Identity and Authorship with Candice Iloh

At Mighty Writers, our days revolve around helping young people find their voices, which is why we’re especially excited when we connect with authors who speak to the issues that matter to them. In this episode, I talk to Candice Iloh, an award-winning author of young adult novels including “Every Body Looking,” “Break This House” and their newest release, “Salt the Water.”

Candice is a first generation Nigerian-American who grew up in the Midwest before coming to the East Coast. They attended Howard University and later taught creative writing to students of all ages in New York City public schools while living in Brooklyn.

Candice talks to me about their background, their observations about young people, their writing process and why novels about queer and nonbinary youth matter.

We also talk about “Salt the Water,” their novel in verse featuring Cerulean, a free-spirited teenager experiencing post-pandemic high school in NYC.

I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
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The Mighty Writers Podcast with Maureen Boland is produced by Mighty Writers in partnership with Rowhome Productions. The executive producer is Tim Whitaker. Lead producer is Danya AbdelHameid. Rowhome’s executive producers are Alex Lewis and John Myers.

Our theme song was composed by Jim Morgan.

This episode also includes music from Blue Dot Sessions.