BCC SHINES A LIGHT ON: MADEEHAH
Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
Selcouth Station (2021), now defunct.
Tell us more about your piece! What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?
I wrote this piece during my Creative Writing Masters a few years ago. I was reeling/healing from a lot of difficult things before this piece came into being and those ‘things’ made it extremely difficult to write. My creative work was stilted and had none of the life and flair as it previously did. I wrote about this in a longer essay called ‘A Tender Kind of Alchemy’ published by oranges journal, which was nominated for Best of the Net 2023.
During the healing process (which included just writing for the sake of it, to hell with getting published) I wrote Jelly Boy as a way to write a character completely different to me. The setting of the lab and the science-y bits is a call back to the final year of my Pharmacy degree, so it was nice to write about that in a fictional way.
My tutor gave wonderful feedback about Jelly Boy; she could tell something had clicked in place in my work, and I could feel it too.
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece changed from then to now?
When I was trying to find a new home for this story it kept getting rejected several times, so I feel very protective over it! It’s a story that signifies a turning point for me, which won’t be evident in the actual writing, but still holds meaning to me.
Is there a specific message you would like readers to take away from reading this piece?
To know that this piece, while fun to write, was written in a difficult time. Better and easier times will come, even if it doesn’t seem that way now.
What else would you like to tell readers about your writing? (Doesn’t have to refer only to your BCC piece)
I’m working on a short story collection about South Asian girls that get involved in sci-fi and fantasy shenanigans. I’m also hoping to submit my sci-fi novella this year, an early draft of which was shortlisted for the Future Worlds Prize in 2021. Writing is a slow-moving calling but nonetheless we keep returning to it. Watch this space!
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)
You can find me wasting copious amounts of time on Twitter @madeehahwrites and read more of my work on my website https://madeehah.carrd.co/
