The authors and panelists of the Bronx Book Festival responded to personal questions about their lives, the writing process, and current literary inspirations. To see their panels and hear more about their books, RSVP for the Bronx Book Festival below.

ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON

AUTHOR OF TROUBLE THE SAINTS

Why did you become an author?

I've wanted to write novels almost as soon as I figured out what a novel was! I just loved reading stories and telling stories and I wanted more than anything to be able to write them as well. High school was when I got serious about trying to get published, and I published my first short story shortly after college.

 What are you reading right now?

Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston.

 Have you ever been to the Bronx? If so, what's a favorite memory you have? If not, what do you know or think about the Bronx?

I lived for many years about a block from the Bronx border in Yonkers. I used to love wandering through the Botanical Gardens on weekends and then heading over to Arthur Ave. for pizza or (even better) cheese and spinach bureks.

 What is a quote you live by?

"You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves." —Mary Oliver