What inspired you to tell this story? About eight years ago, I spent two consecutive summers in a hamlet in the Catskills, where I was able to observe small town life. As someone who’d lived mostly in large urban cities, I found the ecosystem of a rural community pretty fascinating. On one hand, it was predominantly white, so it was a new experience for me to feel how I stood out. On the other hand, I was surprised by how tolerant most people were toward each other, despite varying backgrounds of class, race, occupation, and sexual orientation. I think this had a lot to do with the fact that within a small confine, you had to accommodate, or the society around you would become dysfunctional. This was also just before the Trump era, and the divisiveness it ushered in, so I’m not sure if that tolerance remained or changed in that community since. In any case, I’ve always had a sociological bent, so this dynamic of compression was intriguing to me, and in my novel, …

What inspired you to tell this story? A lot of sleepless nights lying awake in pain! And Audre Lorde, whose book The Cancer Journals, was the first book that showed me a model of how to blend personal illness narrative with political analysis and purpose. In The Cancer Journals Audre Lorde wrote, “I had known the pain, and survived it. It only remained for me to give it voice, to share it for use, that the pain not be wasted.” I was thankfully not suffering from cancer, but I was living with invisible and debilitating chronic pain that seemed to demand a form of expression. So I took Lorde’s line as a mandate. How could I give voice to my pain and share it, so that it would not be wasted? Also, I wrote this book to be my own witness and advocate for integrative health. I wanted to assemble a meaningful narrative about the chronic pain and mental health challenges I had experienced for most of my life, a deeper narrative than I ever …

What inspired you to tell this story? I began writing The School for Good Mothers in February 2014. At that time, I was heading into my late thirties and constantly ruminating about whether or not my partner and I should have a child. The biological clock pressure was intense, as was my ambivalence. The other source of inspiration was a New Yorker article by the journalist Rachel Aviv, “Where Is Your Mother?,” which appeared in the magazine late 2013. That mother’s heartbreaking story made me start thinking about the injustices of the family court system and planted a kernel of rage in my mind.  What did you edit out of this book? If you can believe it, the book I sold to my publisher was actually bleeker. Some scenes of death and violence were edited out. I also worked with my editor, Dawn Davis, to streamline the lessons. We cut about 35 pages in total. How did you know you were done? What did you discover about yourself upon completion? Most of my professional experience …

What inspired you to tell this story?  My mother! Everything I write and create comes back to her. My memoir is a love song for working-class, low-income immigrant women… I really wanted to spotlight her life and what I’ve learned from her. Her story is also my story. I also wanted to write a memoir that played with form – echoing migration itself. It’s non-linear and tonally textured… just like in real life, I wanted there to be moments where I’m laughing so hard to stop myself from crying. I also think we need more stories that refuse a singular voice; yes, this book is about me growing up in a take-out restaurant, but it’s also about my relationships with toxic men, what it means to fall in love with poetry, and the ferocious of matrilineal wisdom and clairvoyance. What did you edit out of this book? Writing a memoir is definitely a challenge in terms of what you keep in and what you leave out. I really wanted there to be a balance between …

What inspired you to tell this story?  The first time I tried to explain the contours of my family and, frankly, my grief was when I was in third grade. I wrote a little story of my father’s death, illustrated it, and then my teacher helped me bind it. I knew then that I’d write this book. Every few years, I’d tell it, again and again. On holidays and family gatherings, my mother or aunts and uncles, cousins and family friends would exchange stories, and I wanted to be the one to record some of them.  Then, after my mother died when I was 31, it felt like the story I had to tell–a way to grieve her loss but also, a way to honor my parents, my family, and the whole of our community. It was also how I learned to write long-form.     What did you edit out of this book? They Said They Wanted Revolution has had several forms, but it really began as my MFA thesis. Hundreds of pages of research and …