When you’re a writer, there are certain places you dream of seeing your name. On the cover of a book, of course, as the author. On the cover of someone else’s book, for some of us, when we write blurbs (“A tour-de-force of excellence that makes life worth living!”) At the top of the New York Times bestseller list. As the subject of a review in the New York Times (yeah, it comes up a lot) or the Washington Post. And there are online places, too, that we love as readers and hope to one day see our bylines as writers. (You should have seen me the day I got a pitch accepted at The Millions!)

So I was utterly thrilled to see both my name and my not-exactly-smiling face (my author photo is a bit Mona Lisa) on this recently published interview at The Rumpus. And for an extra level of thrill — Erica Wright’s questions were so excellent and thoughtful, I think they really upped my game for equally thoughtful answers.

Anyway, all this is a very long way of saying: read this interview; I think you’ll love it. I did.