Moderated by Robert Worth, fiction writers Mohsin Hamid, Nadifa Mohammad, and Kaya Genc came together in a talk titled “Writing of Nationhood in an Age of Rage.”
The heavyweight fiction writing panel discussed at length how their fiction was affected by the ever-increasing globalisation of communities across the world, and the many different immigrant experiences that they went through and the adverse impact it has had on their writing.
With a panel consisting of a Somali immigrant to the UK, a Pakistani-American who has returned to Pakistan and a resident of Istanbul, a hospitable home to millions of Syrian refugees, the discussion proved to be an Afro-Asiatic take on immigration that is rarely seen.
Much removed from the popular American or European rhetoric surrounding immigration and its concerns, the panel focused on the issues of the immigrants themselves.
However, Mohsin Hamid did end on a hopeful note, labeling Pakistan’s continued existence a major achievement in immigration given the obstacles of identity crises that the country has had to face.
“Just that we aren’t actually openly at war and cutting each other down is enough of a milestone and something many others have not been able to manage,” he said.
