“In some ways, the poems in retribution forthcoming can be read as a kind of coming-of-age narrative specific to a girl in her twenties. The music included here reflects my own musical history—and the way it’s bound up in the ways I thought and think, and the way that’s reproduced in my poems.”
“Music carried me through the long drive from New York City to southern West Virginia, which became a ritual of listening to the same songs, stopping at the same rest stops, meditating, mourning, and trying to stay awake.”
“My book is set in small-town Georgia, with eight of the nine short stories taking place in the same Georgia town called Muscadine.”
“My new novel, An Evening with Birdy O’Day, tracks the sixty year friendship between a musical prodigy and his biggest fan, Roland, so it’s filled with references to classic tracks and beloved singers. Queer divas abound.”
“…it took me months to complete this playlist, as I tried to make a satisfying listen that also told the story of Providence (of sadness, sex, and despair).”
“I always have to have music as I write, but it has to be a particular kind of soundtrack, one that I love, that energizes or moves me, and one that I know my characters would love as well.”
“The stories in this collection came together in the space of over a decade—during which I had lived on three continents and my music tastes had changed somewhat…”
“And Yet is a book about shyness and selfhood and sex and stability and identity and selfhood. It’s also a book about unoriginality, as the nameless protagonist mostly exists in books and magazines and albums.”
“My debut poetry collection, PlayHouse: Poems, positions music as a dwelling that people, from Billie Holiday to members of my family, can inhabit and shape.”
“No literary homage to Kpop would be complete without the OG of Kpop songs, and ‘Gangnam Style’ will forever occupy that seat with swagger, style, and an irrepressible beat.”