Amitava Kumar on the Importance of Being an Amateur
In Conversation with Mitzi Rapkin on the First Draft Podcast
First Draft: A Dialogue of Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, nonfiction, essay writers, and poets, highlighting the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the literary arts. Hosted by Mitzi Rapkin, First Draft celebrates creative writing and the individuals who are dedicated to bringing their carefully chosen words to print as well as the impact writers have on the world we live in.
In this episode, Mitzi talks to Amitava Kumar about his new novel, My Beloved Life.
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From the episode:
Mitzi Rapkin: I’m wondering, and maybe this isn’t totally a fair question, but most writers that I know are never satisfied with the final product. They turn it in and it’s finished, but they know it can always be better. Do you do you feel like that about writing? And do you feel that way about drawing?
Amitava Kumar: Yes, I feel that, especially about drawing, but I also believe very strongly – and this also has been a process of discovery over the last few years – I feel very strongly that if you’re good at one thing, just to grow as a human being, you have to risk failing at something else, and the practice of an amateur art is important. I mean, one should do other things. I don’t know. I’m getting very old. My knees are feeling weak, but maybe one day I’ll learn dancing, you know, and my wife and I could join a class or learn a new language. So, yes, I’m not satisfied at all. But I think that’s especially when drawing is concerned, pleasurable. I love the imperfections. It doesn’t bother me the way it used to bother me when I was 10 or 11 years old, when my drawings weren’t very good at all.
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Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty and delicious mangoes. Kumar is the author of several books of non-fiction and four novels. His new novel is My Beloved Life. Kumar lives in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York, where he is the Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College. He serves on the board of the Corporation of Yaddo.
