This interview originally appeared in the March/April 2023 Horn Book Magazine as part of the Publishers’ Previews: Spring 2023, an advertising supplement that allows participating publishers a chance to each highlight a book from its current list. They choose the books; we ask the questions.

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In Inside Out & Back Again, we were right with Hà and her family as they came to the United States. Two years later, and they are on the move again in When Clouds Touch Us.

1. What was the hardest thing about creating a sequel to your first novel, published more than ten years ago?

I knew I wanted to keep the style of prose poems, developed in the first book to show how Vietnamese flowed through Hà. But after two years in Alabama, English has seeped into her brain. In the sequel I made the poems much denser, reflecting how an avalanche of gray is starting to take over.

2. I can’t decide if I would call your style here im- or ­expressionistic. What do you think?

Impressionistic, where readers get smears of tastes, sights, sounds, feels, smells, and they must fill out the scene.

3. What is your favorite novel about mothers and daughters?

I like to read the opposite of what I know, so White Oleander by Janet Fitch comes to mind.

4. Your first piece of advice to a child faced with moving?

Your outside world will change and might be awful at times, but most likely your inside world harbors the same people to offer you comfort.

5. Did you ever get to meet a cowboy?

Oh, so many — I spent a good decade in Texas. Now, when I’m tired, my Texas accent comes out.

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Photo: Paula Landry.