The book I am currently reading
The Coldest Winter Ever by hip-hop artist and activist Sister Souljah. In the novel, Winter, the daughter of a Brooklyn drug dealer, is a ghetto celebrity and does whatever it takes to keep that status when her family life is fractured. Up to and including going to Sister Souljah for advice. It’s a truly wild read. One day I’ll write myself into one of my novels in some sort of saviour role, just you wait.

The book that changed my life
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen. Reading it was the first time I recognised that there was a term for what I’d been experiencing for most of my life: micro-aggressions. Realising that the ways white people had spoken to and acted around me was because of societal presumptions about blackness, and had nothing to do with me as a person, lifted a weight.

The book that had the greatest influence on me
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison. I remember reading it when I was around 13 and being completely drawn in by the protagonist Georgia Nicolson. She is funny, flawed and generally an idiot who’s very much the centre of her own world, especially when it comes to boys.

The last book that made me cry
The poetry collection Surge by Jay Bernard. In it, Bernard investigates the New Cross house fire of 1981, rightly dubbed the “New Cross massacre”. What Bernard does so masterfully is write around the victims – the parents, the grandmothers, the promises on which those who lost their lives came to this country.

The book that is most underrated
The Scholar: A West Side Story by Courttia Newland. It is about two cousins living on a housing estate in west London, who are on very different paths. Cory is led by his education, Sean by crime. It explores how so many of us are close to slipping into a lifestyle we know we should run from.

The book that changed my mind
I’m too headstrong for that. Nothing can change my mind, so I’d like to see a book even try.

The last book that made me laugh
The essay collection We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby is hilarious. Nothing is off limits and I love it.

The book I’d most like to be remembered for
I wrote Queenie because, primarily, I wanted black women to understand that we aren’t alone in what we go through. I knew that as long as I could make at least one black woman feel less lonely I’d be at ease, and at this point I’ve had hundreds of messages of thanks. So even though I’ll go on to write more books, my answer will always be Queenie. She makes me feel less alone.

My comfort read
If I need to find comfort I absolutely do not read. Reading reminds me that I should be writing.

The book I give as a gift
I don’t usually give books as gifts because the recipients think that, because I worked in publishing, I get them for free – which is highly annoying because I’m not a cheapskate. So instead I recommend Natives by Akala to everyone.

The book I’m most ashamed not to have read
I know I should probably list all the classics I haven’t read over the years, but if I’d been meant to read them then I would have. And if I haven’t, it’s because they weren’t speaking to me. I did read Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights when I was at school though. Banger.

• Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams is published by Trapeze. To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p on all online orders over £15.