In my experience when I do try to avoid something, it makes its way into the work anyway. To be in front of it and just make friends with it is easier for me.

I try to convey what it feels like and sounds like and smells like and looks like inside of my particular skin, to move through the world as a black American woman in her mid-twenties.

My friends and I have all been super motivated to work and to do the work that we need to and want to and think should be in the world.

I've been thinking a lot about folks denying what has happened in history, or just not acknowledging it.

We can look at history and see that [political turmoil is] fertile ground for art.

I really hope that people feel permission to talk about their own troubles, but also to celebrate themselves.

I spent a lot of time trying to layer upon layer upon layer as I wrote. I think that's often the fear of a writer, that little nuances won't get picked up.