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| James Leader with is best selling book 'Into Babel' |
As I'm navigating and observing the changes in my life since the last few months, this blog and writing about people that inspire us all gets me closer and closer to people's dreams, hopes, passions and hence, closer to their inner beings. Of course, an interview over a screen is not what one would consider a perfect setting to get anyone to let down any defenses. Neither is it a barrier, I have come to realize. People give me parts of what their personalities and souls allow them to at any given time. The more open I am, the quicker it's to get the other person to be comfortable enough.
So when I interviewed James Leader, I found myself talking about my current life where I'm discovering new skills and new facets. This led to a conversation on how a day can be considered full of uncertainty, but it also allows for multiple opportunities! Sure, it's uncomfortable, but maybe a comfort zone is time bound and I've run out of my time for that kind of life. Which is why I was happy that my guest here today teacher, author and poet, met me in a conversation where his true self could come to the fore.
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| "Into Babel" bestselling novel in Luxembourg, published 2024. |
I met James or was moved by him as he delivered with perfect composure and eloquence a poem about his past career and a poem about the couple his parents are today. The moment I heard James, I knew that he has a lot of things that anyone can understand, aspire to be or relate to. Whether it's a life rich with adventures of working in Abu Dhabi or the privilege of still having his parents to learn from. And then of course, everyone likes a successful poet. Here's someone who has something to say and is even being paid to do so.
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| Signing copies of bestselling "Into Babel" at the Walfer Bicherdeeg (literary fair in Luxembourg) in 2024 |
With all this, James had to be a part of my blog. Here's his story. James has been teaching a large part of the past 25 years at the European school in the tiny country of Luxembourg. Funny that me, who comes from a huge country like India, currently residing in a tiny country that's Belgium can actually call another country tiny. But truly, Luxembourg is miniscule but a country very rich in culture amongst other things. According to James, residing there has been a great experience and good for his creativity. It's a country that supports writers and poets and I'm guessing creative people of all kinds. A remarkable place to live!
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| Graduation of the European School Luxembourg II |
James started his career in the European school after shifting from the USA where he was working as a high school teacher in Washington State. He had managed to get a great contract that gave him 9 years of work. After that, he decided to take a year off just to write. In that year, he managed to write two novels. His days were 3-4 hours of bliss and joy doing the writing while tackling and juggling with the voices of his characters and multiple rounds of editing amongst other things. But, having been a busy man with a routine for years, James missed it along with the social interactions he had. He missed the contact with the children and his colleagues . He didn't like being lonely and had no mundane discussion points to share with his family when they came back home at the end of the day.
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| Teaching a workshop in creative writing in Luxembourg |
As a family, they travelled around Asia for 6 months and went back to the USA for another half a year. Long story short, this part of life was when he realised he needed a job. He needed to interact daily with people and have a routine outside of home. That's when he decided to reach out to the school in Luxembourg and try to get a contract again. He now was offered a local job, i.e. a contract made in Luxembourg and this meant he was going to do the same job with nearly a 40% pay cut. He accepted and started his second round of teaching in the European school. In exchange for the smaller salary, he could now choose how many hours he would work and this got him the perfect balance of work at school and work for himself. He teaches 12-18 year olds these days. The whole experience led to him writing his book on the school - 'Into Babel'.
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| Being interviewed about poetry at the Luxembourg "Printemps des Poetes" (a poetry festival) |
I try to understand James from when he started writing as a young man, because usually the writer or the poet exists much earlier than when we, the public know about them. Our conversation led us back into his childhood. Until the age of 12, he had a very normal one. When adolescence hit, he started having lots of difficulties and he suffered terrible mood swings. It got worse every passing year, yet discussing mental health was taboo back then. So, at 16, James started writing poetry as a way to deal with those dark moments. Writing poems started to give him meaning and pleasure. Only recently James has been diagnosed as having a mild form of bipolar disorder. (we can take all this out if you prefer) He finally feels in control, as he is being treated for it. The diagnosis gave him some answers on his youth and his behaviour over the years and I find it commendable that he has no reservations either about talking about it or sharing this in a public forum. A great way I think to normalize and bring acceptance to mental health issues.
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| Doing a poetry reading last June in Luxembourg |
Even though I write poetry myself, I haven't made myself a 'knowledgeable' poet. Or someone who knows all the kinds of poetry that exist. I write more poetry than I read. So, it was nice to hear that James had managed to write a 'Villanelle' the day before our conversation. He was riding high on the feeling of having accomplished something very difficult. Writing a poem of 19 lines which uses two repeating rhymes and two refrains, which are the first and third lines of the first stanza. Poetry keeps giving him a great sense of achievement and identity. James says he may be delusional, but he feels in the world of poetry he meets his friends, poets like T.S Eliot, Philip Larkin or Robert Browning. I understand him as in my world of poetry I'm very much in dialogue with the people I write about.
The teaching part of James' life, came about because he always knew he didn't want to live in England. He studied Modern languages and escaped from the U.K. After researching which career would allow him to travel and discover the world, he did a Teacher's course and started on this travelling life he dreamed of. Having now worked in France, Spain, Nicaragua, Abu Dhabi, and the U.S.A he has reached the life he now leads in Luxembourg. He loves the opportunities that this career has given him and at the same time, he realises he's quite passionate about teaching. He really missed it when he had stopped. He now teaches literature, enjoys taking Shakespeare to his students and conducts classes in Creative Writing.
Since James has now written 4 novels along with his poetry, I'm curious to know what he prefers. He says that poetry comes first. It's easier to get a result in a shorter span of time. When he starts a poem, he finds it satisfying that the people in his writing group can give him feedback that's relatively fast. For him the writing of a novel is long and his last novel took him five years to complete. But he finds that readers have a more positive reaction to the novels because stories are always preferred and understood better by many. Some people are afraid of poetry according to him. For example, the people who read his novel on the European school could identify with the story and many reached out to him. So, the larger volume of feedback means that novels have a return to the investment of time that's proportionally more satisfying. But the process of writing poetry is more fun for him. Poetry comes from a place that's somewhere deeper, magical and unconscious. You end up surprising yourself with what you can pen down. For him however, he cannot produce poetry to order. It's usually spontaneous, linked to a little image and often a metaphor. The real depth in poetry is in the metaphor. When he sees the metaphor, he knows that the poem will come about and he will write it someday, even if it's years later. However, with stories it's more conscious, he can schedule the writing, the implementing and the movement from thought to paper.
James talks of how he started out as a poet and found himself waiting for poems to come to him. Those days he was free, without any attachments, travelling the world and inspiration wouldn't come so easily. However, once he was married, with kids and living a super busy life in the States, the poetry came to him from his fatherhood, his children and his marriage. At some point, it all got to be too much and so he just gave up writing for about 4 years. Obviously, this suppression couldn't last and while he was running one morning on a beautiful day in Venice, he decided to pick up his pen again. On his 40th birthday, he resolved to start writing fiction. His first novel took him about 7years to write and he found it hard. He was frustrated by its progress. One day, in true artist style, much to the utter dismay of his wife, he just threw it away. This novel that never saw the light of day taught him really everything he knows about writing a novel and how hard it can be. It made him realise that just because he was a poet and a literature enthusiast, it was not necessarily enough. It made him more humble and forced him to take a critical look at his abilities.
However, what he started 20 years ago did go on to eventually get him recognition. In 2016, he won the Luxembourg National Prize for Literature of Young Adults for his novel. Now, he's working on a new entry for another competition. People call him to read out parts of his work at different events and he's currently living his best life.
I think James' story can be mine, and can be yours. What we really love doing leads us to bigger successes. We're ready to face any challenges with a smile because we have a focus and a purpose that's more important to us than any difficulty. The success or the wins are relative, but when the choice is yours, the route seems easier and the result gets us closer to our true selves. So, go on. Take time out to do what you love. Follow your inner light, it's worth it in the long run.
Here's James' website James Leader
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Read my poetry here
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Poem - My Mirror and me - Instagram upload - 1st Sept 2025
Read my articles
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Rachel Insomnia - Instagram series - uploaded 22nd July 2025
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