Small and slow beginnings
Hiten Chojer on his debut poetry collection Gods of Anxiety Be Damned
In case you missed the last few love letters to storytellers…
the long and winding road: Interview with Taslim Jaffer
Months ago, I listened to a webinar of social media maven Andrea Jones, through Rachel Thompson’s Writerly Love community. In it, Andrea talked about the ways in which authors and writers can develop their social media presence to promote their work. One thing she emphasized was that social media was about community, and in order to participate in that community, you have to do the work to go and find it. Scrolling bookstagram hashtags is how I found Shilo Niziolek, and also how I found my guest for this month’s newsletter, Hiten Chojer. Hiten is a Europe-based writer from India, who just recently published his first poetry collection, Gods of Anxiety Be Damned. Meeting an author (even virtually) at the same stage of career as you, writing about similar topics to you, with a similar size audience to you, is like meeting a good friend. You feel just that little bit less alone in the whole journey. I’m excited to introduce you to him and his writing!
Tell me about your writing journey - how did you first get into writing and how did you end up writing and publishing a poetry collection?
I think my writing journey has only just begun. I used to dream of becoming a writer when I was in school. However, I chose to study sciences because I liked them as well. Further, during that time in north India there was a huge drive to pursue sciences and medicine and my parents also wanted me to have a secure career. But my love for stories and writing never vanished. When I was 21 to 26 years old, I wrote almost exclusively for myself and a few other friends, stuff that was never posted or published anywhere except among the six or seven of us.
Then in the last two years I started sharing my writings with more people. I also started writing a lot more. It was mostly triggered by personal stuff. For example, in 2016 I witnessed the bomb blast in the Brussels airport that left me with trauma and slowly evolving PTSD. It became worse through the years and I developed a lot of anxiety because of it. Then during the COVID-19 pandemic, I lost some family members due to different reasons and that also scarred me. I wrote a lot about my experiences with loss, anxiety and then towards the end, I also kept a place for hope and love in my poetry collection.
I wrote a lot about my experiences with loss, anxiety and then towards the end, I also kept a place for hope and love in my poetry collection.
We have so many similarities in our writing journeys, it seems. Anyway, I love the title and cover of your book: Gods of Anxiety Be Damned. Can you tell me more?
The title of the book is something that came to me during the editing stages of the manuscript actually. I had a different working title during those times. You could say that I was so tired and maybe even angry about having anxiety all the time that I ended up having this as the title.
The cover of the book was designed by TellTellPoetry, who also handled the editing of the book. When I saw the design by their incredibly talented designer, I immediately fell in love with it. It was made with brush stroke style and shows a person in anxiety. The cool thing is that if you hold the book to see both the front and back cover together, you can see them merging and you can see the person in anxiety almost running (trying to escape the anxiety perhaps).
The book is a poetry collection but it also has a short story in black pages. I'm very proud of the short story, so you guys should definitely check that out!
I love when imagery adds another layer of meaning like that. You've said that one of your goals with writing a book about anxiety is to share with others and help them feel less alone. Do you think you have accomplished that goal? How do you feel now that your book has been out for almost a year? (Also I love your dedication, "to the anxious ones.")
In my book readings, especially during the book launch event, I have always tried to bring the audience into the conversation of their own anxiety and feelings and emotions. It is 2023, but I must say people still do not talk freely about feeling anxiety in their workplace, for example. I think I was able to make the conversation a bit more commonplace than before, at least within my audience I'd say.
Moreover, due to the readings and my book, I was also invited to be part of a project in Portugal (where I am currently doing my PhD in air quality) about removing stigma towards mental health. This project will involve people from multiple European countries and I am very proud to be invited as a speaker there. I think I am slowly but surely contributing to what I wanted to when I thought of writing and publishing this book.
As you mentioned, the book is out now for 9 months and soon it will be a year since its release. The support that I got during the publishing and launch of this book from my university and my PhD supervisor was extraordinary. Anyway, I feel the fight against anxiety will keep going and I feel so good that I published this book. I have written more pieces since the publication of this book and they were published in different magazines and are forthcoming as well in upcoming issues.
That is all so exciting! It is often the case that opportunities do come, but slowly. Why do you write poetry?
I have no idea. I have asked myself many times but I didn't get an answer. For me writing in general is a blissful experience. Writing about past trauma helps me process the emotions that were kept bottled up sometimes. I have started writing some prose as well now, short stories mostly.
Hiten Chojer (he/him) is an Indian-born writer with one foot in the past and the other attempting to touch ground. He writes poetry and prose, often exploring themes of identity, displacement, and mental health. He started publishing his writings in 2023 and his work has appeared in Exist Otherwise and in his debut book ‘Gods of Anxiety Be Damned’.
Buy Gods of Anxiety Be Damned: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Hiten on socials: Instagram | Website
I’m glad I have other writers to fill the space in this newsletter when I have no updates or thoughts to share. Sometimes, writing fills my life, and sometimes, like in the past month, life is too full for writing. But I feel like I’m more accepting that that’s how it goes for me, and in not too long I’ll have space (physical and mental) for writing again.
In the meantime, I’m going to go have a nap.
Happy October,
Alyssa