I genuinely enjoyed going to Lawrence Hill’s Q&A session on Monday. He, obviously, answered a lot of questions about Someone Knows My Name in particular, but he also touched on the writing process, and answered more general questions about being the author of books. I found those answers to be really enlightening. I think no matter how many times someone reads a book, he or she will never get everything out of it that the author intended; maybe the same goes for poetry. But when an author offers to explain everything that went into the book (or poem), – the inspiration, the research, the challenges, the fun and disheartening parts, etc. – it brings the book into sharper focus. The reader might have speculated on all the “whys” of plot twists, character choices, settings, etc., but all along knowing he couldn’t presume to know exactly what was going on in the author’s mind. To use a cheesy analogy, it’s like giving glasses (or binoculars?) to a bird watcher with sub-par vision. I also imagine that the opportunity for an author to meet his readers must be enlightening in a similar way. It would mean meeting the people who not only found your book somehow, but took enough of an interest in what you wrote to go to that meeting. What I think I’m trying to articulate is the difference between writing an academic paper, when I know who my audience is, and writing a book, which sort of picks its own audience.