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 ]
Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Sky Daddy by Kate Folk, which will be published by Random House on April 08, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. Cross the jet bridge with Linda, a frequent flyer with a dangerous obsession, in this hilarious and provocative debut novel... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-05 11:03:00 UTC ]
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Ledia Xhoga’s debut novel Misinterpretation opens with the unnamed narrator, a translator from Albania, accepting an assignment to interpret for a Kosovar torture survivor named Alfred. Elements of Alfred’s story map onto her own family’s experience, and the narrator becomes all-consumed by his... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
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New novels by Sally Rooney and Richard Powers, a memoir by the first Black woman on the Supreme Court — and more. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-08-27 09:01:50 UTC ]
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In the first drafts of my debut novel Medusa, I was consumed by the idea of what it meant to be a monster in a story you didn’t control. Medusa is one of the most recognizable monsters of Greek mythology, with the writhing mass of snakes for hair and the turning people to stone with […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-08-12 11:05:00 UTC ]
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In the Blink of an Eye was praised at the Theakston Old Peculier crime writing festival as ‘changing the way we think about policing forever’A “boundary-pushing take on the police procedural” which features a human detective working with an AI sleuth in order to solve a missing persons case has... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-07-19 16:29:44 UTC ]
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Set among the fevered residents of a remote Australian town, Ruby Todd’s debut novel considers how grief can draw people to extreme beliefs. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-07-16 09:00:27 UTC ]
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It’s the spring of 2021, and the pandemic is beginning to slide away from us in ways that still feel impossible. But there is work to do. There is lost time to make up for. Even though I have a debut novel publishing this summer, I have been getting rejection after rejection for every literary […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-07-12 08:56:22 UTC ]
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Bullwinkel’s debut novel sheds light on the culture of youth women’s boxing through an ensemble cast of complicated characters. It packs a punch. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-28 20:00:57 UTC ]
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Starring an undergraduate student at Oxford, Rosalind Brown’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-22 09:00:56 UTC ]
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Alexander Sammartino’s debut novel Last Acts opens on David Rizzo, owner of a failing firearms store located in an Arizona strip mall, en route to the hospital to retrieve his estranged son Nick, an addict who has just briefly experienced death in the form of a drug overdose. Grappling with what... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-05-29 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Alex Sammartino’s debut novel Last Acts opens on David Rizzo, owner of a failing firearms store located in an Arizona strip mall, en route to the hospital to retrieve his estranged son Nick, an addict who has just briefly experienced death in the form of a drug overdose. Grappling with what to... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-05-29 11:00:00 UTC ]
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He starred in Peep Show, Green Wing and Wonka – and his first novel won an award. Now the star is making operas with 64 homeless people. Not bad going for someone who was written off by his teachersPaterson Joseph is, by his own admission, an unlikely opera librettist. He had turned 50 by the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-27 04:00:13 UTC ]
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Ery Shin’s Spring on the Peninsula encompasses two winters of grieving: Kai, a white-collar worker in contemporary South Korea, struggles to process his breakup. We follow Kai’s inner musings, from his various sexual conquests to solo mountain pilgrimages. But alongside heartbreak, Shin’s debut... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-05-20 11:00:00 UTC ]
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This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. In The Art of Subtext, Charles Baxter writes, “A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and the unseen.” In 2017, I sold... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-17 08:55:10 UTC ]
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Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s smartly interior debut novel But the Girl appears to follow the path of a bildungsroman. Our protagonist, simply named Girl, is on a flight out of Australia for an artist’s residency in the lush Scottish countryside. She is leaving behind her tight-knit Malaysian family and... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-30 11:05:00 UTC ]
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Journalist Sasha Vasilyuk’s debut novel Your Presence Is Mandatory is a poignant look at the reverberating effects of war through the story of a Ukrainian World War II veteran’s struggle to hide a damaging secret for the sake of his family. Vasilyuk’s book begins with death—the first chapter... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-25 11:00:00 UTC ]
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We’re thrilled to reveal the cover for Sam Sax‘s forthcoming debut novel Yr Dead, slated for August 6. Here’s a bit about the book, courtesy of McSweeney: In between the space of time when Ezra lights themself on fire and when Ezra dies the world of this book flashes before their eyes. Everyone... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-04-18 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In the debut novel “The Band,” a burned-out pop idol meets a disillusioned professor, raising the question: What if the dangers of fame resemble white-collar ennui? Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-04-13 09:02:30 UTC ]
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Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Homeseeking, the highly-anticipated debut novel by Karissa Chen, which will be published by Putnam on January 7th, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. An epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as world events pull them... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-11 11:10:00 UTC ]
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This Earth Day, settle into "A Fire So Wild," Sarah Ruiz-Grossman's debut novel about the societal impacts of climate change. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2024-04-05 09:45:24 UTC ]
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