A 16-year-old Pakistani boy has earned distinction for the country by writing a book of short stories and poems that has been archived in the main reading room of the National Library of Australia. Usman Ashraf, who was born and raised in Australia, told APP here Sunday that he had a passion for writing since childhood. “I started writing short stories and poetry as young as when I was six.” Usman, whose parents hail from Pakistan, had his collection entitled ‘Psyche’ published just after he had turned 15. His works vary from themes such as potential love to criminal insanity and trust amongst a complex myriad of other emotions.
“‘Psyche’ is not a haphazard affair, but the fiction pieces are interlinked with an emphasis on human mind, how we think, feel and react in different situations, and explores the range and spectrum of emotions that we all have,” Usman said talking about his work. The book has been reviewed by well-known literary companies such as Publish America as “Absolutely amazing.....”, “Excellently written......”, “Psychologically deep.....”. Although Usman cites no direct influences, he admires Stephen King and Ernest Hemingway for “using simple language to talk about complex ideas.” He said he has also learnt a lot about writing from Geoff Gates, who is head of English at his school - Hills Grammar School - and is also a published novelist. “Mr Gates taught me that writing what you actually think rather than writing for the sake of it is more useful, and that you’ll be a better writer if your thinking is original.”
Asked as to how he got the book published, he said he was compiling all his fiction pieces, written for various competitions, assignments, etc, in one document to save space on his computer when suddenly he decided to get the work published. “I wanted to do something with all the poems and short stories I had written over the years and it seemed a waste just to let them gather dust,” Usman said. Therefore, he sent his works to several publishers, rather ambitiously without expecting any reply. “To my great surprise, an American publisher by the name of ‘Publish America’ approached me the very next day, but unfortunately, due to my age (under 18), they were unable to publish my book.”
Original article can be found HERE.
“‘Psyche’ is not a haphazard affair, but the fiction pieces are interlinked with an emphasis on human mind, how we think, feel and react in different situations, and explores the range and spectrum of emotions that we all have,” Usman said talking about his work. The book has been reviewed by well-known literary companies such as Publish America as “Absolutely amazing.....”, “Excellently written......”, “Psychologically deep.....”. Although Usman cites no direct influences, he admires Stephen King and Ernest Hemingway for “using simple language to talk about complex ideas.” He said he has also learnt a lot about writing from Geoff Gates, who is head of English at his school - Hills Grammar School - and is also a published novelist. “Mr Gates taught me that writing what you actually think rather than writing for the sake of it is more useful, and that you’ll be a better writer if your thinking is original.”
Asked as to how he got the book published, he said he was compiling all his fiction pieces, written for various competitions, assignments, etc, in one document to save space on his computer when suddenly he decided to get the work published. “I wanted to do something with all the poems and short stories I had written over the years and it seemed a waste just to let them gather dust,” Usman said. Therefore, he sent his works to several publishers, rather ambitiously without expecting any reply. “To my great surprise, an American publisher by the name of ‘Publish America’ approached me the very next day, but unfortunately, due to my age (under 18), they were unable to publish my book.”
Original article can be found HERE.
