as I was piecing the narrative together. It’s hard not to feel close to someone when you’ve stood by their side at some of the worst and the best moments of their life, when you’ve felt their pain and their joy. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf is very much Ashala’s story. I just got to tell it, as best as I possibly could.