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 ]
Among the big deals this week are a six-figure preempt for a debut novel by a former Marie Claire staffer and a guide to relationship texting by Facebook’s in-house shrink. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
BRAISED PORK, the debut novel by An Yu, opens with an ending. A young wife walks into the bathroom to ask which accessory her husband prefers and finds him sprawled ungracefully in the tub, drowned. Next to his body is a strange drawing: a fish with the head of a man, or a man with […] The post... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-04-21 17:00:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
I read Jessi Jezewska Stevens’ debut novel The Exhibition of Persephone Q in a single sitting on the Sunday afternoon before the quarantine. I was magnetized not just by a great story, but one that felt uncannily timely. The novel is set in the days after 9/11, a period when America was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-17 08:48:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In ‘Human(Kind)’ Ashlee Eiland draws on her experiences as a black woman as well as her extensive Biblical knowledge to advocate for a radical kindness and unity that can appeal to people from all backgrounds and from across the aisle. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Owen Nicholls’ debut novel is chock-full of movie references, but he delves deeply into the intricacies of maintaining a relationship. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-04-15 22:39:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Owen Nicholls’ debut novel is chock-full of movie references, but he delves deeply into the intricacies of maintaining a relationship. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-04-15 22:39:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Owen Nicholls’ debut novel is chock-full of movie references, but he delves deeply into the intricacies of maintaining a relationship. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-04-15 22:39:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Set in alternate Tudor England, “Sin Eater” by Megan Campisi is a riveting tale of female empowerment. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-15 06:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Check out the cover for E. Lily Yu's debut novel of magic and migration, ON FRAGILE WAVES. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-04-14 10:35:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In this debut novel by the Chinese author An Yu, male characters propel the heroine into a journey of self-discovery. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-04-14 09:00:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this
‘There was something Shakespearean about imperious men going down on you: the mighty have fallen.’ An extract from Naoise Dolan’s debut novel Exciting Times. The post Exciting Times appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta
[ Granta | 2020-04-14 08:55:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“How Much of These Hills Is Gold,” by C Pam Zhang, reimagines the region’s past as a Chinese-American tale. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-04-07 09:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this
At once subversive and searching, the debut novel focuses on two sisters on the run whose roots lie in an unnamed country “from beyond the ocean.” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-06 20:54:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Chelsea Bieker's 'Godshot,' a surreal debut novel set in the parched Central Valley, depicts a fundamentalist rain cult and sex worker resisters. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-04-06 14:30:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Kawai Strong Washburn’s debut novel envisions an archipelago of Indigenous peoples who refuse to be erased. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-03-31 12:43:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The debut novel intersperses the story of a tech reporter in Silicon Valley with Facebook posts, tweets, Google results and other fragments. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-03-27 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In Megan Giddings’s debut novel Lakewood, desperation leads to a loss of self in a capitalist medical system bent on taking advantage of Black people and their bodies. After the death of her grandmother, Lena, a college student struggling with overwhelming medical debt and taking care of her... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-03-24 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Head of Zeus is to publish the debut novel of Nicole Kennedy, a former city lawyer. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-23 14:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“My Dark Vanessa” will strike a chord with women. But it ought to be read by men Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
MARA FAYE LETHEM is one of the translators of Albert Sánchez Piñol, a Catalan writer whose debut novel Cold Skin, a sparse psychological thriller, caused a sensation in Spain. Lethem also translated Piñol’s second novel, Pandora in the Congo, a fabulist tale that is by turns laugh-out-loud funny... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-03-19 19:00:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this