5 Questions with Christopher Raja
Christopher Raja is an Indian-born Australian author of short stories, essays, a play and a novel. He co-authored the play The First Garden with Natasha Raja, which was performed in botanical gardens throughout Australia and published by Currency Press in 2012. His debut novel, The Burning Elephant, was published in 2015 (Giramondo). It was written with the assistance of an Australia Council New Work grant.
Christopher has been twice shortlisted for the Northern Territory Writers Centre’s Chief Minister’s Book of the Year award. He migrated from Calcutta to Melbourne in 1986, and spends his time between Melbourne and Alice Springs.
(Photo: Adam Smith)
No.1
You’ve co-authored a play (The First Garden, 2012) and written a novel (The Burning Elephant, 2015). Why a memoir now?
Three or four years back, after reading The Burning Elephant, my friend encouraged me to write a book about my family and my teenage years in Melbourne.
I initially thought this book would be a novel but then after various discussions and drafts I came to the conclusion to present this story as a memoir. The past haunted me, so writing about my life was cathartic. Also, I am interested in writing in all its forms and genres. Besides, there are no memoirs like it.
No.2
What was it like transitioning from fiction to writing about your own life?
Writing about your own life is confusing—like alchemy, magic, a sleight of hand. How experiences transition and mutate from your head to a book, from fact to fiction and fiction to fact, is another way of prolonging life.
No.3
Into The Suburbs evokes very vivid memories from an earlier part of your life in the late 80s through to the 1990s. What was your process in terms of piecing it together?
Into The Suburbs was written in a way to create a vivid, visual, sensorial experience for the reader that presents life in Melbourne Australia as it was in the late 80s through to the 1990s that hopefully echoes with the here and now.
My writing process involved showing up at the computer and being persistent. This elaborate experience included many conversations, drafts, edits and working closely with my agent, publisher and editor.
No.4
In terms of writing memoir, there’s the persistent question of truth vs. representation which many writers have to navigate. How did you negotiate telling your story when it involves so many actual people—both living and dead—who you want to try and respect and honour?
Into The Suburbs is dedicated to my parents. I come from a humble family who believe in hard work, education and service. My father and mother are people of substance not semblance. I tried to write our personal story that would hopefully resonate with other people. As an Australian playwright, novelist and now memoirist, I am aiming for the universal using particular details and places.
No.5
Not too long ago, I came across your short story, ‘After The Wreck’, in the Australasian issue of Meanjin (Volume 63, Issue 2) that was published in 2004, and which was adapted for radio for ABC Radio National in 2007. I’m curious if you have any thoughts or observations on how the literary landscape has changed for writers of colour since then.
I co-guest edited that Australasian issue of Meanjin in 2004. That special volume included a significant list of writers who have gone on to make their mark in the Australian literary landscape. The diversity movement is nothing new. I have banged on about making space for marginalized voices in Australian literature for more than twenty years. There is still plenty of work to be done.
Buy a copy of Into The Suburbs direct from UQP or from all good independent bookstores. Don’t know which ones will deliver to you? Check out this very good bookshop map by Alan Vaarwerk.