BREAKING IN
Kiley Reid
Such a Fun Age
(Literary fiction, December, Putnam)
“Emira babysits three-year-old Briar in a high-end grocery store, until a security guard, upon seeing a black woman with a white child, accuses her of kidnapping. Briar’s mom sets out to right the night’s wrongs, but unfortunate histories are brought to light when the two women realize they have something, or someone, in common.”
Philadelphia. I had written other novels before, but nothing I was truly proud of. Before this novel, I had been writing and publishing short stories in journals, which was a nice way to work with different editors but also get used to rejection letters. I sat on the idea for a year and took two-and-a-half years to complete a solid first draft. Claudia Ballard I had the opportunity to move from New York City to Arkansas, which is a very inexpensive and beautiful place to live. I’d just been rejected by nine graduate programs and my decision to move to Arkansas and apply again ended up being right. For a year, I worked at a coffee shop and bought no new gadgets. It was a year to reset and put my finances toward writing, and the difference in the quality of my work became evident quickly. I’d think less about I was writing and more about I was writing. A lot of writers romanticize the writing process. Some tell you that you to write in the morning, you have to put on work clothes, or if you don’t write every day, you’re not a “real writer.” There were days that I stared at my computer for an hour and produced nothing, and days I wrote for 10 hours. Sometimes I had real clothes on and sometimes I was in pajamas. Your first thought isn’t always your best thought! It’s been a challenge to test the parameters I’ve set up. Sometimes this means re-writing a scene from a different point of view. Or writing the same scene in different settings. Often this shows me something my first take was missing, and sometimes it makes me realize my first thought actually was my best thought, but then I understand why. Upcoming projects include novel number two and the film adaptation of .
