I wanted to create a book that was unafraid of black bodies, yet super interested in thinking about the relationship of love to body and sexuality without relying on tired understandings of "gay" "bi" or "straight."

Black is not a vice. Nor is segregation a virtue.

I'm a black writer from Mississippi. That's what I most consider myself.

Long Division has a lot of Afrosurrealist impulses. I think the book was more Afrofuturist when it was like 700 pages.

I'm accountable - this sounds emo - to black American writing, Southern writing, Southern black American writing, American writing and my people. That's kind of what keeps me accountable.

I'm an obsessive writer who needs and loves revision. Writing helps me learn and helps me teach.

I wish every American explored the importance of novel writing, identity, honesty, character and place in fresh-ass ways.