An Interview with Best-selling Author Ishmael Beah
Posted on 18. Jul, 2009 by admin in Aspen, Blog, Interviews, Showcase
It’s not the type of thing you expect to hear from an accomplished author. On the second day of the Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival, Ishmael Beah, the one-time child solider in the Sierra Leone civil war and author of A Long Way Gone, glanced around the room after being asked about his forthcoming novel. His eyes landed on his co-presenter, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and admitted, “I feel it is unhealthy for me to write another memoir.”
Despite a hushed murmur, most of the crowd nodded in mutual approval. Beah continued. “It’s exhausting to write and talk about myself all the time.” The Doerr-Hosier Center was filled with a consortium of accomplished authors, curious wordsmiths, book buyers, and retired benefactors who appeared to be hanging onto his every word. As a public speaker, Beah’s 1000-watt smile, electric charm, and enduring message can regal almost any crowd, be it college students or hard-line international diplomats. However, he’s not in Aspen for the summer to necessarily focus on humanitarian issues around the globe or to entertain; he’s here to write.
As the first ever writer-in-residence for the Aspen Writer’s Foundation, Beah is spending the summer in Aspen to get serious about writing a novel.
