Ten Questions for Okezie Nwọka

“What does it take for any of us to change our core beliefs?” —Okezie Nwọka, author of God of Mercy
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Read weekly interviews with authors to learn the inside stories of how their books were written, edited, and published; insights into the creative process; the best writing advice they’ve ever heard; and more.
“What does it take for any of us to change our core beliefs?” —Okezie Nwọka, author of God of Mercy
“I was using the text as a future image of what my own life could be.” —Shayla Lawz, author of speculation, n.
“I need to be involved with life, its business, its noise.” —Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, author of The House of Rust
“Trust yourself and your own vision for your work.” —Blake Sanz, author of The Boundaries of Their Dwelling
“I wanted to articulate and be honest to the emotion of grief.” —Eugene Lim, author of Search History
“I write poetry when I’m in transit or transition.” —Angela Hume, author of Interventions for Women
“It was a fever dream process of creation.” —Casey Plett, author of A Dream of a Woman
“There was so much shame in this project for me to dispel and bury.” —Mahogany L. Browne, author of I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love
“The moment you walk away from the conversation with a poem, you lose it, and it will never return.” —CAConrad, author of AMANDA PARADISE
“In the mornings—or when I roll over from a dream—there’s only God and me talking to each other.” —Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois
“I find it really hard to follow a routine in almost every part of my life.” —Kat Chow, author of Seeing Ghosts
“Combining unsparing humor with heart is a superpower.” —Jaime Cortez, author of Gordo
“I write when an idea, story, or book commands me to.” —Louis Edwards, author of Ramadan Ramsey
“Show up no matter what so your writing knows you are there.” —Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, author of Savage Tongues
“The hardest part of writing Virga was finding the courage to be vulnerable on the page.” —Shin Yu Pai, author of Virga
“I only write about the things that haunt me in some way.” —Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies
“Engaging with art doesn’t have to be about understanding something or getting the right answer.” —Beth Morgan, author of A Touch of Jen
This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Pajtim Statovci and David Hackston, the author and the translator of Bolla.
“The book often knows more, and knows better, than you do.” —Clare Sestanovich, author of Objects of Desire
This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Mariana Oliver and Julia Sanches, the author and the translator of Migratory Birds.
“All memoirists are making art out of time, and there isn’t one way.” —Krys Malcolm Belc, the author of The Natural Mother of the Child
“Having to insist on that center and refuse, over and over again, to compromise the work in service of a white gaze was one of the most brutal experiences of my career.” —Akwaeke Emezi, author of Dear Senthuran
“You’re neither the genius nor the failure you think you are.” —Jack Wang, author of We Two Alone
“I will miss these characters living in my head.” —Monica West, author of Revival Season
“The words start to feel like they’re punching my skull from the inside.” —Brian Broome, author of Punch Me Up to the Gods