The Pivot with Afabwaje Kurian

Photo Credit: Jaimy Ellis

Alum Afabwaje Kurian’s debut novel will be published this fall.

What’s been your path from public health to fiction writing?

I served in public health for about a decade, supporting ADHD research, receiving an Master of Public Health from the UNC Gillings School in health behavior and health education, serving as a clinical study coordinator for prostate cancer research and evaluating public health programs for federal Health and Human Services agencies.

In 2016, I left my position as a public health analyst to attend the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where I received an Master of Fine Arts in fiction. I’m a professional fiction writer now. I’ve written a number of short stories, and my debut novel, Before the Mango Ripens, will be released on September 24. One of the story lines in my novel follows the work of an American doctor and a Nigerian doctor who run a resource-challenged mission clinic in a fictional town in Central Nigeria.

Can you describe your focus area in one sentence?

I’m interested in exploring issues that international public health workers may face.

My novel highlights racial and cultural tensions, traditional medicine and healers versus Western medicine and clinicians, social inequalities, faith practices, and what it means to build or earn trust when practicing medicine in communities distinct from yours.

As a private citizen, I support organizations abroad that provide public health services to marginalized communities.

What brought you to public health, then fiction writing?

I was pre-med in college, and I attended what was then the Minority Medical Education Program — it has since been renamed the Summer Health Professions Education Program — in downtown Chicago the summer after my freshman year. In this program, we toured Chicago-area medical schools and listened to lectures from physicians and med school students.

During an afternoon lecture, one physician asked, “Let’s say you’re a physician and you encourage a patient to exercise by walking around his neighborhood. What do you do if he doesn’t feel safe in his neighborhood?”

This question led me to think about the limitations of medicine and the broader issues related to infrastructure, access and policy that impact individual health. In my senior year of college, I also enrolled in a medical sociology class. It offered a variety of new perspectives about public health issues on an international scale.

As far as what brought me to fiction writing, I’ve been a writer from a young age. I often wrote short stories and novellas — without prompting from teachers — throughout my elementary and high school years. I wrote a play while I was in my graduate program at UNC-Chapel Hill. A local theater company performed a staged reading of this play a few years later.

How have you pivoted during your public health career?

There have been multiple pivots in my public health career, whether in focus area, locale or institution. I’ve pivoted from private to public and federal institutions. From ADHD research to cancer research. I’ve pivoted from research to evaluation. The most significant pivot has been moving away from a traditional public health career to writing fiction.

Who are you when you’re at home?

I write, read, and try to keep my plants alive. (They seem to be thriving so far.) I also write from home, so you’ll catch me typing at my desk with a stack of books nearby that I’m planning to read because they’re relevant to whatever story I’m working on at the time.