(Remember in-person crushes and in-person weddings?)
What is the first thing ever that you remember writing?
In sixth grade, my teacher wheeled in a cart with books about flowers.
Credit: Andrea Stenson
She told us we were doing projects so,everyone, choose a flower.
I narrowed my eyes to target-mark a book on lilacs.
When I returned, a lone book remained on the cart: goldenrod, a.k.a.
Simon and Schuster
a weed barely hanging on to its membership in the flowers club.
That’s the first thing I remember writing super-passionately about: goldenrods.
and not my very own special project about weeds.
I think a couple of kids believed me.
What is the last book that made you cry?
Black Girl Unlimited, by Echo Brown.
It’s a coming-of-age story that unfolds poetically, stirring all your emotions along the way.
Which book is at the top of your current to-read list?
Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee.
It’s for me but also for my daughter.
She’s always searching for long saga stories and I’m always searching for the right book for her.
Where do you write?
Wait, I also use it for online shopping.
Which book made you a forever reader?
Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
What is a snack you couldn’t write without?
If you could change one thing about any of your books, what would it be?
Or else I may pull them off the shelves in bookstores.
What is your favorite part ofMisfit in Love?
As I’m writing Sausun, I’m so, so sure she’s going to outshine everyone else.
I’m powerless against her.
In this book, she destroys someone, and then falls in love with them, just like that.
What was the hardest plot point or character to write in this book?
Layth, one of the three boys Janna navigates, was difficult to write.
He’s a bad boy, but a bad boy who really, really cares about helpless animals.
Doing writerly justice to each part of his personality was challenging.
A lot of excellent people helped me with that part of the book.
Write a movie poster tag line for yourMisfit in Love:
“It’stheMuslim wedding of the summer andyou’reinvited!”
