Interview: The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena
The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena just released this week and I am thrilled to be a part of the blog tour! Check out what author Tanaz Bhathena has to say in our mini-interview below!
Interview
All my thanks to Tanaz Bhathena for taking the time to answer some of my questions.
1. What would you want your readers to know before they start reading The Beauty of the Moment?
If they’ve already read A Girl Like That: This one’s happier.
If they haven’t read A Girl Like That: This one’s happier.
2. Representation matters to readers of YA, but publishing is just catching up, so was it hard for you to sell your romance with Parsi & Malayali characters?
It wasn’t as difficult as it was to sell my first book, which took me 10 years! I’m lucky to have found fantastic publishers in FSG and Penguin Teen Canada; they were excited about this book from the very beginning—and especially because of the representation in it.
3. With the shift in rhetoric these days, what advice do you have for women of color novelists?
Don’t believe anyone who says “Your story has been told before” or that “Your story doesn’t matter.”
4. In your debut novel, A Girl Like That, you delve into some really big hitting issues like, feminism and double standards, especially within religious cultures, what big themes can we expect from The Beauty of the Moment?
While not as issue-heavy as A Girl Like That, The Beauty of the Moment focuses on chasing your dreams and also on themes of love, happiness, loss and fear—especially the fear of failure.
5. What other books would you recommend for the YA audience looking for stories like yours?
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon and 2 States by Chetan Bhagat.
About Tanaz Bhathena
Tanaz Bhathena was born in India and raised in Saudi Arabia and Canada. Her critically acclaimed novel A Girl Like That was nominated for the 2019 OLA White Pine Award and named a Best Book of 2018 by The Globe and Mail, CBC, Quill & Quire, Seventeen, PopSugar, and The Times of India among others. Her second novel The Beauty of the Moment releases on Feb 26 2019. Her short stories have appeared in various journals including Blackbird, Witness and Room.
A wanderer at heart, Tanaz can often be found travelling to different countries, learning bits and pieces of a foreign language, and taking way too many photographs. She loves slapstick comedies and any kind of music that makes her dance. She lives in the Toronto area with her family.
Giveaway
Win a finished copy of THE BEAUTY OF THE MOMENT by Tanaz Bhathena
Open US only until March 5th, 2019
