How did you become a writer? High school. Junior year. I was tricked by my Spanish teacher into switching from the regular stream of English classes into English III AP (long story). We were studying vignettes. After reading and studying a few, my teacher, Mrs. Dooling, assigned us to write our own. The piece I wrote – about apples; to this day, I still love apples – went on to win first place in my town’s newspaper’s short story competition. “Keep going,” Mrs. Dooling said. So I did.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). Mrs. Dooling, English III AP. Margaret Atwood, THE HANDMAID’S TALE. Zadie Smith, WHITE TEETH. Miss Lou (Louise Bennett), RING DING. 

When and where do you write? I used to exclusively be a nighttime writer, though life’s responsibilities have recently forced me to become a morning writer. I also used to be a coffee shop writer, but I haven’t had the chance to indulge in that luxury ever since the pandemic hit. So now, I write between 7 and 10 am, in my pajamas, at one of two desks shoved in corners around my apartment. 

What are you working on now? An essay about loneliness and belonging, as well as a short story fragment that I have no clue what to do with.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? More often than I’m willing to admit. That’s often how I know what I’m working on is worth pursuing – the narrative does not flow easily from me. It requires that I pause and dig deeper and work towards change in order to see the story in the way that it needs to be told.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? It’s okay to stop writing from time to time – but never, ever, stop reading.

What’s your advice to new writers? Read more than you write. Doing so gives you texture and context for the stories you have inside yourself.

Christina Cooke’s writing has appeared in The Caribbean Writer, PRISM International, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany, Lambda Literary Review, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow and Journey Prize winner, she holds a Master of Arts from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Christina was born in Jamaica and is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. BROUGHTUPSY is her debut novel.