Interview with Nalo Hopkinson  Q: How did you become interested
in writing science fiction as opposed to other kinds of
literature? A: Fantastical literature is something I was always
drawn to, even as a child. I loved folk and fairy tales—Anansi
stories, for instance. From my father’s shelves, I was reading
works such as Gulliver’s Travels and Homer’s The Iliadand The
Odyssey at a very young age. I guess I just never outgrew the
habit of looking for magical stories.  Q: What kind of culture
shock did you experience in moving from the Caribbean toToronto
at age 16? A: It’s an experience I’ve not seen described much. I
had lived in the U.S. as a child, when my father was studying
theatre at Yale University in Connecticut, so I wasn’t totally
unprepared. Still, the enormity of suddenly becoming a member of
a minority (and not a very popular one at that), of being in
lands where people spoke like the people in movies (and they
said I was the one with the accent!), of being unable to get the
foods I’d grown up wi