I have these "pinch me" moments when I realize I got to be the thing I wanted to be growing up. I'm right where I belong.

I was lucky to receive help at the beginning of my career and now I want to help other writers as much as I can.

I grew up with a feminist mom and the understanding that, as someone coming from a position of (relative) privilege, it was my job to speak up when things weren't fair.

Whenever people with money have power over people with less money, you have the potential for exploitation.

I was an English major in college, took a ton of creative writing courses, and was a newspaper reporter for 10 years.

I also believe that if you're really a writer, you'll write, and that nobody could stop you.

Maybe it stems from my newspaper-reporting days, but I took notes the whole time - getting the call, how I felt. As soon as I put pen to paper, it became a story [Hunger Heart], not something happening to me but something I was recording.