The author of a debut novel about diversity in the workplace on how black people act around white people, embracing her hair, and what’s changed a year after George Floyd’s murderZakiya Dalila Harris was born and raised in Connecticut and is currently based in Brooklyn. Now a full-time writer, she previously worked in book publishing, an experience she draws on in her highly anticipated debut novel, The Other Black Girl, which combines thriller with social satire to tell the story of Nella, the only black employee at a fictional publishing house, until Hazel joins the company. The book charts how the two become frenemies, explores the challenges of surviving in a systemically racist workplace, and was the subject of a 15-way auction prior to publication in the US.What were your own experiences in publishing and how have they played into the book?I worked in publishing for two and a half years. I was an editorial assistant then promoted to assistant editor. I felt fortunate, as a part of me enjoyed editing and I felt I was good at it, but it’s also an exhausting job for an entry-level person in terms of the pay. I was also one of the very few black people in the company – it wasn’t as bad as Nella in the book, but I was the only black woman in editorial in a full-time position for a while. I thought: why does it feel like we’re living in 1955 still, in terms of what we value? Publishing is such a rich, easily spoofable world.Code-switching is the act of switching up how... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-06-05 17:00:15 UTC ]
Mariam Rahmani’s debut novel is both charmingly familiar and totally unpredictable. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2025-03-26 14:00:00 UTC ]
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In this land of opportunities, being an immigrant can often feel like playing a round of Twister. A certain contortion of mind, language, and will power seems written into the script; a lot of territory remains untouchable. Shubha Sunder’s debut novel Optional Practical Training is named after... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-07 12:05:00 UTC ]
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Fifteen years ago, Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel became a best seller, but was also heavily criticized for its portrayal of Black characters. Now, she has written second novel, “The Calamity Club.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2025-03-07 10:04:33 UTC ]
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Emily St. James’s debut novel Woodworking chronicles the developing friendship between a 16-year-old trans girl and her recently-out-to-herself English teacher in Mitchell, South Dakota in the months leading up to the 2016 election. In a town like Mitchell, secrets are few and far between,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of These Memories Do Not Belong to Us, the highly-anticipated debut novel by Yiming Ma, which will be published by Mariner Books in the US and McClelland & Stewart in Canada on August 12, 2025. You can pre-order here in US or here in Canada.... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Dan Houser will publish his debut novel A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath, an adaptation of his hit podcast, this fall. The book is the first title from the new publishing arm of his entertainment company, Absurd Ventures. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Georgia Hunter's debut novel about a Polish Jewish family that survived the Holocaust was turned into a Hulu series. Her second novel, 'One Good Thing,' revisits WWII Europe but is a more conventional work. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2025-02-24 11:00:28 UTC ]
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Olufunke Grace Bankole’s debut novel The Edge of Water opens with a prophecy: “A storm is coming.” The order of things, the Iyanifa tells us, will be disrupted by a soul who defies her fate. What follows is the story of three generations of Nigerian and Nigerian American women: Esther, who... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-02-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Good Girl—the debut novel by award-winning poet Aria Aber—follows nineteen-year-old Nila as she becomes charmed in a Berlin club and falls manically in love with Marlowe, an older brooding American writer. Raised by Afghan refugees, Nila’s childhood remains haunted by the shadows of exile while... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-01-24 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“Those people. My whole existence, neatly packed into one demonstrative adjective,” says Nila, the protagonist of Aria Aber’s pulsing debut novel Good Girl. Nila was born in Berlin, “inside its ghetto-heart, as a small, wide-eyed rat, in the months after reunification.” As these quotations show,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-01-16 09:56:24 UTC ]
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A debut novel about an Afghan German party girl in Berlin shows that there are plenty of ways to dramatize the immigrant experience. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2025-01-15 14:30:00 UTC ]
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Aria Aber’s exciting debut novel finds the daughter of an Afghan refugee sidestepping disapproval and racism as she dives into Berlin’s nightworld. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2025-01-13 10:00:16 UTC ]
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Omar Khalifah’s debut novel resists the demand placed on those who have experienced historical atrocities to tell their stories. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2024-12-05 16:22:00 UTC ]
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‘This set of characters are simultaneously medieval kings and modern aristocrats.’ Allen Bratton on adapting the Henriad and his debut novel Henry Henry. The post Podcast | Allen Bratton appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta
[ Granta | 2024-11-29 14:09:08 UTC ]
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Bestselling author who enjoyed overnight success with her debut novel A Woman of SubstanceIt was Graham Greene who inadvertently launched Barbara Taylor Bradford, who has died aged 91, on the road that would lead, in 2003, to her induction into the Writers Hall of Fame of America, alongside Mark... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-25 16:52:30 UTC ]
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Hogarth signs a debut novel by Woody Brown, the first nonspeaking graduate of UCLA, and Atria takes a steamy sports romance trilogy by Melanie Iglesias Perez. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-11-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Wooding left as part of a move to dismantle the remaining dedicated Sunday Express editorial team to create a seven-day operationThe Sunday Express editor, David Wooding, has become the latest top editorial executive to depart Reach, as the national and regional newspaper publisher embarks on... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-16 14:19:24 UTC ]
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Minnesota's first Black woman–owned indie bookstore has changed hands five months after owner Dionne Sims announced that she intended to sell. The new owner—a self-described artist, academic, and an activist—will identify herself at an open house event at the store next week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-11-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher ‘profoundly sorry’ for hurt caused by Spirou and the Blue Gorgon as it recalls 30,000 copies from shopsA comic book has been withdrawn from sale by its Belgian publisher after an outcry over racist depictions of black people and “hyper-sexualised” images of women.The publisher Dupuis... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-05 13:10:34 UTC ]
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