Ask the Author: Smita Das Jain
Ask the Author: Smita Das Jain
In addition to her host of publications, Smita’s work can also be found in our upcoming 2024 anthology, On Rules.
Ashley Holloway (AH): Hi, Smita! Thanks for taking some time with Unleash. We were thrilled to share your narrative with our writers. Can you tell us a little about your journey as a writer?
SDJ: I was twelve when I wrote my first story. It was published in my school magazine, and I became an overnight sensation for three days. I followed it up with more writing. Then I entered college life, and since then, balance sheets and corporate strategies took centre stage; creativity is the last thing someone associates with an MBA professional! I did write many thought leaderships, whitepapers, and business articles during my career in the corporate world; however, creative writing took a back seat.
Then, in 2018, pursuing my desire to learn something new, I enrolled in Stanford Continuing Studies for their Creative Writing and Novel Writing courses. Subsequently, I started to draft fictional pieces regularly and circulate these writeups among my close friends to get their views. The feedback I received for ‘The Lost Identity’ made me go for full-fledged publication, and later, in September 2021, ‘A Slice of Life: Every Person Has A Story’ was published. I followed it up with the novel ‘A Price to Love’ in 2022 and another short story collection ‘Twisted Tales and Turns: A Journey Through the Unexpected’ in 2023. In between, I also received awards and accolades for my flash fiction and short stories, published in anthologies and platforms across the globe.
AH: What is the best piece of advice you've received as a creative person?
SDJ: Write and read every day; the words will come automatically. That advice changed my perception of writing – I realised it’s a skill that can be improved with practice. I have been writing every day since April 2021, and this has changed my creative trajectory.
AH: Please share with us one (or a few) of your favorite lines, either from your own work or someone else's work, and explain what strikes you about the passage.
SDJ: I will take a passage from one of the short stories Top of the World from the short story collection Twisted Tales and Turns:
The gait had slowed. The fair skin had turned brown, and the face was worn and weathered. There was a hint of a bald patch where the forehead ended and hair began. Yet, the sturdy shoulders easily shouldered the burden of two bags.
The few lines encapsulate the long passage of time in simple words, saying a lot through their brevity. You can pack a punch with few words without resorting to flowering language – these lines underscore the fact.
AH: How did you find your first publication? Was it everything you dreamed it’d be?
SDJ: I understood the publishing landscape before deciding to do it on my own with my first publication. A Slice of Life: Every Person Has a Story is a set of 18 contemporary stories that touch human hearts, and I am proud of it.
Readers have been all praises for the book, and one reader took my permission to make the book the subject of her college thesis in literature. So, yes, it was everything I’d dreamed it to be and more.
AH: What are you working on next, and where can our readers connect with you?
SDJ: My next is a novel on complicated human relationships set against a medical background. It is expected to come out in 2024. Readers can know more about my existing and upcoming works through my website and reach out to me on Instagram at @smitadjain and Facebook @smita.dasjain. They can also mail me at smita@smitaswritepen.com.
Smita Das Jain is a writer by passion and writes every day. Samples of her writing are visible in her home office, her sunny terrace garden, her husband’s car, and the kitchen napkins. An author of two short story collections and a novel, Smita’s short stories have found prominence in Auroras and Blossoms, Twist and Twain, WriteFluence and several other anthologies across the globe. She was the only Asian to be named in the Top 20 flash fiction winners list in the Spring 2022 contest of the prestigious Women On Writing (WOW!) magazine for women writers. A two-time TEDx speaker, Smita lives with her rockstar husband and adorable fourteen-year-old daughter in Gurugram, India.