TISHANI DOSHI

She's won the Forward Prize for her poetry and much praise for her dance. And as her debut novel is met with acclaim, Tishani shares the journey of its making with ELLE.

ELLE: How easy or difficult was it to switch from poetry to fiction? And how did being a poet influence your prose?

Tishani Doshi: My entry into fiction was kind of haphazard – I did it in fits and starts, and never really abandoned poetry while I was doing it. I guess I wanted to have the large canvas of the novel to tell the story I couldn't tell in poems. I've described the act of writing a poem as that heady feeling of being in love for the first time. It's all you can think about. The novel is like the long-term relationship – you often wonder why you're in it, it requires a lot of dedication and effort and in return it gives you these occasional moments of incomparable joy, but still, it's hard work.