Writing Fast When You Prefer Going Slow

By Patrice Gopo

Recently, I was in Anchorage, Alaska—my hometown—for school visits and events connected to the publication of my second picture book. That book indirectly mentions an Anchorage grocery store that is important to my family’s history. In a moment of synchronicity, my visit home coincided with the seventy-five-year-old store’s final week of operation.

As I said goodbye to the store that long ago helped my Jamaican parents connect with their new Alaskan home, an idea began t...