Celebrating your truth and pimping pain with Arvin Ahmadi

What this episode covers

Arvin Ahmadi grew up outside Washington DC, graduated from Columbia University, and worked in the tech industry prior to becoming a full-time writer. He now lives in New York City and has published three books. He’s joining us today to talk about his latest novel, How It All Blew Up. Interview starts at 18 minutes. Note: right near the end Arvin's Airpods died so he drops out and jumps back in again. Caitlin recommendsDash and Lily (based on Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn)Michelle recommendsIs This Coercive Control? If you haven't already listened to our chat with Louise O'Neill, we recommend listening to that as well since After the Silence focuses heavily on coercive control relationships. Find out more about why coercive control isn't criminalised in Australia. Articles from The Conversation: It’s time ‘coercive control’ was made illegal in Australia and Australia is not ready to criminalise coercive control — here’s whyIn this interview, we chat about:The real-life inspiration for How It All Blew UpWhy Arvin prefers the comfort blanket of writing fiction (and how fiction helped him get his shit figured out)The dilemma of wanting to explore painful issues but feeling as if you’re “pimping your pain” in doing soThe importance of self-care while writingThe process of writing and publishing How It All Blew Up (which was meant to be a totally different story)The real-life characters and what they think of the novelHow Arvin feels about the feedback he’s had on the book so far and what people are celebrating mostPop culture as a shortcut to who we areWhy we need more queer Muslim storiesArvin’s experience as a Wikipedia editorBooks and other things mentioned:Call Me By Your NameMaster of None Season 2The Henna Wars by Adiba JaigirdarFollow Arvin on Instagram @arvinahmadiFollow us on Instagram @betterwordspodWe both received a copy of How It All Blew Up from Allen & Unwin.

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