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 ]
Brendan Slocumb’s debut novel is a musical bildungsroman cleverly contained within a literary thriller. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-02-01 10:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this
I have always held a keen interest toward the processes of myth formation and how beliefs about family identity are handed down through generations. My debut novel Defenestrate tells the story of a family in the midst of reckoning with superstition and inheritance, the long-held beliefs that can... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Europa Editions UK has acquired Esther Yi's "incredible" debut novel Y/N in a two book pre-empt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-19 12:54:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Andrew Lipstein’s entertaining debut novel mines comedy from an aspiring author’s ethically questionable path to publication. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-01-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Atlantic Books has acquired Camilla Grudova's Children of Paradise, a "stunning" debut novel exploring the lives of cinema workers and sex. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-19 06:20:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this
At Electric Literature, Diane Cooke speaks to Jessamine Chan about The School for Good Mothers, Chan’s incisive debut novel that revolves around how a young mother’s error lands her in a government reform program and at risk of losing custody of her child. They discuss one of Chan’s main... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2022-01-18 21:30:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Allison & Busby has netted an "explosive" debut novel by former police officer Graham Bartlett. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-16 13:20:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Jessamine Chan’s “The School for Good Mothers” takes up themes of autonomy and technology in imagining an experimental facility where parents go through mandatory retraining. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-01-11 17:33:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Fig Tree has scooped the "powerful and beautifully humane" debut novel by Mo Siewcharran Prize-winner Santanu Bhattacharya. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-05 14:00:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sequioa Nagamatsu discusses his much-awaited debut novel about people living in a future beset by the Arctic Plague. The post Sequoia Nagamatsu’s Dystopian Debut Is a Must-Read for the New Year appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2022-01-04 21:00:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In “Brown Girls,” Daphne Palasi Andreades breaks a big world into small, meaningful pieces. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-01-04 10:00:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Dolly Parton will headline the audiobook cast of her debut novel Run Rose Run (Century) along with singer and songwriter Kelsea Ballerini in the role of protégée to Parton’s character. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-21 02:34:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Juhea Kim's "Beasts of a Little Land" captures the dualities of Korean history but ties up symbols too tightly in the service of grand ambitions. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-12-14 15:00:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Sarah Thankam Mathews’ debut novel All This Could Be Different, which will be published by Viking—who acquired it in an 8-way auction—in summer 2022. The publisher describes the book as “an electrifying novel of a young immigrant building a life... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-03 15:00:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A debut novel by a HarperCollins UK editor goes to Putnam, former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III sells a memoir to Atria, Random House buys NBA winner Tiya Miles’s latest, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-12-03 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The translation of Deceit by ‘groundbreaking’ author Yuri Felsen, who died in Auschwitz in 1943, is set to come out next MayThe debut novel by Yuri Felsen, an author once regarded as the “Russian Proust” whose work has been forgotten since he died in Auschwitz in 1943, is set to be published in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-12-01 14:12:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In “A Little Hope,” Ethan Joella explores quiet lives in small-town Connecticut. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-11-16 10:00:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Atlantic Fiction has acquired Your Driver Is Waiting, the debut novel by Priya Guns, inspired by Martin Scorsese’s classic film "Taxi Driver". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-16 03:54:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this
"Between the Covers" presenter Sara Cox’s debut novel, Thrown, has gone to Coronet. It follows the lives of four women at a pottery class held at a community centre. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-10 10:45:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Known for her debut novel Testament, the Ian Fleming fanatic has been approved to write new novels set in 007’s world but without the agent himselfA new generation of Double O agents has been authorised by the estate of Ian Fleming, with Bond aficionado and novelist Kim Sherwood set to pen a new... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-11-04 09:49:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this