The First Book

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.

Just do your work.

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.

Ambition and achievement are great, but gratitude is the true source of joy.

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.

I gave up on "speaking truth to power" when I remembered our oppressors will never read my poetry.

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.

Believe in your story. Be persistent. Be creative and find ways around the roadblocks.

If the writing process is healing, and if this healing process shapes the narrative, then maybe the reading experience can stimulate aspects of the same healing process.