A Poet Who Tells Stories by Nadine Aisha Jassat

Verse Novels are becoming more popular with readers of all ages. Nadine Aisha Jassat, author/poet of The Hidden Story of Estie Noor, writes about being a poet who tells stories. If you haven’t read a verse novel, then do try one!

I often introduce myself as a poet who tells stories. This is because, even before my verse novels The Stories Grandma Forgot (And How I Found Them) and The Hidden Story of Estie Noor, I understood the two as implicitly linked in my practice: when I wrote poetry, I was also seeking to tell a story. And when I told a story, the most natural way to me, the way that best captured the emotion, the impact, the small glints of truth and realisation that stood out within what the story spoke of, was through poetry.

Writing verse novels allows me to capture those two loves of my writer’s heart – the intricacy and emotional power of poetry, and the rich satisfaction of plot, character, and story arc of a novel. As a writer, it feels incredibly liberating and validating to be writing novels in verse, and to meet readers who love and celebrate them, too.

In both The Stories Grandma Forgot (And How I Found Them) and The Hidden Story of Estie Noor, the characters undergo a journey where they must define themselves on their own terms, in their own words. For Nyla, this is being able to answer what feels to her the question of ‘I am’ – and how to say who she is for herself, and no-one else. Her journey follows many twists and turns, as she follows a mystery that draws in themes of heritage, identity, and Alzheimer’s, and it is the others she meets on the way – like librarian Miss Haldi – and the knowledge of herself that she gains through her journey, that help her ultimately answer this question. For Estie, her journey is being able to find her voice, speak her story. It’s no easy challenge, especially when nobody believes her, but it is through the urgent need to help another person who hasn’t been believed to tell their story, that helps her find the words to her own.

For both these novels, the format of a novel in verse for me, as a writer who loves writing this way, further amplifies their central themes of being able to tell your own story, in your own words, and on your own terms. When I write in verse, not only am I refusing to surrender either half of my writers’ heart, but I am actively embracing the form that makes that heart sing, that feels most right for me – just like I encourage my characters to in the journeys they go on.

My favourite reader feedback is that my books feel like a hug. I hope every reader and writer reading this takes a hug of encouragement to know that just like my characters, just like me, they can and should write their own stories, and tell their tales in exactly the way they want to.