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 ]
It’s no secret that the tech world has a troubling track record with diversity in the workplace, especially with the dearth of Black and Latinx employees in key roles. Author Mateo Askaripour confronts the lack of diversity within the workplace with satire in his debut novel Black Buck. Some... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Titan Books has swooped for Suburban Dicks, the "knock-out" debut novel by Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-06 00:00:41 UTC ]
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"The Prophets," by Robert Jones Jr., depicts an intense bond between Isaiah and Samuel on a plantation in unbearable and untenable circumstances. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-12-29 15:00:38 UTC ]
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I was on page 186 when I knew I was going to finish The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris in one night. The novel is a window into what it is to survive as the only Black girl in a predominantly white space. I found myself laughing and cringing in equal measure so many times whilst... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-23 15:08:08 UTC ]
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The Thursday Murder Club sees off titles by Barack Obama and David Walliams in chaotic week for Britain’s book tradeRichard Osman’s cosy mystery about a group of elderly sleuths, The Thursday Murder Club, has become the first debut novel ever to become the Christmas No 1, selling a remarkable... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-22 15:00:18 UTC ]
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Puffin has scooped The Ice Whisperers, a "haunting and magical" debut novel from Helenka Stachera, in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-17 14:35:34 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has won a 10-publisher auction for Fire Rush, the “phenomenal” debut novel by Jacqueline Crooks. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-09 10:11:08 UTC ]
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What do Brit Bennett, Megan Thee Stallion, and Sascha Baron Cohen all have in common? They’ve all joined The Weeknd in being named Entertainment Weekly’s 2020 Entertainers of the Year. Though I’ve loved Bennett since her 2017 debut novel The Mothers, this well-deserved recognition comes on the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-03 16:03:02 UTC ]
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In Fariha Róisín’s debut novel Like a Bird, protagonist Taylia Chatterjee lives a privileged life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her sister Alyssa. Alyssa often receives preferential treatment from their liberal, overbearing parents—a white Jewish mom, a Hindu Bengali dad. Taylia is... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury has launched its marketing and publicity campaign for Zakiya Dalila Harris' publishing-set novel, The Other Black Girl, with a proof going exclusively to industry professionals. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-01 04:30:21 UTC ]
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Han’s debut novel follows a Chinese couple reaching for the American Dream while raising their children in Texas. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-30 16:27:21 UTC ]
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The debut novel from former Daunt Books bookseller Ben Hinshaw will be published by Viking in spring 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-25 14:18:40 UTC ]
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Last week, Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain was announced this year’s Booker Prize winner. It’s no small feat for any writer, but what makes this win so spectacular is the fact that Shuggie Bain is a debut novel. (It’s only the fifth debut novel to win in the Booker’s 51-year-old history.) During... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-24 09:51:08 UTC ]
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The Shuggie Bain author grew up in a culture that discouraged boys from reading. His debut novel just won the Booker Prize. The post Douglas Stuart on Writing in Secret appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-11-20 21:30:09 UTC ]
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"A Promised Land," out Tuesday in a worldwide release, eloquently and ruefully documents the first two and a half years of Obama's presidency. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-16 21:30:00 UTC ]
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It was announced earlier today that MGM is teaming with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, and director Kamilah Forbes on a film adaptation of National Book Award-winner Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2019 bestselling novel, The Water Dancer. Coates’ debut novel tells the story of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-11 15:33:22 UTC ]
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Yang’s debut novel owes a debt to Edith Wharton’s “The House of Mirth,” though Ivy Lin is no Lily Bart. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-05 16:42:29 UTC ]
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‘She knew it was a trick of the lonely to favour the rude to the simply unmoved; that the loneliest thing in these villages and in this most tucked-away of professions was to elicit no response at all.’ Marina Kemp’s debut novel Nightingale is shortlisted for the 2020 Young Writer of the Year... Continue reading at Granta
[ Granta | 2020-11-05 11:53:49 UTC ]
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Richard Osman's debut crime novel The Thursday Murder Club (Viking) has been named W H Smith's Book of the Year for 2020. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 01:31:10 UTC ]
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Yan's debut novel overturns the tropes of the romance novel in this story about an immigrant's doomed pursuit of marriage and the American dream. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-02 15:00:30 UTC ]
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