Secret families are really the bedrock issue of Western literature.

The adolescent protagonist is one of the hallmarks of American literature.

I don't mind expressing my opinions and speaking out against injustice. I would be doing this even if I wasn't a writer. I grew up in a household that believed in social justice. I have always understood myself as having an obligation to stand on the side of the silenced, the oppressed, and the mistreated.

I am always urging my students to honor their writing practice, to set up a schedule.

Adolescence is a modern construct and very American in so many ways.

My first novel, 'Leaving Atlanta,' took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least 29 African-American children dead.