Kiley Reid's 'Such a Fun Age' has already been acquired by Lena Waithe's production company. It's also Marie Claire's January 2020 book club pick. Learn more here.
centers on Emira, a 25-year-old Black woman accused of kidnapping the white child of a wealthy family she babysits for in Philadelphia. What happens in the first 50 pages is an all-too-familiar experience for people of color, and what happens afterwards is a wake-up call for anybody who's been blinded by their white privilege. With her razor-sharp hilarious dialogue , it's hard to believe Reid, 32, hasn't been writing novels for years.
"I definitely didn't think that writing was something I wanted to do professionally until I was in my early 20s. But even then, I mean, you just don't become a writer overnight," says Reid, who graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in May."I was working as a receptionist. I would write during my lunch breaks and after work.
Here, Reid explains exactly what she hopes readers take away from her self-proclaimed"cringy, human, and fun" novel, and how she pushes herself through the writing process.The start was probably just my tendency towards awkward interactions. I knew I wanted three characters that have an awkward relationship with each other.
I admire a lot of authors who write auto-fiction, but I am not one of them. I think I felt inspired by Emira because when I was in my 20s I really knew what I wanted to do and I still found it really challenging. I was intrigued by a woman who is really smart and quick and still doesn't know what she wants to do...and how she is set up or not set up for success.Because it's coming out now.
Oh, I've been feeling that way for years, but I couldn't put it into words until I saw someone else experience it.I was intrigued by a woman who is really smart and quick and still doesn't know what she wants to do.Zara is so quick, and she has that benefit I was talking about of knowing what she wants to do her whole life. She also has a selflessness that's really wonderful. I kind of envy her loyalty as a friend, and I love her ability to apologize very, very quickly.
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