The former book editor’s genre-bending evisceration of workplace privilege is set to become the debut of the summer.
Three years ago, Zakiya Dalila Harris was an assistant editor at Knopf Doubleday Publishing.
It follows Nella, a book-publishing assistant who clashes with the only other Black employee in her department.
Zakiya Dalila Harris.Credit: Nicole Mondestin
Here, Harris, 28, offers up her process and it’s anything but beginner’s luck.
We didn’t, but I was curious about the fact that we didn’t have a Black-friend moment.
I wondered: Why do I feel like she owes me something?
She said it sounded great, so I started writing it at my cubicle.
Your protagonist struggles with feeling fully comfortable in white spaces and in some Black spaces.
Can you talk about that?
Nella doesn’t have a sisterhood.
Both she and I feel a little bit like we’re on the outside looking in.
But I had anxiety around finding my people, so I wrote in those moments.
I think describing Hazel as a victim, especially as a victim of colonialism, feels too easy.
Did you have a message you wanted to convey when writing the novel?
There was very little resistance to the tougher elements of the book.
Did you feel pressure to write a happy ending?
I definitely didn’t want a happy ending.
I was really inspired byNight of the Living Dead; I love endings that are frustrating or nerve-racking.
