I grew up in Mississippi and am very proud of my Southern roots. In fact, I stayed in Mississippi for college and went to the great Mississippi State University. I pursued my passion for reading novels there and double majored in Literature and Philosophy. After graduating, I got a Rhodes Scholarship and went to the University of Oxford for two years.

At Harvard, my dissertation on Southern Black writers stemmed from a deep love for my family and friends back home. I love cooking, running, and writing both fiction and historical nonfiction. My broad research interests are 20th-century African American Literature and History.