Q&A with author Omar El Akkad
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Omar El Akkad was born in Cairo in 1982 and grew up in the Middle East before moving to Canada. For 10 years he wrote for the Canadian Globe and Mail, reporting on the Nato-led war in Afghanistan, the military trials at Guantánamo Bay, the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt and the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, Missouri. He won the National Newspaper Award for investigative reporting and the Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize for Young Journalists. American War
is his first novel. El Akkad lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and their young daughter.
What is the last thing you read that made you laugh out loud?
The Art of the Deal.
What books are currently on your bedside table?
Work Like Any Other
, by Virginia Reeves; The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq; and A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A Villareal.
When did you know you were going to be a writer?
Third grade. I got a short story published in the school newsletter and that was it.
Do you have a writing routine?
Sort of. I try to write in the late morning into the early evening, and edit between midnight and sun-up, but life always gets in the way.
Where do you write best?
A small guesthouse at the edge of our property outside Portland, Oregon. I work by a large window that overlooks the forest.
What are you scared of?
The consequences of my ignorance, and the kind of world my baby daughter will inherit.
What keeps you awake at night?
My work. I do almost all my thinking about anything I’m writing while I’m awake in bed.
When do you feel most free?
When I’m bouldering, which is a form of rock climbing that requires no ropes or safety gear. It’s just you alone on the rock face, trespassing against gravity.
How do you relax?
I read good books. I watch terrible movies.
What is your current favourite word?
Dahlia.
Do you keep a diary?
No. I’ve tried several times, but I can’t help thinking of the boredom I’m inflicting on some future version of myself.
What book do you wish you’d written?
A Death in the Family, by James Agee.
What are you most proud of writing?
The dedication page of my debut novel.
Where is your favourite place in the world?
Big Sur, California.
What book would you give your own child to introduce them to literature?
Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch. It’s the only story I’ve ever read that I can honestly describe as timeless.
Omar El Akkad’s debut novel ‘American War’ is published by Picador
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