Jeet Thayil on The Elsewhereans: Novel Ideas Sometimes Shape Poems

A famous writer named Jeet Thayil talked with a journalist about his work and his life.

He has written a new book called The Elsewhereans that mixes real family history with imagination.

While he was writing it, his parents passed away, and he began to see them as brave small-town people trying their best for their children.

He says many people today feel a bit lost, like they are living 'elsewhere,' and that this feeling can help poets write honestly.

Thayil has lived in many cities and countries, but he says imagination is like its own country.

He waits for poems to come to him, but he still shows up to work every day and listens to the silence.

He believes poets are always connected to what is happening in the world, even when they say they are not.

He thinks real life has become so strange that it is very hard for fiction to keep up.

He also shared that ideas from his novels sometimes sneak into the poems he is writing.

These days, he says, he is more disciplined about writing than he used to be.