My gratitude goes to sportswriter Rick Assad for this extremely generous review/interview of my novel, UNDERCARD, for the boxing website The Sweet Science. This is the first review of UNDERCARD by a sportswriter, and for a boxing outlet. I do think of the book as a blend of a socially conscious literary novel, a high-octane thriller, and a gritty underdog sports story, so I am very pleased that the novel has now been reviewed from a boxing/sports perspective, since the previous reviews mostly focused on its literary or thriller merits. Assad writes of UNDERCARD: 

“A fast-paced crime thriller with more twists and turns than the Grand Prix of Monaco…Boxing fans in particular are bound to find it an enjoyable read.”

What’s more, the interview portion of the article was very engaging and enjoyable. I was asked questions about myself and my writing that I hadn’t been before, and it was a great pleasure answering them. I am very grateful and proud to have been featured on this website in this way, and hope others also enjoyed the piece.

I was so pleased to be a part of the Immigrant Writers Association’s second anthology, GROW TOGETHER, a collection of stories, both fiction and non, by immigrants living in Canada. Each chapter is written by a different member of the Immigrant Writers Association (IWA), an organization that provides resources, opportunities, and community to first- and second-generation immigrant writers in Canada, and each chapter deals with the immigrant experience and the theme of growing together. My chapter is titled “You’re an Immigrant?” It is a personal essay that looks at the challenges of the immigrant experience even when one doesn’t fit the stereotype of an immigrant. It reflects on my life in Canada and South Africa, the various people I’ve met in both countries, and the time it takes to fully adapt to a new society. If you would like to learn more about GROW TOGETHER, or even buy it as an ebook or paperback, you can do so here. “You’re an Immigrant?” is Chapter 1 of the anthology.

Writing this short memoir piece was actually very cathartic for me. It brought back a lot of memories. I’m very happy with how it turned out, but I’m also very happy for having gone through the experience of writing it. As someone who has mostly written fiction, it was interesting and rewarding to try my hand at memoir.

When writing a book, though the process is much more collaborative than it appears, it feels a little like competing in an individual sport; while, when being a part of an anthology, it feels like you’re playing on a team. I am very excited and proud to be a part of this anthology, and to be a member of IWA. I think writing can be a wonderful outlet for everyone, and it definitely can be a great source of release and reflection for immigrants (I feel very fortunate that I was exposed to writing from a young age, and that it was a source of comfort and catharsis for me when I immigrated as a child). I think IWA is providing a valuable role in supporting immigrant writers in Canada (and providing a publishing opportunity for them in its annual anthology). I would encourage any first- or second-generation immigrants in Canada, at any stage of their writing journey, to look into joining IWA if looking to connect and explore their writing further.

“Don’t disrupt the flow of money”: this review of Undercard by Dennis Rizzo for The Internet Review of Books really focused on the substance of the novel, on what it was trying to discuss about power structures in today’s society. I’m very grateful for this review. I feel it ‘got’ the book in a way other reviews hadn’t. I am so happy I have been able to entertain people with Undercard, but aside from entertainment there were a lot of issues that I wanted to look into with this novel, and I’m so glad that this effort was appreciated in this review to such a degree. As the reviewer, Rizzo, writes:

“Undercard unfurls through the course of one day and night…We watch the players converge, hurling their separate histories at each other. Childhood loyalties are tested by adult dilemmas. Adult failures and dreams play out amid a growing public protest movement and police subterfuge. Old grudges surface. New grudges form…Undercard is less about boxing and more about how the America we think we know is really upside down…Undercard certainly speaks to present-day American dilemmas.”

Definitely one I won’t forget.

This written interview with fellow crime writer Michael Bradley was a great opportunity to share on how immigrating as a child helped shape my writing from a young age, how to maintain the intense rhythm of a 24-hour story, how I plotted extensively to execute the twists of Undercard, and the one thing I would’ve done differently growing up to be a better writer now (spoiler: I would’ve read and written much more poetry). These were excellent questions that allowed me to reflect a lot. I hope you enjoy what it inspired me to share.

This interview was a very interesting conversation with host Larry Matthews on Impact Radio USA. The program is an hour long but my section begins at 33:17 and ends at 53:39. We discuss why boxing is such fertile ground for storytelling and why I chose to feature it in my novel Undercard, among many other things related to me and my book, notably where my ideas come from. After my interview is finished, Larry plays a great song by Ben Folds called “Boxing” in honour of the theme of our interview. It is well worth listening to, and after it Larry gives an inside story about the song: it’s meant to be a hypothetical conversation between Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell about whether or not Ali should retire.