"Diasporic writers must use our privilege for good, especially the privileges we did not ask for but are nonetheless afforded by the nature of being in diaspora in the West."

"More than ever before, except for maybe when I was a kid, I allow myself to get to the blank page with excitement, hope, ambition, but not that much expectation or pressure."

"Writing was something that i held tight and as free of institutional compressions and extraction as i could, but in that grip, it wasn't growing."

"I think I largely write for myself to stay alive, and I bring all of my friends and selves into the room when I write."

"Our younger selves need us to do this work. They are waiting on us to feel our anger deeply. They are waiting on us to free their shame."

"I approach the page every time knowing I choose to speak, I choose to share my truth, and there is always space, time, and an audience that are seeking and needing voices like mine."

"The richness and sensitivities in our stories lead the call to offer care and dignity to one another. When we honor each other’s stories, we lay the groundwork for the world we dream of and believe in."

“The transgenerational desire to unmake colonial and imperial dreams that have, for so many, become a nightmare.”

“How can language prefigure new rhythms and expressions of freedom, new openings for action—and widen existing ones?”

“What does it mean for girlhood to be the country you came from, left behind, or are still traversing or transforming within?”

“Separation invokes grief, but it also invites brightness — the gleam of a life perhaps never anticipated, but on its way regardless.”

“What if liminality is the place we have arrived to, the place from which we now speak?”

"Once I stopped externalizing my need to have my aspirations validated, I could put all of that energy back into the work."

"How can we wrap our heads around loss when it is an ongoing process? How can we find joy in the aftermath of or during survival?"