"The reason that I like to use classical myths as models is because African American writers and African American stor…"

"Place is important to my writing; I believe that if a reader gets a clear picture of the place where a character is f…"

"I know that I could, but it feels very unnatural for me to strip my prose like that, in part because place is so impo…"

"But what mires me in pessimism is the fact that so much of life is pain and sorrow and willful ignorance and violence…"

"So I kept pulling my punches. And later I realised that was a mistake. Life doesn’t spare the kind of people who I wr…"

"(Any favorite Mississippi or Louisiana authors you’d like to recommend?) There are so many: Ernest Gaines, Natasha Tr…"

"(Which writers – novelists, playwrights, critics, journalists, poets – working today do you admire most?) there are s…"

"What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?) This is when I becam…"

"(What’s the last great book you read?) “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of America Capitalism,” …"

"(What books or authors have most inspired you? What books did you read while working on Ordinary Girls?) JD: Jesmyn W…"