July is Black, Indigenous, People of Color Mental Health Awareness Month, so I thought this would be good time to invite Dr. Ilene Wong, who writes as I.W. Gregorio on to Talking Taiwan to talk about her latest novel, This Is My Brain in Love. Dr. Wong has described the novel as a happy book about mental illness across cultures. We spoke about how she balances her medical and writing careers and her first book, None of the Above.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

Why she writes under the pen name “I.W. Gregorio”
How she went from being a doctor to a YA author and which came first
How she balances her career in medicine with her writing
How her medical career informs her writing
How much of her novel draws from her personal life
Her thoughts on the model minority myth and stereotypes
What she thinks of the media’s focus on suicide as the endpoint of depression
YA books and movies that romanticized death by suicide
The difference between being down in the dumps and clinically depressed
How difficult was it for Ilene to come out about her mental health issues
Why she felt compelled to write this book now
How her family dealt with her depression
The paradoxical views that some doctors have about medicating for mental health issues
How we might de-stigmatize mental health
The difference between passive and active suicide ideation
Her writing process and the importance of having critique partners
The feedback that she’s received on the book
Her first book None of the Above
What the term “intersex” means
Why she writes for YA audiences
Her advice for aspiring authors
Ilene’s connection to Taiwan