Bali Rai
- Name: Bali Rai
- Lives: Leicester, UK
- Supports: Liverpool FC
- Favourite Music: Reggae
- Influences: Roald Dahl, Sue Townsend, James Lee Burke, James Ellroy & Walter Mosely
- Featured Titles: Dominoes and Other Stories
- See all titles from Bali
Diversity in literature is, for me, a very important thing. When I was at school, finding books that were different to the norm was like being on a treasure hunt. I spent so much time in libraries searching for books about ethnic minority kids, brown and black faces like those that my friends and I had. And most of the time there was nothing to be found. It was all about posh white kids on holiday in big old houses and stuff like that. Not that there’s anything wrong with writing about posh white kids. There isn’t.
The problem is that there are so many other young people whose lives need to be represented too. Thankfully today things are different to when I was a teenager. There are more books featuring diverse backgrounds and cultures. But it’s still not enough. Reading rates amongst young Afro-Caribbean men and those of Pakistani/Bengali origin in particular are very low. And it’s the same for white working class teens too. I believe that one of the best ways to get these teens reading is to give them more choice. To show them that literature is for them too. And that begins by putting them in the books in the first place.
Diversity isn’t just about race and class however. There’s sexuality, disability, non-nuclear families etc... One of the best books of the past decade as far as I’m concerned is Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident – a fantastic story about a boy whose life is so different to the norm. Without diversity in literature books about people who aren’t the norm would just not exist. And literature would be poorer for it too. In fact, I’ll go even further. Without diversity the literature we all love will stagnate and wither away. It needs continuous injections of fresh ideas and themes and language and so many other things. These injections will help it to grow, to stay relevant in this fast-moving world. And that’s so important because imagine a world without books?! I don’t know about you but that scares the hell out of me. So let’s celebrate diversity in literature for what it is. Essential and inevitable. And that’s fine with me.
Bali Rai was born in 1971 and grew up in Leicester. As a child, he wanted to be a footballer or to write stories. When he realised he wasn't good enough to play for Liverpool FC he studied politics at university and then, supporting himself with a variety of jobs in pubs and clubs, set about writing a story he had been thinking about for many years. His debut novel, (Un)arranged Marriage, published in 2001 to fantastic reviews. For Bali, the greatest thing about being a writer is for a young reader to say 'your book made me want to read more books'. He enjoys the honest feedback from readers he meets during his school visits and indeed, some of the more eccentric ones may find themselves turning up as characters in his next book.
