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杰出校友：冉冉升起的新星贾米尔·科查伊凭借处女作小说获得文学上的成功
2021年9月10日
Jamil Kochai’s highly acclaimed debut novel, 《洛加尔的99夜, is both a dream realized and a celebration of his Afghan heritage.
科查伊出生在巴基斯坦的一个难民营，婴儿时期移民到加州。 12年后，他回到家乡阿富汗的一次旅行激发了他的创作灵感，他那只在家里说普什图语的多代大家庭也是如此。
“I had a teacher in elementary school who spent every day after school helping me learn English,” Kochai said. “I still remember my father saying that every child is a rocket and just needs a little spark to lift off. This teacher was my spark.”
Kochai是2021年新星奖的获得者，该奖项由萨克拉门托州立校友会颁发给博彩平台的毕业生，他们在专业、社区或大学方面做出了杰出贡献。
Kochai认为许多教育工作者帮助他开启了自己的作家生涯。
“One of my teachers at River City High School in West 萨克拉门托 noticed my interests in reading and writing, and strongly encouraged me to take a creative writing class,” Kochai said.
“Then, during my second year at 囊状态, I enrolled in a creative writing class with Professor Doug Rice. 他是一位才华横溢的老师，他不仅将写作融入其中，还将哲学和生活课程融入其中。 I workshopped my first short story with him and he was very supportive.”
赖斯现在是电影和英语学院的名誉教授，他对自己的前学生给予了很高的评价。
“In his writing and in his daily life, Jamil does not merely look at the world; he looks into the world,” Rice said. “As a writer and as an intellectual, he is taking new and more profound risks – aesthetically as well as politically.
“In the face of political turmoil, writers have a responsibility to become engaged and to become a voice of conscience. 贾米尔就是这样。 真正的艺术家有变得脆弱的风险。 贾米尔有这样的勇气。 And Jamil had that same courage while a student at 萨克拉门托 State.”
As a young author, Kochai’s contributions to the literary world are noteworthy and impressive: His novel was a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award and a story of his won an O. Henry Award. His work has appeared in multiple publications, including 《纽约客》, 《纽约时报》, and the 洛杉矶时报.
Following his graduation from 囊状态, Kochai earned a master’s in Creative Writing from UC Davis and was the Truman Capote Distinguished Fellow at the Iowa University Writer’s Workshop. 目前，他是斯坦福大学华莱士·斯特格纳奖学金的第二年，正在写他的第二部小说。
Kochai credits much of his success in writing to finding his voice, one that reflects his family’s Afghan history and traditions of storytelling.
“Throughout my life there were all these times when we were sitting for dinner or drinking tea and all of the sudden in the middle of a conversation everyone is laughing and then someone dives into a story from back home from their childhood,” he said.
This rich storytelling tradition weaves its way throughout the pages and characters of 《洛加尔的99个夜晚》 with one chapter written entirely in Pashto.
“I found a voice that is multilingual and incorporates elements of Pashto and Farsi, and California lingo and slang,” Kochai said. “It was only when I became comfortable writing in that voice that I began to value my own parents’ stories and my writing, I think, really took off.”
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