Tania James’s latest novel The Tusk That Did the Damage has garnered accolades from publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. The gripping narrative is set in the forests of South India and is told from the viewpoints of a poacher, a film-maker and an elephant. Visiting Lahore for the literary festival, Tania sat down with Books&Authors to discuss the research involved in writing a novel, the editing process and whether writing can be taught.

How did you come into writing?

I was always reading and that passion developed into how writers were able to create worlds that seduce a reader and I burned with a desire to do with the readers what the writers had done to me to inspire that particular feeling.

Any particular writers who did that for you …

When I was a kid my favourites were writers of huge epics, like Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. I loved horror. The fact that a writer using just the tools of the written word could make me feel so frightened, it seemed magical. I also loved writers such as Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, American writers ...

So were you born and raised in the United States?

Yes, I was born and raised in Chicago. My parents left Kottayam district in Kerala for the US in 1975.

Did you study writing?

I actually studied documentary film-making in college. I flirted with the idea of different forms of storytelling. I was always interested in storytelling.

What was your time frame for writing The Tusk That Did the Damage?

It took me about two years to write including editing.

What kind of research was involved?

There was a lot of field research involved, which I hadn’t done before. There isn’t a lot of text about poachers and their experiences or about human-elephant conflicts.

Not even in newspapers ...

There are reports but they kind of flatten these people [poachers] into victims or perpetrators and miss a whole lot of their history. That is not really the work of a short newspaper article anyway. I felt I needed a certain understanding of their [the poachers] personal, economic and social situations that lead them to this life.

There is a particular folk tale in your book which is an interesting combination of an old tale in a contemporary setting. Is it an original folk tale?

A lot of my research was very grim but one part of my research that I enjoyed was reading folk tales. Because every culture, it seems, has a folk tale about elephants and their tusks. I wanted to write a folk tale of my own because I thought it would be fun to do so. It’s a mishmash of a couple of folk tales with a dash of my own imagination.

I read a Guardian piece about your book in which the critic says that a lot of “do-gooding human intervention” goes wrong. What do you think?

One of the most pressing issues tackled in the novel is the human-elephant conflict, i.e. between the elephants and the farmers. The interventions that have been most effective are the ones that have taken into account the needs and interests of the communities who live there. Organisations such as the Wildlife Trust of India try not to pit the interests of people against the interests of wildlife. And in doing so they have been somewhat effective in trying to create solutions.

What have been your learning experiences in getting your books published?

I have been kind of lucky that way because my agent is good at knowing which book to direct to which editor because not every editor is going to love every book. And you have to have chemistry with your editor. I think the harder thing is what comes after the publishing, which is the publicity, learning how to represent your book and how to represent yourself.

Were you asked to make too many revisions to your book? Did you find the suggestions helpful?

I would be suspicious of an editor who would tell me that you didn’t need to [revise my book]. I am a big fan of revisions and editors who really wrestle with my work. So, yeah, I did do a lot of revisions. They weren’t huge but they definitely changed the book.

What piece of advice on writing would you give to beginners?

The tough thing for a lot of people is getting started. One thing that’s helpful to me is thinking of the first draft as for me [myself]. So you can really do anything. Only later can you worry about other voices and critics.

What’s next for you?

I am hopefully going to work on my next novel. I have been tentatively thinking of ideas.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I teach undergraduate and graduate level fiction at the University of Maryland.

Do you think writing can be taught?

You can teach students to be more expansive in their way of thinking, to exercise their empathy muscles, which are probably the most important thing for a writer. You can definitely take someone who has some level of basic skill and elevate them in an accelerated amount of time.