I was four when I announced my ambition to write, eight when I began publishing such claims.

So often, literature about African people is conflated with literature about African politics, as if the state were somehow of greater import or interest than the individual.

Being a twin, and being my sister's twin, is such a defining part of my life that I wouldn't know how to be who I am, including a writer, without that being somehow at the centre.

The writer presents himself to the blank page not with an open passport but an open heart.

My mother is a special education teacher but also an artist, and my father an advertising executive. They are about as wacky as you can get without being alcoholics.

I would definitely like to start a family because it's the most important thing in the world and what you should take care of, along with your friends and the people you love.

Look, I've got incredible pride for my family. I've absolutely fallen into that cliche of a dad who could just happily talk about my daughter endlessly.

Mizzou was my real family. I loved it. Football was a sense of home. A home I never had.