Author Spotlight: Hope Is A Thing With Wings In “Fledgling” By S.K. Ali
If you could leave anything behind for future generations to find, what would it be? For award-winning author S.K. Ali, it would be her books.
“I had this thought that what would happen if everything said about and represented of Muslims [in] the time I was living in and while I was growing up was put in a time capsule to be opened in the future. What would that look like?” she explained. “And it hit me that it would look the opposite of what my communities were actually like because not a single one of us helmed our narratives when I was growing up.”
Now in 2024, there are key Muslim voices writing for young readers — such as Ali and her young adult novels, including Saints and Misfits and Love From A to Z. “One of the very reasons that I write is to write ourselves, my communities, and not just my personal community…onto the landscape of literary and storytelling history,” the Toronto-based author added.
“If somebody were to find the literature of our times, are we there?”
And Ali is ensuring her voice (among many) is heard. Enter Fledgling, her just-slightly-in-the-the-future dystopian novel released today, October 8. In this young adult story — the first of a duology — there are people who thrive and there are people who survive. A few months before Fledgling officially arrived in bookstores, EnVi spoke with S.K. Ali about her new dystopian novel, writing slumps, and the power of hope.
The Path to Fledgling
“I always knew that I needed to write a book like Fledgling,” Ali said firmly. Ever since she was a child, she has been fascinated with “why the world is the way it is.” Fledgling grapples with some big questions that, perhaps, many people would prefer to avoid. But by teetering on the edge of earthly destruction and emphasizing divides, the novel also gives younger readers the space to think more deeply about their own world and why things are the way they are.
Fledgling, in a nutshell, is this: “It’s an apocalyptic dystopian, in that the world has been met with a series of environmental disasters, and the world is now stratified so that the people could survive and those who saw the destruction to come have already planned for their survival. And then there [are] what I call the last migrants, and they’re grappling with the remainders of what there is for themselves and humanity,” explained Ali. Furthermore, the 544-paged story features a “cast of young people who are figuring out this world while being tasked with certain goals by adults and forces in their lives.” There are record keepers and history makers; so-called leaders and disruptors; best friends and maybe lovers. Throughout the journey of Fledgling, the core cast (Raisa, Nayf, Nada, Musaid, Lein, and Khalda) “realiz[es] not everything is as it seems.”
From the very beginning, readers can draw parallels between the world of Fledgling and our 21st century world. “When I started writing, it didn’t mirror [our world] so closely,” Ali admitted. “It’s very disturbing that something that I envisioned, the dystopian future, could have galloped so much here.”
Originally, Ali wanted to be a journalist, although she has always loved stories. “I wanted to cover and uncover stories of real life,” she added. However, when she received a creative writing scholarship to the “only university that had a creative writing program in Canada,” Ali’s career trajectory shifted a bit. “I discovered I could still process the ways of the world through writing, but in a different way and [a] maybe more intriguing way for readers,” she shared with EnVi.
Thus, writing Fledgling ended up “coincid[ing] with my personal inclination to study geopolitical systems and systemic injustices,” she noted. However, if Ali didn’t write this type of book, then she believes “it would allow predominant narratives to flourish.” And these “predominant narratives,” in turn, are a “racist model” which “operates on the premise that some in the world are not ‘as advanced’ and that is why their economic situations, social conditions, are the way they are,” Ali further explained.
Although the New York Times bestselling author is well known for her contemporary romances, Fledgling is a necessary book — both for Ali and for the world of young adult literature. (But have no fear, readers: romance does appear in this duology.) “I feel like [I] would have been dropping everything that I’d pursued since childhood” if she didn’t write Fledgling, Ali emphasized. In addition, she added, “I just love writing anything and everything that I missed out on seeing BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] representation in.” It’s something that “drive[s]” Ali’s storytelling.
Stepping Into A New World
In Fledgling, the world is divided into Upper Earth, Lower Earth, the Bridge, and the Underground. The richest and the most privileged make themselves at home with the advanced technology and comfort found on Upper Earth. Meanwhile, those who live in the Underground are considered to be second-class citizens, literally hidden from sight and trapped on the dangerous surface that the Earth has become.
While the realities in the novel are based on the systemic injustices present today, Ali still had fun with some aspects of creating the world of Fledgling. Namely, “just making things up that I needed” was the fun part. She also shared an anecdote about her husband, who is a “sci-fi nerd” and into the “real, hardcore sci-fi stuff” (her words, said lovingly). “I’d hear his voice in the back of my head saying, ‘How does this work?” Ali noted. “What [are] the details for it? What is this?”
Meanwhile, “doing all the research to make sure that it was doable” was challenging for Ali, who has stepped into the dystopian genre for the first time. But there was another side to this research, too. “When I was researching these things [that she imagined], I got really scared because so many of the things that I was just like, ‘Oh, this would be interesting,’ they actually exist…,” Ali said.
For example, scalplinks — which is a piece of technology connected to the brain and used by Upper Earthers in Fledgling. In the book, if Upper Earthers have a question, they simply need to think about it for their scalplink to find the answer for them and project it inside their vision. “It was very worrisome, especially the things that I learned about optogenetics and the use of [the] mind, not only mind control, but control of someone’s physical movements from outside of their brain,” the author added.
Ali wanted to focus on controlling the mind (and beyond) in Fledgling for a reason. “Besides the reality of colonization, there is also the effect of mental colonization,“ she emphasized. “As a child of parents who have a background in South Asia, which was colonized by the British, I recognize that the diaspora — the children — we also suffer from the vestiges of being told that we are inferior,” she continued. “What does that look like in terms of the way we see the world?”
Through Fledgling and the experiences of the characters, Ali “want[ed]” to explore” this as well as the “reality of shaping people’s thinking through technology.” Readers are introduced to scalplink technology and the question of neural rights from the very beginning of the novel. Raisa, who is the daughter of a powerful leader and lives on Upper Earth, speaks casually of her scalplink through her first-person perspective. However, she is one of the few characters in the large cast to tell her story with an “I” point of view.
“I started with knowing that there would be a main character that I wanted the reader to identify with the most,” Ali shared. As Raisa gets forced into a new world within the first few chapters of Fledgling, readers also “step into the new world with her.” What we know in the 21st century (and as North Americans) is most similar to the world and the privileges she comes from.
By leading with Raisa and her first-person perspective, Ali has created a “welcome mat” of sorts. “I wanted that lens into the story, into the landscape, to be through Raisa,” she emphasized.
A Look Through Many Lenses
But why Raisa? The short answer: she has a lot to unpack. The other characters do too, of course, Ali noted. However, Raisa needed to do a lot more of that work, especially related to how she understands and interacts with the world. “I wanted to start with the person who had…the longest arc,” added Ali.
Still, developing Rasisa’s character took time. “Originally, she was very, very prickly,” her creator explained. Ali’s revisions, meanwhile, helped shape Raisa from a very cold person to a more dynamic and layered person. As a result, she “grapple[s]” with significant moments in her life, like the death of her mother, instead of just being “cold or jaded.”
The author also further developed Raisa’s weak point: her heavy reliance on her father. This revision, in particular, “echoes young people having to make their own minds up — that’s coming of age, right?” Ali mused to EnVi. “Much of what you were brought up with, you might align with, but there’s going to be that time you’re going to decide who you are as well.”
Although Raisa starts off mostly alone with only a small number of people in her corner, her story weaves among the rest of the cast later on in Fledgling. Some of those characters — namely Nayf and Nada (who are twins), Musaid, and Lein — grew up with special connections to each other. This exploration of deep-seated friendship (and often, differing opinions) comes from a personal place in Ali’s own life. “I’m someone who grew up with very intense friendships,” she said. “Meaning I had really, really best friends.”
But Ali brought up a great point in our conversation. Just like you can’t always choose your family, “you don’t always choose your friends either,” she noted. “Oftentimes, your school, your neighborhood, your are with people that then you find these connections with.” This is a reality that underscores the relationships — both close and distant — that appear in Fledgling. “I like to explore the realities of life and relationships like that,” Ali said. “That’s where I brought reality into a dystopian [novel].”
Once again though, Ali also emphasized, “I always think that every person has to look at everything and decide on their own what they believe, what they stand for, what their separate goals are.” She continued, connecting this thought back to her Fledgling characters: “I think that’s why I wanted to make sure that each character had that opportunity to set themselves apart from each other.” Because at the end of the day, “People should think for themselves.”
When asked if there were any chapters that were tough to write, Ali immediately referred to the torture scenes that appear in the novel. Since she gets queasy easily, these moments were difficult to even write down. “I can’t even watch anything gory at all in movies,” she admitted. “I’m the type that cover[s] my eyes and look[s] through a little slit.” But, for the sake of Fledgling and the story she needed to tell, Ali persevered. She had to firmly tell herself, “‘Wait, I have to actually do this.’ And so that was hard.”
On the other hand, Ali found joy in writing Nayf’s chapters, especially “where he was just like, ‘Could you stop talking?’” (and to an admired older character, no less). In addition, she enjoyed writing Raisa and Nada’s budding, yet tentative, friendship because “I like writing female friendships a lot.”
A similar joy underlines Musaid and Nada’s scenes as well but for different reasons. “They have different ways of thinking…they were thrown together and they develop feelings for each other, but they don’t see the world in the same way,” Ali mused. “Speaking with people who do not see the world the same way actually develops a lot of amazing attributes in ourselves,” she added. For Musaid and Nada, for example, both of them want a better world but they have drastically different ideas of how to create that better world. Yet, these varying opinions (which were developed “from a certain place because of your circumstances,” Ali clarified) cultivated their unique “ability to see things from different perspectives” because of the other.
Breaking Through Self-Doubt
Writing Fledgling did not come without its challenges. Self-doubt often wormed itself way into Ali’s writing experience. “The time that I was writing this book, I was in a new genre. I had so much self-doubt,” she reflected. “The self-doubt was magnified a millions times,” especially as a writer who has “always had self-doubt.”
Throughout the process, Ali questioned herself: “What are you doing here? You don’t know what you’re doing.” She had a solution, however. “The way I approached [these questions] was trying to dismiss that voice, just consulting [with] other writer friends to make sure I’m not out of my league to do this,” Ali said. The goal was simple: “Don’t give in to these voices.”
In the end, too, Ali reminded herself that writing books is her job. “I had to fulfill my contract,” she pointed out. There was the “nitty gritty part,” the “business part” of being an author “that made me not wash my hands of [writing Fledgling].” Ali took a slight step back to explain the context around this thought. Like other authors who have established themselves in the publishing industry, Ali sold Fledging on its pitch, meaning the book was not written yet. But eventually, the manuscript was due.
“My experience with it was the only that I was able to get through and finish [the] manuscript properly…was by seeing it as a job…,” she admitted. Just wanting to write the book “wasn’t enough” to get through all the hard parts of the process. Rather, “The only thing that made me finish properly was telling myself that I had to show up to my part-time job as a writer and put in the hours,” Ali firmly stated. “I had to make sure I had six hours a week done, even on top of my full-time job.”
Hope Is A Thing With Feathers
Although the dystopian genre had a big moment in the 2010s with books like The Hunger Games and Divergent hitting the shelves — and the film adaptations hitting theaters — it’s coming back. “I hope to be part of the writers who are from a colonized background…[and] adding their voices to this genre,” Ali noted. Since her parents, for example, “were part of when the British left India,” she is among the writers who have “direct links” to colonized histories and experiences.
“I think it’s time that we see our takes on this [genre] because it’s been…retold to us from people who haven’t experienced it,” the Fledgling author added. As “somebody who grew up very visible as a Muslim,” Ali emphasized that she has “first-hand experiences of what the remnants of that colonist mentality — colonizer mentality — looks like.”
“So I’m proud to put Fledgling out there, and I hope it’s in the midst of many more authors and writers…I’m proud to be part of what I call ‘the Empire writes back’ — but not the ‘Empire’ as in the conquering empire, the colonizing empire, but the people who have been ‘conquered’ or ‘colonized,’” she continued, leaving a clear message behind. “I want to be part of those storytellers taking back our stories.”
Like the Emily Dickinson poem that often appears in Fledging, hope is indeed a thing with feathers — or even the pages of a book. For Ali, hope is the “antidote” to the “overwhelm of injustice” in the world. Hope being ever-present means there is “the possibility of change.” Although the Fledgling cast witnesses and experiences staggering injustices (as many of us do today), the novel is here to remind us that this injustice, this wrong, this “hurting [of] others” is “not fixed in stone.”
“Just the fact that we are aware of [injustices] is hope itself,” Ali emphasized. “Having it come into our consciousness” as well as “just being engaged with [these injustices]” will “hopefully drive the next step and the next step,” she continued.
“I just want to ensure, especially as a [writer] for young people…that the possibility of moving forward is ever-present just by being aware of an issue,” Ali underscored once more. “You’re in the starting point of change already.”
Keep up with S.K. Ali, her books, and her upcoming Fledgling events on Instagram, TikTok, X, Pinterest, and YouTube. Find Fledgling wherever you purchase books.
Want to read more author interviews? Check out EnVi’s Fandom Love Letter interview with Chloe Gong here!
