Salma Ibrahim: ‘I know so many Black and Muslim writers, but the people getting published don’t reflect that’
Photograph courtesy of Salma Ibrahim
The author discusses her debut novel Salutation Road and building opportunities for writers of colour
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Salma Ibrahim can’t pinpoint the exact moment she knew she wanted to become a writer, but storytelling had always been second nature to her.
From an early age, books were a source of comfort and allowed her to understand people and places she’d never experienced. “That feeling made me want to create stories of my own,” she says.
Her debut novel Salutation Road, published in February, first took shape as a short story she wrote at university. Set in Greenwich, south-east London, the book is a surrealist coming-of-age story about a 23-year-old Somali woman named Sirad.
Ibrahim is also the founder of Literary Natives, which provides support and opportunities to writers of colour. She speaks to Hyphen about exploring alternative realities, moving beyond trauma narratives and the significance of place and time in her novel.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did your journey as a writer begin?
Books have always been a part of my life, but it was while studying English literature at university that I decided I would write my own novel. I was already in that world and having conversations about books and what they do for society. That’s when I began drafting Salutation Road — it had a different title at the time and was a short story. But slowly I worked towards creating a novel.
How do you reflect on your experience in UK publishing?
The reality is that publishing still isn’t very accessible. I kind of knew that from the outside, but now being on the inside, it’s even clearer. Often I’m the only hijab-wearing woman in the room or the only person of colour. That’s disheartening because I know so many Black and Muslim writers out there, but the people getting published don’t reflect that.
We need to do more and not just pay lip service to diversity. Now that I’ve crossed this bridge and have been published, I want to widen access too.
What inspired Salutation Road?
The inspiration for the book came to me in different stages. The first was just my intrigue around time: past, present, future and alternate realities. It was one of those things that I found fascinating, especially growing up in Greenwich where we have the meridian line.
Why did you choose Greenwich in particular as the backdrop for your story?
It really symbolised memory and nostalgia for me. There’s a part in the book where Sirad walks by the riverside in a reflective state and I’ve done that many times in my own life. I still do that to this day. I also wanted to capture the changing face of Greenwich, maybe what you’d call late-stage gentrification, the disappearance of different spaces like the library and the changing political landscape.
The novel is set in 2016 in the context of Brexit and Trump. How did that political history shape the story?
It’s a backdrop throughout the book, but at the same time, Sirad engages with it more through her thoughts than in a direct political way. She’s thinking about migration, place and who is allowed to be here. Those are questions that run throughout the story. You can’t really get away from the question of immigration and belonging. It just touches on every facet of our lives, particularly in 2016 when it was everywhere in the news.
You steer away from the stereotypical trauma narrative that’s often seen in migration stories. Was that intentional?
I didn’t want to write a book that just lists all the horrible things that could happen to a girl like Sirad. That’s not true to life. Even when someone is grappling with belonging, their sense of place or resentment, there are still moments of happiness and ease.
For the book to feel true to life, I had to move away from stereotypical archetypes of the immigrant woman and just write Sirad’s story most naturally.
Salutation Road is out now.
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