Author Interview: Homera Cheema
Q&A with the contributors from Hinterland - and some more course dates for your diary.
Homera Cheema is a writer of non-fiction and short stories. She is from Manchester and of Pakistani origin. Homera has worked in the international aid sector for many years and maintains a serious and dedicated interest in world affairs, themes of identity and personal discovery. As well as holding degrees from SOAS (2006 and 2010), she also embarked on a Creative Writing Masters at Manchester Writing School. While the Masters remains unfinished, her passion for creative writing as a form to make sense of the world has grown exponentially. ‘Here for Work’ appears in Hinterland Issue 16, and is her first non-fiction piece.
What’s the last thing (except for this!) that you wrote?
Notes for an upcoming Substack post, which is about two short stories that inspired film director Brady Corbet. Corbet recently wrote and directed The Brutalist and before that Childhood of a Leader. As a writer and fan of short fiction, the reading around the topic has been super interesting and thought-provoking.
What’s a recent discovery that you can’t keep quiet about?
I’ve recently rejoined a weekly writing group. Its been great to spend time with other writers and get inspired.
Words to live by?
“Early to bed, early to rise” Although this has eluded me so far, as a certified night owl I live in hope to get there one day…
Tell us something about yourself that surprises people...
That I’m not terrible at running.
What’s your piece in this issue about?
The idea came about when I was working in Yemen back in late 2023. I was reflecting on the diaspora experience of working in the aid sector and started to conceptualise a piece that would reference a past work trip to Pakistan and the complicated claim to identity and belonging to a specific place. I wanted to bring to life this idea of carrying a romantic and personal history of a place with you.
While you’re here, a couple more dates for your diary: our taster day ‘First Steps in Creative Non-fiction’ has moved to the 30th August and we’re now running an online version too on 20th September. We’ve also just launched our 6-week course for the autumn too, ‘Building Skills in Creative Non-fiction’, running on Tuesdays in Norwich throughout September. Bursaries available for each of them.