In the past couple weeks, I’ve done a bunch of interviews—all of which I loved, all of them for different reasons—and the ones I did with Gauraa at No Contact Magazine and with Peter at ZYZZYVA are very close to my heart. My interview in ZYZZYVA was a joy because Peter was a smart and insightful reader who noticed things I really wanted readers to notice, like for example, that “Sola’s Asterisk” is in the middle of the collection because that short story is essentially the heart of this collection in so many ways, both as microcosm and macrostructure. Beyond that, I love and respect ZYZZYVA so much, so having an interview in that journal about my debut short story collection is a huge fucking deal for me. And my interview in No Contact was a joy because Gauraa brought critical and cultural theory into a really smart conversation while focusing exactly where I wanted her to, the discussion of small presses, BIPOC identity and characterization, nonlinearity, and a sustained conversation about the interludes in this book. Beyond that, I loved the medium for our interview done completely with Instagram DMs. So, I got to enjoy both old school and new school interviews using different media while have some dope conversations in the process. Life is good!
