First Writes: Larissa Pham
In this Q&A, we throw some questions about ‘firsts’ at debut authors. This month, we feature Larissa Pham, author of Discipline, the thrilling tale of a young writer touring her (get this) debut novel and who risks being drawn back into the orbit of a troubling figure from her past
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What’s the first book you remember reading as a child? My mother, a voracious reader herself despite English being her second language, raised me on British children’s literature. The first books I remember reading are The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Five Children And It, and The Chronicles Of Narnia.
What was the book you read that made you decide to be a writer? I read Tamora Pierce’s Song Of The Lioness trilogy when I was eight years old and it awakened something in me; it was the first book series I fell in love with as an independent reader and I still admire Pierce’s work to this day.
What’s your favourite first line in a book? This is cheating, but the last line of the prologue to Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited has lived in my head ever since I read it: ‘I had been there before; I knew all about it.’ What an incredible way to set up a novel!
Which debut publication had the most profound effect on you? Here’s two: I really loved Edinburgh by Alexander Chee and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Two perfect novels which I encountered at the perfect age (my early 20s).
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up on a writing day? Start the kettle for hot water for tea.
What’s the first thing you do when you’ve stopped writing for the day? If it’s a short writing morning: lunch. If it’s a full day of drafting: a walk or a yoga video.
In a parallel universe where you’re the tyrant leader of a dystopian civilisation, what’s the first book you’d burn? I don’t think we should burn any books.
What’s the first piece of advice you’d offer to an aspiring novelist? Keep writing and keep reading. I can’t overstate how important it is to read as a writer, whether it’s classics or contemporary literature. Read to discover your own taste, to refine your understanding of craft and form, and to keep your creativity alive and engaged.
Discipline is published by Serpent’s Tail on Thursday 5 February; picture: Sylvie Rosokoff.