Nikkya’s writing in Mama, her first book, is visceral and punctuated in its vulnerability. She recounts each of the emotionally saturated events that frame her memoir with open-hearted precision, including her mother’s incarceration, the adoption of her half-brother, and the experience of falling in love with her now-wife.

“We keep the conversation light,” she recalls of visiting her mother in jail as a teenager. “We do not go deep. We do not ask about fears, wants, or needs.” Her book, however, does exactly that, venturing into all of the above and more. It was a privilege to get to speak with her about some of the stories behind those stories.

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