I'm interested in how the confessional is so abrasively critiqued today. I'm not really comfortable with simply confessing but I do think "confessing….

First of all, the novel should be a critique of the novels that have come before it in a language that broadens the audience of American literature. ….

I write two hours in the morning and two hours before bed no matter. No matter what. I also write during the day if I have to get something down, but….

One of the problems with a lot of "confessional" writing is that it starts and stops with the confessional and doesn't really tie the "I" into a "we"….

Not so deep down, we all know that safety is an illusion, that only character melds us together. That’s why most of us do everything we can (healthy ….

In essay writing, I'm trying to push the form of expository writing. I'm trying to remember, trying to reckon, trying to find connections with the wo….

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

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

I'm not good enough as a person and definitely not good enough as a writer..

I'm also, than anything else, a teacher and a student. And without the four hours, I'm pretty monsterish. For real..

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

I allude to Back to the Future in the 1985 story to let folks know it was an inspiration and because it literally was the most time-travelly bit of p….

I'm accountable - this sounds emo - to black American writing, Southern writing, Southern black American writing, American writing and my people. Tha….

The "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others" essay was so hard to write because of the memories, the sensory stuff, but also because it didn't follow….

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

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 wi….

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