The First Book: Santiago Jose Sanchez
I was repeatedly drawn to the fractures in my life—the gaps between childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and my relationships with sex, my mother, and my motherland.
The First Book
14 posts
The First Book column is an interview series where writers discuss the process of publishing their debuts.
The First Book: Melissa Petro
In our culture, motherhood is presumably sanctified, and I thought I’d experience social acceptance beyond anything I’d ever imagined. Instead, I felt under constant surveillance and yet utterly invisible....
The First Book: Yasmin Zaher
If I thought too much about audience, or audiences, I think I would encounter too many opposing demands and the writing would end up average.
The First Book: Marcela Fuentes
I’m writing for anyone who likes a messy, drama-filled story with secrets and hilarious family problems, but also for my Latinx community.
The First Book: Uche Okonkwo
Going out of one's way to write what's currently trendy, just because it's trendy, can be counterproductive and take the pleasure out of writing.
The First Book: Eddie Ahn
The themes in the book subsequently shaped the story’s chronology and created a different style of graphic storytelling, connecting my family’s history with my community work and service.
The First Book: Armen Davoudian
I was attracted to those aspects of poetry where you can be in two places at once but also lost between them: rhyme, the pun, and “binary” forms like the sonnet.
The First Book: Vanessa Chan
Ambition and achievement are great, but gratitude is the true source of joy.
The First Book: Soraya Palmer
I thought about stories that saved me as a child by showing me what was possible. And then I thought about the stories that were missing.
The First Book: A. Light Zachary
I gave up on "speaking truth to power" when I remembered our oppressors will never read my poetry.
The First Book: Sebastián H. Páramo
I believe that's what most writers want—to share an experience that adds complexity to life and resonates with something someone hasn't been able to say yet.