Interviews

Interview with Full Stop Quarterly and Andrew Mitchell Davenport

"My intention is to present one woman’s experience at a particular moment in time within a particular context. Edwidge Danticat wrote a letter to her protagonist at the end of Breathe, Eyes, and Memory, and it’s always stayed me with. She apologizes for the ways the world will make her story representational for all young Haitian women, and I’ve never been able to forget it. That idea of a singular story is what sits at the center of Summer of the Cicadas. All of the characters are struggling to not be representational. So I hope readers feel as if they know Vi by the end of book, but also realize it’s all they know. Vi’s experience is not every black woman’s experience. "

Interview with The Rumpus & Deesha Philyaw

"A lot of folks talk about their MFA program and the issues they had. I didn’t have any of that. It was like coming home. Everyone understood the stories, so we could focus on what we needed to focus on, technical issues." 

Interview with Late Night Library & Corinne GOuld

"Historically, black and brown writers have had to wait their turn, in the sense that publishers limit the number of books they acquire, publish and publicize. Can you imagine if publishers did that for white male writers? Can you imagine a writer being rejected because 'we just published a book by a white dude last year and it didn’t do so well.'"

Interview with Brooklyn Magazine & Molly Mcardle

"It would be wonderful if we could just go out in the world and there’ll be one thing that affects us all the time, and it’s that only thing. But that’s just not how I’ve experienced the world." 

Interview with The Toast & Nichole Perkins

"I was looking for a really black space. To me, the HBCU represented that . . . not that there aren’t other black spaces. It was a black space that was also diverse, where all of these issues are piled up on each other and studied as well. It’s the perfect setting to discuss the idea of legacy, gender issues, sexual issues — all of that is in this little boiling pot."