With the launch of the picture book The Runaway Dosa, Saturday, September 23, 2023 at Brick and Mortar Books, we sat down with author Suma Subramaniam.
Your picture books Namaste is a Greeting and She Sang for India, both released Fall of 2022, have garnered great editorial reviews, have been teacher and library picks, and Namaste is a Greeting won the Crystal Kite for the picture book category.
This success may be enviable to many people, but tell us what it took to get here.
I’m grateful for Namaste is a Greeting and She Sang for India to be out there with readers. The success you see is only the tip of the iceberg. I’ve been writing for a long time. It took more than a decade of patience, perseverance, and a whole village of encouraging people I met along the way to make this happen.
India/Indian culture is a constant motif in all your stories. You don’t shy away from your culture. In fact, you use it as a way to bring more awareness. Was that deliberate?
Growing up, I didn’t see myself or people like myself represented in a whole lot of children’s books. As an adult, I found the problem still existed. Therefore, I write about what shaped me into a global citizen today so I can open those closed doors for children of the next generation.
Your latest project, The Runaway Dosa, was released September 2023 – tell us about this story and how the idea came about.
The Runaway Dosa is a fairytale mishmash of The Gingerbread Man story and a popular Tamil rhyme called Dosai! Amma, Dosai.
In the summer of 2015, I was working with my faculty advisor, the one and only Jane Kurtz in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Children’s and Young Adult literature program, when we both challenged each other to write a story from the cultures we grew up in. The story would be inspired by The Gingerbread Man—a folktale about a man made of gingerbread who runs away from a cast of characters.
Jane Kurtz was an early believer of this story, and I’m thrilled that this book will be available now in honor of the relationship I share with her. She created The Runaway Injera for Ready Set Go Books which is one of the bestsellers of the Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund Program for children in Ethiopia. I created The Runaway Dosa, also inspired by an all-time favorite Tamil rhyme, “Dosai! Amma, Dosai,” for dosa lovers all
over the world.
For children who are already familiar with the repetitive pattern and tempo of The Gingerbread Man, The Runaway Dosa extends beyond Indian culture to amplify and embrace global food and a South Asian culture. The story also reconnects readers of all ages to a well-enjoyed delicacy and a world of amazing fantastical animal characters from Indian folklore.
We’ve talked about your 4 picture books. Do you write in any other genre?
I write middle-grade books and poetry as well. The first book of my debut middle-grade series, V. Malar- Pongal Super Host, releases next year. My poems have been published in Poetry Magazine as well as in a most recent anthology called What is Hope? from Pomelo Books.
You recently hosted a Webinar Series called Crafting your Career — if there is one point you could take out of that lesson and share, what would it be?
The focus of the workshop was picture book revision. The most important lesson that I could take out of the webinar is to develop a muscle for patience, persistence, and perseverance to pursue writing for children and young adults.
For the illustrators and authors who are just starting out — what words of encouragement can you share?
You are creating stories to show that love matters. Please keep at them. Work on a variety of projects because you never know which manuscript will open the doors for your other stories.
Lastly, another picture book is slated to be released in 2027, Karma is Action. Can you tell us what we can expect with that picture book?
Karma is Action is a picture book that explores the meaningful—and sometimes misunderstood or appropriated concept of karma to a young audience. It will be illustrated by the talented illustrator, Lavanya Naidu, and published by Candlewick Press in 2027.
