Hear from Laila Ibrahim, author of Yellow Crocus, discuss the events that drove her to create the ardent story of multiculturalism, privilege, power, dignity, and love.
"The idea for the story came to me a long time ago in 1998. I was with a group of people talking about Tiger Woods, and someone mentioned the fact that he identifies as being Asian as much, or even more as African American. I thought to myself, "well of course he does. His mother is Asian, and she was one of his primary caregivers, and in that context, he formed his self identity."
And in that moment, in a flash of inspiration, I thought of this little white baby being cared for in the loving arms of Mattie - I didn't know the characters names at the time, but that little baby turned out to be Lisbeth. I imagined what it would be like for her to grow up loving Mattie as her primary caregiver, and yet, as she grew up her family was going to basically deny Mattie's very humanity. Then I mentioned what it would be like for Mattie, who had to leave her son Samuel behind in the quarters so she could take care of this baby. She was forced to do that, and we see what an untenable situation that would be.
So these characters haunted me for a number of years, and various scenes popped in my head. Even though I had never written anything, except for maybe a short story in middle-school, I decided for my 40th birthday to take on the marathon task of writing a novel.
I've come to love these characters, and I'm thrilled that Amazon has republish my work so these stories are getting into the hands of more people. I hope you come to love Mattie and Lizbeth as much as I do."
-Liala Ibrahim, author of 'Yellow Crocus'
And in that moment, in a flash of inspiration, I thought of this little white baby being cared for in the loving arms of Mattie - I didn't know the characters names at the time, but that little baby turned out to be Lisbeth. I imagined what it would be like for her to grow up loving Mattie as her primary caregiver, and yet, as she grew up her family was going to basically deny Mattie's very humanity. Then I mentioned what it would be like for Mattie, who had to leave her son Samuel behind in the quarters so she could take care of this baby. She was forced to do that, and we see what an untenable situation that would be.
So these characters haunted me for a number of years, and various scenes popped in my head. Even though I had never written anything, except for maybe a short story in middle-school, I decided for my 40th birthday to take on the marathon task of writing a novel.
I've come to love these characters, and I'm thrilled that Amazon has republish my work so these stories are getting into the hands of more people. I hope you come to love Mattie and Lizbeth as much as I do."
-Liala Ibrahim, author of 'Yellow Crocus'
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