Jane Austen’s depiction of love and courtship continues to inspire romance writers. Today, there are many adaptations of the Austen classics from Pride and Prejudice, Emma to Persuasion. Amongst this are culturally adapted versions that represent contemporary Muslim writing on the rituals of courtship and desire in romantic relationships.   

Umma Miah from MWN Hub met with critically acclaimed Canadian writer Uzma Jalaluddin who has often been called the Muslim Jane Austen. In this conversation, Uzma shares her journey into writing, the challenges in finding a literary agent and publisher; and about her novels, including the latest Detective Aunty.   

UM: How did your journey into writing fiction begin? 

UJ: I think like most writers I started my journey into writing because I’ve always loved reading. I’ve always been that kid who gravitated towards bookstores and mostly libraries. 

As I grew up, I realised that there are people who do this for a living, but they never looked like me. Most of the writers that I had read were white, prescribing very different lifestyles than I had grown up with. But I still enjoyed them and learned about human condition, history just from all my reading. And I remember, I told my parents that I wanted to be a writer. I don’t think they took me seriously – I’m South Asian, right! They were like no you’re going to do one of the acceptable fields.  

I would write short stories, poems, plays and skits – I never stopped writing. I had a diary for many, many years – nothing that would have been published, it was my musings and my thoughts. It was the practice of writing on a regular basis that made me realise that I could do this. However, life gets in the way, and you know, I’m the daughter of an immigrant family so for me I really had to make some more practical choices. I trained to be a teacher – I teach high school even now after my books have been published. It’s a job I really enjoy; it uses a different side of my skill set and abilities.   

Slowly, over the course of many years I finished my first book. If I didn’t have a supportive partner, it would have been almost impossible with children and a full-time job. I always tell him that you’re the reason why I could do it.  

Alhamdulillah I was successful. After that it was more work. Alhamdulliah, I’ve started writing my 8th book! 

UM: How did you find the process of publishing - getting an editor and a publisher to publish your story? 

UJ: That’s a really good question that is multifaceted because the truth is there’s a combination of timing, luck and talent. Those three things have to be there for it to work. I initially tried to get published way back in 2010, but my first book actually got published in 2018. I had that beginner’s enthusiasm – ‘I wrote a book, it’s beautiful, it should be out there.’  

Because I wanted to be traditionally published, I needed a literary agent – someone to represent me to the publishers, that’s usually the process. I didn’t get a single response from 10 of the literary agents I had queried.  It was soo crushing, that I thought, okay clearly my book isn’t ready yet, and I need to go back and fix it. However, I also think the market wasn’t ready for Ayesha at Last –  it’s a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. The main characters are children of immigrants, Ayesha wears a hijab, and Khalid wears a thobe, a kofi and has a big beard. Yet their muslimness isn’t the point of the book, it’s a romance; it’s about these two Muslims who fall in love in an extremely halal way. I wanted to sell this book to a mainstream publisher not self-publish or have it published by a niche Muslim publisher. I wanted this to be in bookshelves, in public libraries.  

Maybe back in 2010 the world wasn’t ready for it and what happened in the intervening years was that publishing started getting called out for being white. RIP Twitter, at the time, Twitter activists were calling them out; coming up with hashtags #publishingsowhite, #openvoices, #weneeddiversebooks – all of those movements on social media started getting traction. So, when I then tried to find a literary agent to represent me, it was still really difficult, I was still rejected a dozen times, but eventually did find a literary agent who was willing to take me on. Then was rejected many times by publishers too, but eventually found HarperCollins Canada.  

HarperCollins Canada said okay let’s try this. It helped that I’m Canadian, so they are publishing one of their own; it helps that they have a mandate to publish Canadian authors and it’s also timing.  

The process was tough - this is not a profession that would provide instant rewards. It’s that saying the overnight success have 10 years of work behind it – that was me. I was never an overnight success I’ve been grinding and hustling for my entire life for everything that I have earned. We’re Muslims, I believe everything happens by the grace of God.  

UM: Given that you’ve been an avid reader, which writer do you take most inspiration from? 

UJ:  The writers that I’ve found inspiring, and this is going to be funny because you’re from the UK, but I love Jane Austen. My first book is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice; my third book is retelling of Persuasion – I’ve always been a fan of Jane Austen. I read her when I was a teenager and I just keep on re-reading her books. I know that we’re celebrating the 250 years anniversary this year – it’s a big deal in Austen night circles. Strangely, this white woman who lived in Georgian England was quite an inspiration for me.  

My first book is about the way people go through the courtship rituals – it’s very relatable to a lot of Asians, definitely a lot of Muslims. Other than that, I like Vikram Seth’s work – A suitable Boy – really enjoyed that book – a real doorstopper. There are soo many contemporary authors as well – a friend of mine writes crime and fantasy novels Ausma Zehanat Khan – I really admire her. There are romance writers that are doing fantastic work, like Alisha Rai and Sonali Dev – American Asian writers. 

As a writer you should never stop reading – it always has to start with the words – if you don’t read, you’re not going to be a writer – it’s just not possible.  

UM: I find your novels challenge and attempt to deconstruct the stereotypes of Muslim women, moving beyond the narrow definitions to present them as women who also experience love and romance. Is this the angle of storytelling that you have always wanted to portray Muslim women from and how important has this been in your writing?  

UJ: I was in my early twenties when 9/11 happened – the world changed and even before that there were so many terrible stories about the Muslim world and Muslim women in particular – the way that we marry or are we in oppressive relationships. Of course, it bugged me because the messages coming from mainstream media or established narrative about Muslim men and women was negative.  It was completely different from the Muslim men that I knew. Of course, everyone is flawed nobody is perfect – but these toxic, dysfunctional men who beat their wives or oppress their women – I don’t know anyone like that, although I know that they exist. Certainly, I’ve met my share of toxic men, but that toxicity is not necessarily related to the identity of Muslim or non-Muslim – it’s because they are terrible people who need to get some therapy.  

For me when I set out to write Ayesha At Last – I didn’t really set out to write a romance, I just wanted to write a story that I think would be relatable to people that look like me. Like Muslim women who may have experienced something like this, or hopeful of experiencing something like this. I wanted to write a halal love story and have it be swoony, romantic and relatable. And yet have the main characters be pious and religious Muslims. But that is not the point of the story – they are just people – they are flawed, they struggle with their families, they struggle with their career ambitions, they don’t know who they are and they are allowed to because they’re human beings.  

I find what’s interesting about your question is that just writing about Muslims who are the stars of the story deconstructs every stereotype because it’s just about them falling in love for the first time and how does this feel with the added context of them being practising Muslims – that itself was so revolutionary because it was never done before.   

UM: Let’s talk about your latest novel, Detective Aunty, which deviates from what your readers are accustomed to being a romance writer. It has been described by some as a cosy murder mystery read, but I found that there are deeper themes that you explore in the novel, especially related to identity, gang culture and how the South Asian community respond to this, and also grief. What led to this change in story writing from romance to murder mystery?  

UJ: After I wrote Ayesha At Last, I wanted to write a murder mystery. At the time, my agent advised that as I was about to publish my first romance novel, I should write another romance novel so as not to confuse my readers, so I wrote three more. After the 4th book - Three Holidays And A Wedding was published, I was like I need to write a mystery. The character, Kauser Khan popped into my head back in 2017. I didn’t know much about her, but I knew that she was a Miss. Marple like detective. I knew that I wanted to explore the idea of what is an aunty and how are they portrayed in our society. Often aunties are seen as obnoxious and gossipy, relegated to invisible side lines. There are many aunties who are thoughtful and intelligent, who maybe didn’t get the chance to live the life that they wanted and the only opportunity that they have is when they’ve done their job of raising the family. Now in their late fifties or sixties they can finally live for themselves.  

Detective Aunty is a cosy mystery in the sense that there aren’t any gruesome violence. It’s actually a book about transformation and grief. Kauser has a tragic backstory, she recently lost her husband, but 17 years ago she lost her son in a tragic hit-and-run accident and that made her spiral into a deep depression. Almost two decades later she is back in the city where her son died, and she has to figure out how to relate to her daughter that she has been estranged from. She has to figure out her place in world. So, it’s really about who am I now and what do I want to do with the rest of my life. I wanted to make sure that I did justice to this aunty character, and I hope that I’ll be able to write many books about her - I’ve just finished the second one, it’ll be coming out next year. 

UM: I didn't see Kauser Khan as the typical aunty type. Since becoming a widow, she seems to have been reclaiming her own identity, coming out of the shadow of her late husband. To me Kauser came across as a woman who is on a mission to solve a murder mystery, whose quiet intelligence many may not appreciate. I also wanted to read more about the possible kindling of romance with an old friend. Compared to your other books, I found this one to be different and more serious. 

UJ: The book does deal with a lot of different things. I’ve lived in Toronto my entire life, and a lot of people from the outside have a stereotype about Canada or Toronto being a certain kind of way. Toronto is a pretty big city, and we have our share of problems as well. A lot of them are impacted by socio-economic, racial identity, lack of housing and jobs – I really kind of wanted to explore some of that. You’re absolutely right, I think Detective Aunty is my most serious book, my other books are quite funnier – for the most part it is a very serious conversation about grief and transformation.  

UM: What advice would you give to a young Muslim woman writer who is considering writing as a profession? 

UJ: There are a couple of things – keep reading, find out what is contemporary, what is popular, what conversations are writers having in their communities – you can find this online through social media.  You can find your writing community in a lot of different places. Even in-person as a lot of universities and colleges offer writing groups. Try to find a community – it’s very important.  

There is no rush - writing gets better with age, it is one of the few things that you can do better the older you are. Don’t make up an imaginary deadline – like if I'm not published by the time I'm 22 or 30, I'm a failure – there’s no such thing. You write when you have something to say. It’s a craft that you keep working on and it will come.