Show A People As One Thing, Only

We Did That Often, Asking Each Other Questions Whose Answers We Already Knew. Perhaps It Was So That We Would Not Ask The Other Questions, The Ones Whose Answers We Did Not Want To Know.

I Think Human Beings Exist In A Social World. I Write Realistic Fiction, And So It Isn't That Surprising That The Social Realities Of Their Existence Would Be Part Of The Story.

Many Stories Matter. Stories Have Been Used To Dispossess And To Malign. But Stories Can Also Be Used To Empower, And To Humanize. Stories Can Break The Dignity Of A People. But Stories Can Also Repair That Broken Dignity.

I Am Drawn, As A Reader, To Detail-drenched Stories About Human Lives Affected As Much By The Internal As By The External, The Kind Of Fiction That Jane Smiley Nicely Describes As 'first And Foremost About How Individuals Fit, Or Don't Fit, Into Their Social Worlds.'

I Have Chosen To No Longer Be Apologetic For My Femaleness And My Femininity. And I Want To Be Respected In All Of My Femaleness Because I Deserve To Be.