{"id":54586,"date":"2017-07-19T22:37:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T22:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=54586"},"modified":"2017-07-19T22:37:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T22:37:40","slug":"nbcblk-summer-book-club-new-people-by-danzy-senna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=54586","title":{"rendered":"NBCBLK Summer Book Club: \u2018New People\u2019 by Danzy Senna"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBCBLK Summer Book Club: \u2018New People\u2019 by Danzy Senna<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

NBCBLK<\/a>
\nNBC News<\/a>
\n2017-07-14<\/p>\n

Donna Owens<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nDanzy Senna<\/a> (Mara Casey)<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

NEW PEOPLE<\/strong><\/em><\/a>
\n By Danzy Senna<\/strong>
\n 229 pp. Riverhead Books, $26<\/strong><\/p>\n

The literati<\/a> have always loved Danzy Senna<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1998, the biracial Boston<\/a> native dazzled literary circles with her debut novel, `Caucasia<\/a>.\u2019 The coming of age tale\u2014which tackled race, class and gender before terms like `intersectionality<\/a>\u2019 entered the mainstream lexicon\u2014nabbed awards, and was hailed an instant classic.<\/p>\n

Senna\u2019s follow-up novel, `Symptomatic<\/a>,\u2019 (2001) further explored mixed-race characters. Her memoir, `Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History<\/a>,\u2019 (2009) and story collection, `You Are Free<\/a>,\u2019 (2011) continued probing identity politics.<\/p>\n

Now the scribe is back with her anticipated third novel,`New People<\/a>.\u2019 As with Senna\u2019s previous work, it mines the complex themes of race, sex, and class. The tale unfolds through the adventures of Maria, a hip Brooklynite<\/a> whose enviable lifestyle unravels behind her obsession with a man she barely knows…<\/p>\n

…You\u2019re biracial\u2014White mom and African American father \u2014 and your writing delves frequently into race. Is it a painful topic for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So for me, I\u2019m not so much writing about race as I am writing about America. And to me, the American story is one of race, money and class. We do live in a racialized world, and I\u2019ve spent my whole life in this space. I find it strange when writers don\u2019t address it. I\u2019m almost always assumed to be white. I\u2019ve been privy to a lot of racism and conversations in rooms where I unintentionally disappeared into whiteness. I think there were periods when it was a struggle. But I\u2019m at a place in my life when I\u2019m very clear on who I am, my own story and who I come from…<\/p>\n

Read the entire interview and book excerpt here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The literati have always loved Danzy Senna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13743,1196,8,20],"tags":[1340,27336,15127,21177],"class_list":["post-54586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-interviews","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-danzy-senna","tag-donna-owens","tag-nbc-news","tag-nbcblk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54587,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54586\/revisions\/54587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}