I always knew I wanted to be a writer, but after I was sent to reform school, I didn’t write for a decade. I have a tricky relationship with writing— at the school I was punished for what I wrote in my letters home. They would make me rewrite my letters over and over. I also was punished for what I wrote in my journal, most notably after a friend of mine told me about Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia who spoke out against white supremacy to the United Nations in 1963 and is revered in the Rastafari Movement. I wrote the conversation down so I wouldn’t forget who Selassie was, which led to consequences neither my friend nor I could have imagined.
I never pursued my MFA, partly because of the trauma associated with writing, but also because by the time I resumed writing I was married and had a kid and a career. To help fill in my knowledge gap, I began interviewing other writers and artists around 2012 and to date have interviewed more than 50 artists.
Most recently I interviewed Amanda Oliver, who, like me, is a lapsed librarian (I left the library in 2019 after an injury on the job left me unable to use my arms for 2 years). Oliver too was suffered trauma in the library. She recently published her first book OVERDUE: RECKONING WITH THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. When we met over Zoom in late 2022, Amanda and I had this incredibly cathartic conversation about all things library. Afterwards I sent her follow up questions which are published here.
My friend Cleyvis Natera is an all-around badass activist and individual who has won numerous awards and fellowships. She’s also very active on instagram. Follow her! Last spring Natera published her exquisite debut NERUDA ON THE PARK, which we spoke about here.
I almost threw up before I spoke to Imani Perry about her most recent book, SOUTH TO AMERICA: A JOURNEY BELOW THE MASON-DIXON LINE TO UNDERSTAND THE SOUL OF AMERICA, not just because I knew it would win the National Book Award (yes!), but because so much of what Perry wrote about are things I have wrestled with regarding the South my entire life and I didn’t want to blow my one chance to discuss them with her. Read our mind meld here.
GROUNDSKEEPING by Lee Coles is a beautifully written novel set in Kentucky that in part wrestles with the narrator breaking away from his evangelical parents. Our conversation was Electric Lit’s most-read interview of March, in part because of this brilliant title written by my editor, Jo Lou.
Finally, I was thrilled to speak with Caits Meissner, the director of the Prison and Justice Writing at PEN America, about THE SENTENCES THAT CREATE US: CRAFTING A WRITER’S LIFE IN PRISON, the updated writing manual for those who are incarcerated, which was edited by Meisner. In December I learned that our conversation was Electric Lit’s most read interview of 2022.