About Farena Bajwa
Farena Bajwa is a poet, storyteller, filmmaker, actor and voice-over artist. Everything she knows about art; she owes some Youtube tutorials and loads of imagination, combined with passion. She studied marketing management and at some point, became a site manager — but most importantly, she loves coffee and cake. Flowers Grow on Broken Walls is her first book. Read our review here.
BOOKS:
Flowers Grow on Broken Walls (2021)
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Last book read:
The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim
The book that changed your life:
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. This is no self-help book, but fiction. It fell into my hands at the right time when I needed to escape from reality for a while. What I found was a mix of fantasy and honest reality, whereas the reality is described in a much more enchanting way than fantasy. Small everyday things that we encounter suddenly seem so adventurous; like visiting a bookstore, going out for a cup of coffee, smiling at strangers, taking shortcuts, and noticing new areas in your neighborhood where you’ve lived for your whole life. The words just fell effortlessly while I read the book, I felt with the characters and wished and hoped for them. It made me hungry for life again — and for the first time in my life, I thought about writing down the stuff that I had carried around in my mind myself for so long.
Currently working on:
My next poetry book …
Advice for aspiring authors:
Don’t look at what others are doing or how far they have come. Stay in your zone and know that you are writing for a reason, you have a talent to share. The most important thing is to keep that joy alive; it’s the only thing that will remain at the end.
Books by Farena Bajwa
Testimonials
” The collection displays a raw and honest portrayal of an artist who cannot help but create something beautiful in the midst of the ugliness she has been put through, and who continues to hope against all odds, as she lets go of what she has been told is important and finds herself in who one truly is. The author writes in a very elegant and compelling manner, making the poems relatable and both emotional and entertaining. The artwork is very befitting and lovely. I recommend this book to anyone going through a rough time who needs the assurance that things will get better.
- Reedsy review of Flowers Grow on Broken Walls
” It can be challenging to write something that truly stands apart from the fray. But Farena Bajwa has done just that. Her debut release, Flowers Grow on Broken Walls, is a stunning collection of arresting prose that begs for revisiting. While Bajwa's writing is both intriguing and accomplished, the key selling point to this collection is the layout. Hand-drawn illustrations adorn each and every page, and the collection's seven passages are marked with stark, negative ink drawings. Additionally, Bajwa continuously toys with the placement of her prose, juxtaposing traditional couplets with seemingly random stanzas, floating like an island on the page. Not unlike a tattered journal, every corner of Flowers Grow on Broken Walls displays a personal touch, a point further underscored with Bajwa's choice of topic. Taking aim at everything one might associate with a disintegrating relationship or major life change, Bajwa wisely opts to balance her intimate confessions with ambiguous rumination. The decision pays immediate dividends, as Flowers Grow on Broken Walls is as much a personal catharsis as it is an ode to universal themes like love, loss, and self-discovery.
- IR APPROVED review by IndieReader
” The feeling is loose and light without being casual: her lines dance with each page's white space, the layouts lending crucial emphasis. Bajwa is shrewd enough to anticipate and defuse the criticism of an ungenerous reader — one poem, on the subject of art, asks "Is it my passion, / or / do I just want to be seen?" That question, of course, cannily thumbs the essence of the creative impulse. Less guarded are her spot illustrations, a bevy of vivid, surprising sketches accompanying and enriching most pages. The combination is arresting, both naive and savvy, simple and rich. Takeaway: Intimate, relatable verse, written, illustrated, and laid out with wit and feeling.
- BookLife Reviews