Interview with Pamela N. Harris, Author of Through Our Teeth
Welcome to YAOTL, Pamela! Please tell us about Through Our Teeth. Thanks so much for having me! Through Our Teeth is about three former friends who suspect their mutual best friend was murdered by her boyfriend. However, as they seek revenge, they slowly start to realize that they all have a complicated history with the dead girl—and they each have secrets they want to keep. I was so intrigued by your decision to open the story on Halloween. Can you talk a bit about opening with a mask metaphor? Sure! I’m the mother of two autistic children and am also going through my own journey of diagnosis. I’ve been learning a lot about the term “masking” as it applies to the autism community, which is this idea that autistic individuals sometimes consciously or unconsciously hide some of their traits or behaviors to fit into societal norms. It becomes mentally and emotionally exhausting—and I still sometimes do that as a Black woman to be accepted into certain spaces to prove that I belong there....
