EW speaks with the Booker prize-nominated author, whose bestselling debut novel releases in paperback on Tuesday.
Kiley Reid’s debut novelSuch a Fun Agereleased into the world on the last day of 2019.
It was, perhaps, one of the last big books to come out before everything changed.
Kiley Reid is a Booker prize-nominated author.
Was there a moment that you knew this book was going to be really big?
I remember the first time the Putnam team met to discuss the publicity of this book.
Did you have any goals or hopes for the life of this book?
My biggest goal for the book was to set myself up to do it again.
I was thinking: How can I continue to tell stories?
This might sound trite, but I want to write for the rest of my life.
I hope it’s the first of many.
Do you have a specific oeuvre oruniverse in mind that you’re writing towards?
Or, I want to show white people so-and-so.
Trying to virtue my way into a plot never works for me.
I do gravitate towards certain themes, though.
I love exploring money.
I love exploring the language around money and class.
If you see me on my phone taking notes, you know why[laughs].
I have a little journal that I keep in my pocket for exactly that.
But I take a stab at clock those moments in real time.
There are two parties that really stand out to me.
As an artist, you don’t get to control what brings people to your art.
That is a very human, natural response.
It’s very complicated.
On one hand, I’m doing my dream job.
Consumption cannot solve racism because you cannot redistribute power through consumption.
We should reach for Black art because it’s worth reaching for.
