Poet and author of Against Heaven, Kemi Alabi, is experiencing a new disability and profound grief around the limits of care for sick Black people: ‘I’m wrestling with fear, anger; a complete reorientation to time, to my body, to the ableist world—and it’s demanding more honest language from me. I wish I could write around all this, but guided by Audre Lorde, I’ll write through.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
I tore through anything I could find—children’s poetry, young adult fiction, and adult novels I could barely comprehend. I loved reading, perhaps more for the thrill of language than the story itself. That translates to my adult love of a delightful line or sentence over narrative.
If your life so far was a series of texts, which text (fiction or non-fiction) represents you at this moment?
Maybe Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals. I’m experiencing a new disability and profound grief around the limits of care for sick Black people. I’m wrestling with fear, anger; a complete reorientation to time, to my body, to the ableist world—and it’s demanding more honest language from me. I wish I could write around all this, but guided by Lorde, I’ll write through...
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