How important is it for Black writers and readers to have their stories told?
Going back to the solace inside the melancholy, I was 16 the first time I read a story about an African American man and woman loving each other. It was If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin. Granted, I grew up witnessing a model thanks to my parents, as well as watching such TV shows as “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times,” but to see it on the page is important. The only reason I picked it up when I was in high school was because James Baldwin had died, and I knew nothing about him. He wasn’t even referred to in educational settings at that time. We have to tell our stories because no one can depend on the media or the education system to put African American people in a positive light. We have to do it ourselves through books.
What does literary success look like to you?
For me, literary success looks like Walter Mosley. In his master class, he talks about getting up whenever he wakes up and continuing to write what he wrote on the previous day. He writes three hours a day, and or 1,000 words. This is his formula for finishing a novel in at least a year, and it certainly works because he is prolific … 69 books prolific. Essentially, literary success looks like having three hours to spare every day to write.
