Shayla Lawson  is the author of three books of poetry — A Speed Education in Human Being, the chapbook Pantone, and I Think I’m Ready to see Frank Ocean — and the essay collection This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross,  Dark Girls, and Being Dope. She was born in Rochester, Minnesota, grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, studied architecture in Italy and spent a few years as a Dutch housewife — milk maid  braids  and all. She teaches at Amherst College and lives in Brooklyn, NY.