Everything I write, I read out loud. It has to sound a certain way. It has to look a certain way on the page.

I think I'd rather have my heart broke than do the breaking. —Lena

There's me in every character I put on the pages.

You can't always be pushing people away. Someday nobody'll come back.

One place exists as their interpretation of it. For the people living and thriving inside of it, it's another place.

I've learned about marrying poetry and prose and making both accessible.

When you think of how a child experiences a series of events, it feels, for so long, like she's looking at everything from behind this glass and it's obscured.