Q&A: Eman Quotah, Author of ‘The Night Is Not for You’

We chat with author Eman Quotah about The Night Is Not For You, which follows a young girl who realises she must become something untamable—even otherworldly—to find freedom, in this visceral coming-of-age horror debut.

Hi, Eman! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hi! Thanks for letting me nerd out with you. I’m a novelist, essayist, and communications consultant from the Washington, D.C., area. (Maryland, actually.) I grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Cleveland, Ohio. I live with my husband, two teenagers, a fat, friendly orange cat, and a scaredy-cat tortico.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I decided I wanted to be an author when I was in first grade. I loved reading, and I wanted to create worlds to disappear into, just like my favortie authors.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: I remember reading a series of early readers, but I can’t remember who the characters were or what it was about.
• The one that made you want to become an author: I also don’t remember what book made me want to become an author. It was all of them, really!
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Because I robbed you of a couple answers with my bad memory, let me gush about a bunch of books!
  • I read A Girl Is a Body of Water, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, four years ago and I still think about it. It’s about a girl looking for her mother in Uganda, and it’s magical.
  • Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell, is a book I didn’t expect to stick with me as much as it has. I love Shakespeare, but do we need another book inspired by him? Yes, actually. Hamnet is so perfectly constructed to convey its theme of grief. It’s a novelist’s novel.
  • Enter Ghost, by Isabella Hammad, is another Shakespeare-inspired novel, about a troupe of Palestinian actors, from across the Israeli-occupied territories, performing Hamlet in the West Bank. The last scene is so thrilling, and I wanted to stay with the characters forever.
  • If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, by Noor Naga, is incredibly inventive. It gives me hope that the novel as an artform can keep breaking our expectations.

Your latest novel, The Night Is Not for You, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Creepy, atmospheric, and weirdly fun.

What can readers expect?

Readers can expect a feminist fable about violence, paranoia, and perfumery.

Where did the inspiration for The Night Is Not for You come from?

The novel was inspired by the folk bogey-woman Umm Al-Duwais, from the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the eastern Arabian Peninsula. She’s part donkey, part alluring woman, with blades for hands and a sense of vengeance.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I put a carnival in one of the chapters. It’s loosely based on the monster carnivals that are traditional in the Maldives. I had a lot of fun inventing the sights, smells, and sounds of the carnival, the costumes and play-acting of the participants, and the worries the fictional community of the novel has about the effect a celebration of monsters might have on their kids.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

The novel centers around a series of murders in a small town, and writing gorey murder scenes was challenging! I wanted to channel the spooky stories people tell around campfires, and also urban legends about terrifying serial killers with weird proclivities, while not glorifying the violence. The key, I thought, was to tell the story of each murder from different angles, give humanity to the victims, and allow the characters left behind to express their grief.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on a couple of projects. One is a dystopian/futuristic/historical novel set in the Hejaz, the western region of Saudi Arabia where I grew up. Because it contains Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities for Muslims, the Hejaz has a rich and diverse history that is relatively unknown to people who aren’t from there.

I’m also noodling on a contemporary horror story about two performance artist sisters, inspired by Shehrazad and her sister Dunyazad, from the frame story of the One Thousand and One Nights.

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

I finally got on the Sally Rooney and Madeline Miller bandwagons by reading Conversations With Friends and Circe. Both are books that took me into a very specific world and made me completely invested in a character’s inner life.

I love Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, and I’ve been waiting nearly 20 years for another book by her. So, I’m looking forward to picking up The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.

Will you be picking up The Night Is Not For You? Tell us in the comments below!