What inspired you to write Theory & Practice?

I wanted to write about the gap between our aspirations and our actions, between theory and practice. I also wanted to write about the long reach of colonialism and various kinds of violence enacted on people of colour.

In what ways do you think the narrator in Theory & Practice might be an empowering figure for women and young girls?

To empower women is to represent all our flawed and beautiful complexity, and that is the kind of female narrator I tried to create.

What was the most recent book you’ve read about women or girls that moved you?

The Danish writer Helle Helle’s short novel they unfolds from the point of view of a teenage girl whose mother is terminally ill. They have little money and have to move frequently from one modest lodging to another, but they take loving care of each other as best they can. It’s a sparse, minimalist narrative that accrues great power as it goes along. I found it a tremendously moving and compelling book.