Being shortlisted for the Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize is, of course, a real honour for me and my work. When I wrote 'Conversations with Friends,' it was hard for me to imagine the book even finding readers - so it's a huge privilege to find it judged alongside such exciting and innovative new writing. I'm very grateful.
My parents were inspired by Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas when naming me. They specifically saved this masculine name for their only girl.
It's not name dropping, but not many people can say, like me, that they spent the day with the likes of Francis Bacon or that boring drunk Dylan Thomas. You don't forget things like that.
I tell people I never got to hear Dylan Thomas read because my husband wouldn't let me, because he thought it would be a sort of bad influence. People say, 'And you didn't go?' They're so surprised because the me they know would have gone. And I say I was very much a 'yes, dear' wife.
My father had wanted to name me for Dylan Thomas. He had seen him speak on one of those drunken poetry tours he did.
I'm a passionate person. I'm a lot of things, like most people are. Most people are dynamic. The focus is not on me though, I'm a screen. The aim is to always keep myself in the position where the screen is clear.
I am probably not alone in sensing above me the huge corporations and monstrous banks, science, politics and technologies, spy satellites and stock markets, military systems and massive wealth - forces and dynamics I don't understand or can hardly imagine.
For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces.
My family has always called me 'Lay Lay,' and my dad used to always call me 'Dynamite Termite' because I was really short and small and I hated to be still. I would never stop.
For the life of me, I can't understand why BP couldn't go in at the ocean floor, maybe 10 feet lateral to the - around the periphery, drill a few holes, and put a little ammonium nitrate, some dynamite, in those holes and detonate that dynamite and seal that - seal that leak. And seal it permanently.
For 'Dynamite,' Max and Luke went to dinner and left me with a melody, and then I put it together.
My mother and father taught me about black excellence and dynasty. They experienced racism personally, and when something like that happens to you and not around you, you develop a different perception than someone who has never experienced racism a day in their lives.
I think they should give me a spot on 'Dallas' or 'Dynasty' or one of those shows.
Dyslexia, though, made me realise that people who say 'but you can't do that' aren't actually very important. I don't take 'no' too seriously.
I know that some girls look up to me for certain things, like dyslexia, and that way I know that they like me for me, so it adds no pressure.
My family was absolutely supportive. I did have a fear of cold reads because of my dyslexia, but my family's support and reading classes really helped me overcome my fear!
For me, in my life, dyslexia has been a little bit of a blessing. It helped me find my strength and directed me towards what I really wanted to do.
Though my parents assured me over and over again that I wasn't stupid or slow, I sensed that my dyslexia was now a stigma on all of us.
I was not good in school. I could never read very fast or very well. I got tested for learning disabilities, for dyslexia. Then I got put on Ritalin and Dexedrine. I took those starting in the eighth grade. As soon as they pumped that drug into me, it would focus me right in.
I'm dyslexic, and it takes me longer to memorize and to embody the character so I can really own it.
