Kai Harris, WHAT THE FIREFLIES KNEW: A Novel
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.4 • 602 Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2022
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zibby is joined by Kai Harris to discuss her debut novel, What the Fireflies Knew, which is the first fiction title out from former podcast guest Phoebe Robinson's new imprint. Kai shares how this book grew from a short story she had started while working on her master's, which parts of it were inspired by her own life, and the two pieces of advice that strengthened this project. Zibby also asks Kai about how she accurately captured the sisterhood dynamic and the importance of representation in stories.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Vivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast. Moms don't have time to read books. |
| 0:07.5 | And speaking of books, I have two of my own books coming out this spring and summer. |
| 0:12.7 | Princess Charming is a picture book, which debuts on April 19th. And Bookends, a memoir of love, loss, and literature. |
| 0:20.5 | Comes out on July 1st, and it is truly a labor of love. |
| 0:24.1 | I hope you'll pre-order, order, and join me on tour as I go across the country. |
| 0:28.5 | You can find out more at Zibiowens.com or bookendsmemoir.com. |
| 0:34.1 | And you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens because I always post about everything. Enjoy the show. |
| 0:41.3 | Kai Harris is the author of What the Fireflies New, a novel. I absolutely loved this novel, |
| 0:46.8 | by the way. This was so good. Kai is a writer and educator from Detroit, Michigan, who uses |
| 0:53.0 | her voice to uplift the black community |
| 0:55.0 | through realistic fiction centered on the black experience. Her work has appeared in Guernica, |
| 0:59.9 | Quelli Journal, Long Form, and The Killen's Review amongst others. In addition to fiction, |
| 1:04.7 | Kai has published poetry, personal essays, and peer-reviewed academic articles on topics related |
| 1:09.5 | to black girlhood and womanhood, |
| 1:11.3 | the slave narrative genre, motherhood, and black identity. |
| 1:14.5 | A graduate of Western Michigan University's Ph.D. program, |
| 1:17.6 | Kai was the recipient of the university's Gwen Frostick Creative Writing Award and Fiction |
| 1:21.5 | for her short story While We Live. |
| 1:23.8 | Kai now lives in the Bay Area with her husband, three daughters, and dog Tabasco, where she is |
| 1:28.8 | an assistant professor of creative writing at Santa Clara University. Welcome, Kai. Thank you so much |
| 1:34.2 | for coming on moms don't have time to read books to discuss what the fireflies knew. Thank you. |
| 1:39.7 | Thank you. So, Kai, as you know, when I finished this book, I had to DM you right away and just, |
... |
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