Meet Trevaughn Malik Roach-carter

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Trevaughn Malik Roach-carter. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

TreVaughn Malik, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I remember getting into writing in the sixth grade. My teacher assigned a creative writing assignment and I
very quickly caught the writing bug. I had so much fun with it, and she was really encouraging about what I had
written, and I just never really stopped writing after that.
But my grandmother would tell you I was writing plays and making my little sister act them out long before
that.

But I think my purpose came long after that.

When I first started writing The Aziza Chronicles, it looked wildly different than the final result. It
wasn’t queer or POC. It took two major rewrites to make it to that point. I was writing something that I
thought people wanted to see instead of what I was interested in or excited about. In college, I discovered Nnedi Okorafor and her writing really inspired me. She really puts Blackness in the
forefront of her writing, and reading her work I felt incredibly visible. Something that a lot of writing really
lacked at the time, and often still does. I think that is when my purpose really crystalized for me. Instead of being some generic fantasy, I reworked The Aziza chronicles to center Blackness and queerness, and that opened the floodgates to much deeper and richer stories that I was excited and proud to dive into.

I think my purpose is to provide representation. Everything I write is a love letter to people that need and deserve to be seen. The Aziza Chronicles is a love letter to Black readers adn readers of color. Especially those who might feel less-than because they are mixed. Its also a love letter to friendships that feel like family, and to people that suffer from anxiety and self-doubt.

Her Daughters is a nonfiction collection that centers three generations of Black women in my family. I’ve always said that it is as much a love letter to the resilience of Black women as it is a collection of family history.

My upcoming novel, which we will likely see in 2025, is a love letter to trans people, especially trans women of color, who are often overlooked, unappreciated, and stigmatized in society. And its a testament to the bond between mother and child, and found family as well.

I think my purpose is to tell stories that make people feel seen and appreciated, because everyone deserves to see that in the stories they enjoy.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a Queer Black writer born in Modesto, California.

I hold a MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. My work has been featured in Ramblr Magazine, Tayo Magazine’s special issue: SOFT, Transfer, BAD EGG Magazine, Borderless, The Ana, Stellium Magazine, and Querencia Press. I am a recipient of the Leo Litwalk Literature Award, a Browning Society Award, and a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in African American fiction. I am a prose editor for The Ana, a literary magazine that publishes poetry, prose, and visual art. I am the author of the Young Adult novel The Aziza Chronicles: Awakening, and the autofiction short story collection Her Daughters.

My next Young Adult fantasy is forthcoming with Dreamsphere Books, and imprint of Deep Desires Press. It follows a young trans woman with superhuman strength who discovers she is an Amazon from greek mythology, expected to be a warrior and destined to be queen. She soon finds herself, with her found family by her side, battling monsters she originally thought only existed in stories, sent after her by a demented demigod who will do anything to wipe out the Amazon race and prevent her from becoming the woman she was meant to be.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1) Don’t be afraid of the shitty first draft! So many writers, or aspiring writers, want everything to be polished at the start and its really hard to generate work when your worried about both creation and quality. This is what editing is for, and that is a huge part of writing that is often overlooked, but also one of our greatest tools. Get the words on the page, even if its rough. Once your finished, go back and edit and polish. Its much better to have a finished product that you can continue to work on rather than an unfinished project.

2) Set goals and deadlines. I find that setting obtainable goals or deciding on deadlines gives me something to work towards, and push me. Instead of going aimlessly and not getting anything done due to floundering without direction. This could be as simple as “write a new page a day” or “edit one chapter a day,” to something more hardcore like a tight deadline for a finished draft. Something tangible that you can plan and use to hold yourself accountable is such a fantastic motivator.

3) Write the book you want to read, not what you think others want. There are so many books out there that are mirror images of each other. your individuality is like lightning in a bottle, even if it seems like no one wants it. Your unique vision will help you stand out, and also, excite the people that are looking for your voice. And those people are definitely out there.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m not necessarily actively looking, but I love comics and video games as a medium. But my skills are very much limited to writing a story. I often fantasize about teaming up with someone or a group of someones whose skills are more visual and creating something together in a brand new medium, whether its a new idea or an adaptation of something I’ve already done. I would love to make a comic or collaborate on a narrative video game, something like a text or choice based game.

I can be found on social media.
X: Tre_the_author
Instagram: @calming_insanity
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tretheauthor/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevaughn-roach-carter

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Yvonne Downs – YDowns Photography

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