When I am writing a story it feels as real as the life I am experiencing off the page. It's an emotional illusion, I guess..

I am always urging my students to honor their writing practice, to set up a schedule..

This is what I have come to know: Our past is never passed and there is no such thing as moving on. But there is this telling and there is such a thi….

I guess this is how love is when it comes undone. No matter how tight you knit the stitches, a sharp tug on a loose thread will transform your warm s….

I don’t mind expressing my opinions and speaking out against injustice. I would be doing this even if I wasn’t a writer. I grew up in a household th….

When you write a novel, you make other people see your imaginary friends..

If there was ever a time to boil up some grits it is now..

Adolescence is a modern construct and very American in so many ways..

My first novel, Leaving Atlanta, took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least ….

I take mentoring very seriously and as a result I hardly get any work done during the school year..

I take mentoring very seriously and I am on the board of an organization called Girls Write Now, where we match teen girls and writing mentors becaus….

Remember that the writing itself is good for you. If your story is so close to home that you are afraid to write it, it probably means you need to wr….

When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth..

And this is how it started. Just with coffee and the exchange of their long stories. Love can be incremental. Predicaments, too. Coffee can start a l….

People say, That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But they are wrong. What doesn't kill you doesn't kill you. That's all you get. Sometimes….

I like straightforward names for my characters. When I get too symbolic with names or places, I start feeling like the characters and the story are l….

I think the NAACP isn't recognized enough for all of the work it does, especially in the field of law. They may have faded from view over the last co….

Secret families are really the bedrock issue of Western literature..

Abandonment doesn't have the sharp but dissipating sting of a slap. It's like a punch to the gut, bruising your skin and driving the precious air fro….

Nine Years Under is a sparkling debut--- brimming with love and bursting with life. Booker's Baltimore is equal parts The Wire and The Cosby show. Sh….

Dwelling on pain, spending too much time immersed in it, tasting its flavors, fingering its textures--this makes it only more potent..