My Broken Language: A Memoir

After deciding to become a writer, Quiara realizes she has “no training and [is] woefully underread” (263), so she begins researching graduate school. She discovers the work of Paula Vogel and is “floored” by the woman’s female characters with their “complicated, sometimes monstrous bodies” (263). Paula is a professor at Brown University and invites Quiara to Providence to show her around and encourage her to join her playwriting workshop. 

Quiara is also accepted to Columbia, where she interviews with a “cantankerous Cuban refugee” who tells her she has been accepted but should take the spot at Brown instead. He tells her that New York will “make your veins run cold” (270) and suggests she “delay the inevitable” and move to the city when she has toughened up. Then they talk about her play. It is the first time Quiara hasn’t had to explain any aspects of her mother’s faith, as the Cuban professor is already well-versed in Yoruba ontology. The experience is “revelatory.” Quiara considers accepting the position and becoming the man’s apprentice, but in the end, she takes his advice and enrolls in Brown.