Rafter Snap: Ferwa Jaffery
Introducing one of your fellow Rafters!
Today, while taking a break from my Staying Power column, I’m shining the spotlight on Ferwa Jaffery, one of our delightful Rafters. She happens to be the host of our new fiction-writing group. Care to join that group? Learn more here.
(BTW, if you might like to be the focus of a future Rafter Snap, click here! Don’t be shy!)
Ferwa Jaffery is from London, England. A writer of novels and plays, she's "particularly drawn to the borderlands where art and creativity meet spirituality."
Are you a maker or an arts enthusiast or both?
I would say I am both these days. I've had to own the fact that I'm a maker. I would have been much happier before exclusively saying, “I'm just an arts enthusiast.” It's only in the last few years that I actually started writing.
I am fortunate to live in a very creative neighborhood (Walthamstow, in east London). It is well known for many things, including being the birthplace of William Morris, a Victorian designer, poet, and social activist. He was also very influenced by crafts from India and Persia. Many artists and craftspeople live here, and there are many examples of art just in people’s front gardens or on the streets. It’s great to live in an inspiring environment!
What kind of writing do you do?
A mixture, to be honest. I've written a couple of novels, then in 2021 I came across a seemingly random email about a course running at the National Theatre in London for playwrights. I never really considered myself as someone who could write for theatre or would even explore that. I saw the email with a couple of days until the deadline for applications. I had no time to overthink anything or talk myself out of it. I thought, “I'll put the application in and see what happens.”
Then I got an email saying I had a place. It was a complete shock. It really taught me something about letting go, having no expectations, and going intuitively with what presents itself.
So, I had the huge privilege of being part of a course with a playwright named Chris Bush. The most magical part was at the very end: We had to write a scene on the theme of “loose connections” and had this performed by a couple of professional actors, in front of the group. That was the very first time I had heard my words spoken aloud by actors—by anybody—and with an audience of supportive peers and other playwrights. It was a very powerful experience—exciting and incredibly nerve-wracking. When it was over, it was just a huge buzz!
Since then, I've expanded that scene into a full-length play.
When did you first know that the arts are important to you?
As a child, I was an avid reader. I spent so much time in my local library! Novels were an escape into a different world.
Who was one of the first creative people that inspired you?
Oh, gosh. This question is really difficult because I feel like I take on so many influences! The poetry of Rumi has always been like a touchstone in my life, something that I return to again and again. I’m also inspired by a lot of magical realist writers. There was also a teacher I had as a child who really encouraged my creative writing at a time when things were otherwise quite challenging for me. It’s interesting—a character has emerged in one of my novels that I now recognize is loosely based on that teacher. When I was actually writing it, this wasn’t conscious or clear to me.
Why are the arts important to you?
Part of it is they’re a portal into another world. You feel like you're walking through a threshold into the life of somebody you may never have come across otherwise; somebody that you can see parallels with and identify with, in some way. It’s that process of empathizing with what we have in common as human beings. That's what I think “story” means to me.
I find the arts in general a mixture of enriching and healing and sometimes necessarily distracting. Particularly during lockdown, I realized they are really foundational to me. When they were suddenly not accessible anymore, or in the same way, it really made me appreciate them more deeply.
What does a typical day in your life look like?
The things that I do every single day without fail are being out in nature and journaling.
I like to start the day with journaling. I journal every single day. I can't not do that, as it’s a way of connecting to my intuitive self and really a form of meditative practice for me.
I live on the edge of Epping Forest. Sometimes I'll take myself there for a wander. I am also grateful to live near the largest urban wetlands in Europe, where I regularly go for walks.
I used to have a very busy career in education. Part of my creative commitment coincided with walking away from my career after 20 years and deciding I wanted to do something completely different. I wanted to honor the creative side of me. I almost felt I had no choice. So, my life now looks very, very different to how it did five years ago.
What's been your greatest creative challenge?
Sharing my work. It's something I've had to really grow into and do very gradually. I've been honoring that process and all the challenges within it. At every stage, it doesn't feel less scary, but I guess I'm more prepared for whatever comes next. I see the evolution of a fiction writers group on The Raft, hopefully, as a new and exciting phase of my own process. To date, I haven’t shared my fiction with others in any group setting, read it aloud anywhere, or even heard myself read my work aloud. I am curious as to how it will feel to inhabit my voice in this way, even though it also feels challenging.
What's been the most important creative skill that you've developed?
Courage around really trusting the process. I don't always know what I'm writing when I start. I'm not one of these people who has a plan or storyboard or pre-set structure. I let it evolve very organically.
That felt quite odd to me to begin with. The life that I lived before was all about planning and targets and benchmarks. I'm now free. I can take advantage of what works best for me.
If I dedicate time and space to writing, things emerge as if by magic. That doesn't mean that they don't need a lot of tidying up afterwards! But the process of being “in flow” is really precious.
What's been your greatest reward in the creative choices that you've made?
The level of self-awareness that comes through embracing creativity. There are insights that have come unexpectedly. They've been on the edge of my conscious awareness, and the practice of writing has brought them in and made them much more concrete and tangible. And, being free to live the life that I choose now—here is nothing more precious.
What’s something you want to learn from a community of your peers?
I’m curious what the creative process looks like for other people and what their journey has been. I'm also interested in the links between creativity and spirituality, or just general self-awareness. I'd be really interested in any kind of dialogue or insights that people have around that area.
I feel like learning from people who are at a different stage [from mine] in their creative journey. How has it actually felt to have their work out there in the world, being seen or heard or read or experienced by strangers? What does that feel like?
I am really looking forward to the development of a fiction writers group, and am very grateful to Phyllis for all her support and the spaces she creates for us all here on The Raft—they really are a gift! I envision the fiction group as a shared, safe space where we can work together to bring curiosity, reflection, and personal impressions to each other’s [material]—hopefully leading to greater insights and clarity for each writer and whatever growth they need on their own unique creative journey. I am excited to see what emerges!
Just delightful to read your interview, Ferwa! I miss your wisdom, deep thinking, and explanations of how things fit together in the worlds of creativity and life! Such good photos-of you, your woods with overstory and blooming understory, your neighborhood. Love it! So glad you are leading the fiction group! 💕 See you sometime soon!
I too found novels as a gateway to new worlds! So glad to meet you and I can't wait to get to know you better!