I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. But like the rest of my maternal family, my soul is from Louisiana. My parents are a charismatic Creole woman from rural Louisiana and a Dominican hailing from the Bronx.

I enjoy reading comic books about characters like Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, and Detective Chimp. I watch anime like Samurai Champloo and The Apothecary Diaries while I ride my Peloton. A few of my favorite writers include Angela Carter, Christina Sharpe, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, and Toni Morrison.

I love the actorly grace of Tony Leung, Bette Davis, Giancarlo Giannini, Paul Newman, Franz Rogowski, Eartha Kitt, and Elizabeth Taylor. My most beloved TV shows are Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape, The Underground Railroad, and Sharp Objects.

Some films I am obsessed with are Some Like It Hot (1959), A New Love in Tokyo (1994), The Handmaiden (2016), Deep Cover (1992), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Juraj Herz’s Beauty and the Beast (1978), and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995). I drink a lot of non-alcoholic beer and kombucha. I love to throw down in the kitchen. When I’m not writing or reading, I am spending time with my wonderful boyfriend, tending to my garden, and hosting dinner parties. I live in Chicago with my two cats, Professor Butch Cassidy and Big Papa fka Judah.