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HOOD FEMINISM
Mikki Kendall’s e ssay
collection i nterr ogates
the f ailure o f
mainstream f eminism t o
include a ll w omenWILLA’S GROVE
In L aura M unson’s
nov el, f our w omen c ome
together a nd l ean o n
one a nother a s t hey f ace
major l ife c rossroadsHALSEY STREET
Naima C oster’s d ebut
nov el f ollows a m other
and d aughter o n
diverging p aths t owa rd
self-discov eryThey said that to the wrong person. I
was proactive and sold out of my first
printing.That’s hard to do now! I set up my own
tour. I got the names of the stores in the
back of the dictionary. There was no so-
cial media, but it worked.How do you work under deadlines?
I give it my best shot, but I’m not going
to go crazy over it. My characters dictate
the pace of the story. If my character’s
heart is broken, my heart is broken.
I can’t just wake up in the morning
and go to a new chapter where she’s
swinging on a swing or something.
Sometimes people don’t understand
that writing is an emotional journey
and it’s taxing. It can be inspiring and
encouraging, but sometimes, you have
to take a break. If somebody died, I was
at that funeral.What’s something you’ve read more
than once? One Hundred Years of Soli-
tude. But I like a writer named Ring
Lardner. It was he who helped me un-
ders tand voice. I don’t remember how
I found his book Haircut & Other Stories,
but I picked it up. He starts out with
this guy talking, sitting in this chair;
you don’t know who he is. The whole
thing is him telling us about this town.
By the end of the story, you know every-
thing. He liberated me. He let me know
you can tell a story in any way you can
get away with it.I love how you don’t remember how
you found him. It’s like he found you.
Honey, when you’re 68 there’s a lot of
stuff you don’t remember.Do you and your friends have a group
text? Oh, yeah. Just this morning: “Tell
me how I look.” “Do I look like a fool?”
“Did I put too much makeup on?”If I was in your group text, and I said
to your friends, “Descri be Terry,”
what would they say? “She can run her
mouth. Run. Her. Mouth. But she only
does it to make a point. Not to be right.
Just to make a point.”Reid is the author of the best-selling
novel Such a Fun Agelike therapy, that they “don’t do.” Was it a chal-
lenge to portray those complicated views? Yes
and no. I know about a lot of African Americans
who were always afraid of it and didn’t realize they
needed it—the alcohol, drugs and other stuff were
not cutting it. Nowadays there are a lot more Afri-
can Americans who do understand and respect the
value of getting help. There’s no shame in it, and
there shouldn’t be shame in wanting to address it.
I’m a big advocate.One of my favorite things in this novel is how
much it focused on food. We find so many
things in food—it’s power, it’s celebration, it’s
comfort. “Whatchyou cookin’ today?” “What you
serving at the party?” “What are we gonna eat?”
One or two of my characters are always thinking
about their weight. Loretha almost cuts out her
doctor for telling her what things she needs to give
up. She’s like, “I can’t give up peach cobbler. Are
you kidding me?” And there are a lot of books that
you can read where nobody eats.I have to ask what your comfort food is. It used
to be peach cobbler, but I gave up sugar. I still eat
French fries, I just don’t eat them the way I used to
eat them.One of my favorite things is learning about
writer diva behavior moments. Do you have
any? Well, I just bought some Jimmy Choos.What color? Oh honey, really cool, sexy velvet,
like a yellowish green. Around the soles there are
tiny rhinestones.Before you were successful, did you have other
novels that never saw the light of day? No.
Times have really changed. My first book, Mama,
was published over 30 years ago, and back then I
did all my own publicity. I found out they weren’t
sending me on a book tour. Black writers didn’t
get that. No way. They had a literary rat pack, who
were all white—and they had tours. I found out
I wasn’t going on one, and I was like, “What?”#TBR
On McMillan’s
reading listTLEDE.indd 93 3/24/20 4:56 PM