Many thanks again go to the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and specifically Ariel Martino, for organizing my recent visit to IDEA Public Charter School. I caught the end of Mrs. Reynolds’ 9th grade class and they asked some great questions about why I wrote the book and what it was about.
I was there to speak to her senior English class, though, and the students there also had some great questions. One in particular was, “Why did you make both Kira and her mother single and struggling to have good relationships with men.” I loved that the student had engaged with the characters enough to wonder about their lives. Kira, of course, is struggling to figure out who she is and if she had been in a steady, stable relationship, the dynamic with Alex may not have worked as it did. But I wrote from what I know and what I’ve seen. As unfortunate as it is, there are many women, of all races, who struggle to maintain relationships with men. There are, of course, many women in stable, loving relationships, and maybe one day I’ll write about that. Sadly, women who are single and still looking (even in their 50s and 60s) is a reality I’m more familiar with.
