Exclusive Insights: A Fascinating Interview With Annie Kapur

Annie Kapur is extremely passionate about reading, and you will notice her Book Reviews in Vocal 's Geek section. She has over 20 Top Stories, from her book reviews on Vocal. She has been a Vocal creator since 2017, with over 2639 stories written by her. If you want to find out fascinating things about her, here is my interview with Annie Kapur.

Mariann: Where are you from?

Annie: I am from Birmingham, in the UK. I have moved around, but that is really my home.

Mariann: Why is Birmingham your favourite place?

Annie: Birmingham is a large city that's open all night, and sometimes I enjoy going to the cinema in the hours when very few other people are there.

Mariann: Can you tell us about your life and work in UK? ( This question is from Kendall Defoe)

Annie: My work often involves teaching. For years, I have taught English and worked as a tutor, college lecturer, and in schools. I hope to leave the education roles and get something else eventually, but for now, this is where I am. As for my life, I am a fairly boring person. I enjoy reading and watching movies, and that is about it. I am not very "outgoing," as they say.

Fun Fact: Annie has an elder brother who is 36. He likes reading but is more of an academic essays' kind of guy.

Mariann: When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

Annie: Well, I was a teenager and I used to (as teenagers did back then) write fan fiction. Nothing intense, just little side quests of my favourite characters from books going on adventures I thought were missing from the original material. I loved reading, and so I would try my hand at that. I used to be good with poetry - god knows where that went. However, I was so immersed in writing and reading horror that I eventually began writing book reviews. This stemmed from the fact that I had nobody to talk to about what I was reading. It sounds sad, but it has gotten quite far now.

Mariann: When did you start reading?

Annie: I started reading at a young age. I was probably 2 or 3 when my mother used to read to me—books like "Each Peach Pear Plum" and books adapted from classic Disney movies.

Fun Fact: Annie has read 8 books in a week

Mariann: Did you ever belong to a book club?

Annie: Yes, I used to be quite active on the Reddit Book Club (I would eventually read Shantaram there, a book I had never thought I would read), but as for physically going to book clubs, no, I was never that social.

Mariann: What is the best word to describe you as a writer and why?

Annie: "Flexible" - I take inspiration from many places to write what I write. I have all these notes on the stories I have read, the things I have listened to, and the folklore I love. Some are in notebooks, some are in my phone, and whenever I think of a backstory or a plot for something, I have to get it down before I forget. So, I'm pretty flexible with stories and ideas that have inspired me. For example, I had an idea for a dystopian horror story in the back of a car the other day, and it is in the notes app on my phone. I'm considering a plot that's simple enough to utilize what I have already created.

Mariann: What type of books do you like to review and why?

Annie: Classics, horror, random things I find for cheap on the internet - why? Well, horror is my favourite genre, and classics are my thing, as my degrees are in literature, so I love the classics. As for the last one, somewhere down the line, I realised I do not have the money or space to keep buying paperbacks and hardbacks all the time. However, if I could review one type of book for the rest of my life, it would be horror.

Fun Fact: Her Book Review: No Logo By: Naomi Klein, Annie Kapur 's favorite book review creation

I wrote a story called “What is in a Reading Experience?” Moreover, it became a top story, but that is not why it is my favourite. I feel like I have always needed to follow that up with something. It is my favourite because I feel like I opened up my soul a bit. That very rarely happens with me.

Mariann: What is your most proud accomplishment in your life?

Annie: My most proud accomplishment was finishing my Master’s Degree. It was some years ago now but I almost dropped out because I was just so tired all the time and it was so difficult. By the end of the year though, everything was finished and I got out alive.

I have a master’s degree in creative writing - my modules mainly focused on writing, film, and poetry - an odd mix, but when I look back on it, it seemed fun. Just not at the time

Mariann: What do you like most about being an English Teacher, and what age group do you teach?

Annie: Well, secondary school is my thing, and it is pretty tricky, considering a lot (and I mean A LOT) of kids do not like the subject at all.

The thing I like most is probably teaching poetry. Poetry is short, and so more kids feel like they can read it; you have solved half the problem.

A few years ago, I taught some lessons in poetry, focusing on poems like "London" by William Blake. Many resources were not available when I was a kid that we can now use to teach.

There is something called "Comics and Lit" on YouTube, which is a simply fantastic thing about teaching English.

Mariann: Who is your favorite Vocal writer and why? If you can interview a vocal creator, who would it be? What question would you ask him or her?

Annie: I love the works of Kendall Defoe, Tim Carmichael, and Angela Hepworth. However, I am going to go with Kendall here because I have a question for him. My question is this: where does his inspiration for poetry come from? I love reading his poems - his stories are often deep and can be hilarious. I read his poetry book and I was quite stunned at how great it was. I’ve now got his short stories collection and I am hoping to get stuck into that soon

Fun Fact: Kendall Defoe's answer to Annie Kapur question above:

Kendall: I think I'm inspired by the absurdity of life. And the Challenges we receive on the Vocal page open up a particular idea in my mind about how the form can work around that absurdity.

Mariann: If you could change the world, what would you change?

Annie: I would change the attitude people take towards young people who are not reading. Instead of blaming them and laughing at them, we should be more compassionate to young folks who were raised in a world of distractions from the beginning. It is not their fault. Blame the corporations that spend millions monopolizing their attention. It is our job to help them - not tear them down.

Mariann: What attracted you to Vocal?

Annie: To be perfectly honest with you, I used to write a blog some years ago, and then Vocal popped up with an ad on social media. I thought, "Hey, this is pretty cool, I will go there". I made an account. This was seven or eight years ago.

There was not much thought behind it, except that the blogging space looked neat. I blog about the same topics I write about on Vocal, including book reviews, movie reviews, and rants. Blogger was no longer serving my needs.

Mariann: What does your writing space look like?

Annie: Unless I'm writing in bed, it looks like this:

I truly find Annie Kapur fascinating. She met her students halfway and pique their interest in learning the English Subject through poetry. She wrote over 2639 stories on Vocal can you imagine how many books she has read so far????