296: Fairy Tales, Vernacular, and the Art of Storytelling — Interview with Curdella Forbes

Hey there word nerds!

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Curdella Forbes.

Curdella is a Jamaican writer who lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, and teaches at Howard University. Her latest novel, A Tall History of Sugar, has been praised by BuzzFeed, Essence, Bookish, The Rumpus, Electric Lit, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, SyFy, and many others. Writing for the New York Times Book Review, Veronica Chambers said of the novel: "Forbes’s writing combines the gale-force imagination of Margaret Atwood with the lyrical pointillism of Toni Morrison.”

In this episode Curdella and I discuss:

• The inspiration behind A Tall History of Sugar
• Writing about the experience of not belonging
• Moving between third and first person
• The dark origins of fairy tales
• The story behind the title “A Tall History of Sugar”

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

For more info and show notes: www.diymfa.com/296