Friday, June 25, 2021

Interview with Zakiya Dalila Harris

 

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm back with another installment of my author interview series. This time I had a few questions for  best selling author of The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris. Her debut has taken the publishing world by storm. 


What inspired you to write The Other Black Girl?

 I got the idea for The Other Black Girl after running into another young black woman in the bathroom—a rare occurrence on the 13th floor of Penguin Random House. Seeing this other young Black woman made me wonder, “who are you? can we be friends?” and when she didn’t acknowledge me in the bathroom mirror, I thought: “hmm…that was kind of weird.”

After that, I immediately returned to my desk and started writing this book, with the initial image of two Black women meeting, and having a very tense relationship, in a very white workplace. But very quickly, that image expanded. The more I wrote about the industry the two women meet in—the world of publishing—the more I thought about the ways in which that very white environment could make their relationship so tense to begin with. I thought about the pressures these two women face being the only two Black women there, and all of the hopes and expectations Nella puts into finally having a Black coworker. 



As an editorial assistant what types of stories did you work on? And can you tell us some of your favorite books you worked on?

The nonfiction books ranged from current matters, such as climate change, to biographies of historical figures. On the fiction side, I worked on both commercial and literary novels. A few of my favorites were Call Me American: A Memoir by Abdi Nor Iftin; Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee; The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir; and Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan.

 

Were there any Black women in publishing you were able to look to for guidance while you worked in publishing?

Yes! A Black woman was responsible for getting me my very first interview at Penguin Random House, and I would occasionally meet with her for lunch or coffee to chat about life and publishing. I was also part of a Slack channel that included Black publishing employees from imprints and departments throughout the company.

 

You also used to be a book reviewer. Now that you’re a published author is that something you would continue doing?

Definitely. I really enjoy writing book reviews. To me, the act of writing one is a lot like cracking a puzzle. I spend a lot of time thinking about, What’s the most interesting lens for me to view this book through? and Which quotes from the book will have the most impact upon someone who hasn’t read the book yet? It’s really satisfying when I land on answers to these questions.


When and how did you come up with the idea for your Dead Writer’s Drama podcast?

It actually wasn’t my idea, although I wish I could say it was! The lovely Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, author of Women Who Invented Television and many other very smart books about pop culture history, approached me last year about being her co-host for a new podcast that she and the American Writers Museum were launching. I love literature, I love history, and I love doing drama, so Dead Writer Drama checked all of my boxes! I also thought it would be good to have an excuse to read (and in some cases, re-read) historically significant authors that I might otherwise put toward the end of my very, very long reading list.

You can check out the first episode here


If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you visit?

This is tough, but the first place that comes to mind is Greece. I think it’s partly because I read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, and saw the movies, at a very impressionable age. But it also just looks so gorgeous! And so different from any place I’ve ever been.

 

You can pick up your copy of The Other Black Girl today.

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