Interview with Karon Alderman

Continuing my interviews with the short-listed writers form The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Book Award, I am joined today by Karon Alderman.  Karon’s manuscript ‘Story Thief’ recieved a special mention.  I, myself, was fascinated to find out more about it and about ‘Story Thief’  as it shares some very similar themes to ‘Too Much Trouble’.

Karon Alderman lives in Newcastle with her husband, four children and assorted pets. She works for the city council as a literacy tutor, teaching adults. Story Thief is her third novel for children, although it is the first one entered for a competition.

Story Thief is the story of an 11-year-old failed asylum seeker called Arlie. She tells the story of the days following the arrest and detention of her family as she tries to hide from the authorities. She is supported by her friend Louise and two boys who have their own reasons for staying in hiding.

T.A. – Story Thief is set in Newcastle, is this a part of the world that you know well?

K.A. – I have lived in Newcastle for 24 years, ever since I came to the city to go to university.

T.A. – When did you start writing Story Thief and what helped you?

K.A. – I had been writing a radio play about an asylum seeker, when I visited Seven Stories and picked up a leaflet about a story writing competition. The deadline was less than two weeks away, but luckily it was half term, so I just locked myself in my teenage daughter’s room with her laptop for a the weekend and got on and wrote it!

T.A. – How did you come to focus on the issue of immigration and deportation?

K.A. – I am a supporter of Common Ground, the East Area Asylum Seekers Support Group, a voluntary organisation that does amazing work with asylum seekers, on a shoe-string budget.  I have met a number of asylum seekers in the past few years through Common Ground and through the church I go to. Everybody has a story and some of those stories are heart-breakingly sad, yet press coverage about asylum seekers is usually about them committing crimes or receiving benefits.

I was shocked to read a newspaper article in The Observer (18.10.09) about the children of failed asylum seekers being sent to detention centres. It made me ashamed to live in a country where children could be locked up without trial, without any fixed time scale and without public outcry. My mind was focussed when I took a friend to an immigration office, to sign in, as she had to every two weeks. It should have taken fifteen minutes, but she was taken for questioning for over an hour, while I sat outside in the car with her baby and my toddler. When I tried to find out what was happening it became clear to me that if you are an asylum seeker it is a colder, less polite Britain than the one most of us live in.

Many of the asylum seekers I have met are generous people with amazingly strong faith, who have experienced terrible events. I wanted my character, Arlie, to show what an asset to a community a child like her could be. Also, there are a number of schools in this area where children have been deported. We all want to protect our children from sad, bad things but this is an issue that teachers will have to explain and that children and parents will have to deal with. I wanted to write something that would help people talk about the subject and maybe even decide to try to change things.

T.A. – Had you entered any other competitions before d.v.?  Any that you would recommend?

K.A. – I have not entered many competitions at all as I always assumed that I wouldn’t stand a chance!

T.A. – Who do you usually write for and why do you write?

K.A. – I love writing and I have always written. I have tried writing all sorts of things over the years, including poetry, short stories for adults, children’s stories and even a radio play.

T.A. – What did you enjoy reading as a child and what do you enjoy reading now?

K.A. – As a child I loved books about strong, well-meaning but not too well behaved children, like Anne of Green Gables. I loved the Melendy Quartet by an American writer, Elizabeth Enright, and also books by Noel Streatfield, like Thursday’s Child (about a run away) E. Nesbitt and Joan Aiken.

As I have four children of varying ages I still read a lot of children’s fiction, ranging from Clarice Bean and The Gruffalo to the Twilight series via all of Jacqueline Wilson’s output.

I love to read and I belong to a reading group with eclectic tastes. I have just read Alone In Berlin by Hans Fallada, which is an amazing and disturbing novel about resisting in Nazi Germany.

T.A. – Do you have any favourite authors?

K.A. – My favourite adult novel is probably The Shipping News by E Annie Proux or Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. I’m a fan of Margaret Atwood and I also love detective fiction- Ian Rankin is brilliant.

T.A. – What would you say to someone considering entering next years Diverse Voices competition?

K.A. – Get writing – you have to be in it to win it and even if you don’t win it will be a great experience!