In conversation with Sharon G. Flake

Camonghne Felix is the author of Build Yourself a Boat, “an exquisite and thoughtful” (Bustle) poetry collection that was longlisted for the National Book Award in poetry and shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, among other honors. A contributing writer at The Cut, her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming in numerous places, including The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, and Harvard Review. In Dyscalculia, Felix uses her childhood learning disorder that caused difficulties with math to explore the trauma of a monumental breakup, past troubles, and the concepts of self-love and acceptance.

Acclaimed as a modern classic for middle and high school students, Sharon G. Flake’s 1998 debut novel The Skin I’m In depicts the travails of a seventh grader dealing with self-esteem issues connected with race, economics, and academic success. It has been translated into several languages and has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Flake is also the author of a dozen other books of fiction, short stories, and poems, including Money Hungry, You Don’t Even Know Me, and The Life I’m In, a companion piece to The Skin I’m In published in 2021. Her many honors include two Coretta Scott King Awards, the John Steptoe Award for New Talent, and the YWCA Racial Justice Award.