“[Some tweets that resonated with me] were about how marginalized writers often are told that their protagonists lack agency or proactiveness. This feedback, to me, is premised on cishet white masculine and/or Enlightenment/imperialist ideas of what it means to be in and interact with the world. What would happen if we were to open our minds to other (perhaps gentler) ways of engaging with the world? What stories would emerge then?”

“As marginalized writers, we should write the stories the way we see fit. If an experimental story structure seems to be working for the story we want to tell–if that’s what feels right–I think we should commit to it, at least until trusted readers suggest otherwise. I also think that marginalized writers who are querying and submitting their work should find trusted readers, agents, editors, etc, whose vision for the work aligns with their vision. It was important to me when querying that I find an agent who understood what it was that I wanted to do, who didn’t hop on board because of trends and who didn’t want to mold my book into something that wasn’t my own, but who felt passionately about the story I was trying to tell.”