I wrote the first draft of the New People quickly but it had been percolating a lot longer. It's a hard question to answer because I'd been working on another novel for years and when I gave up on that, this one came very easily. But I think the work had been going on a lot longer than the actual writing.
Danzy SennaItโs funny. When you leave your home and wander really far, you always think, โI want to go home.โ But then you come home, and of course itโs not the same. You canโt live with it, you canโt live away from it. And it seems like from then on thereโs always this yearning for some place that doesnโt exist. I felt that. Still do. Iโm never completely at home anywhere.
Danzy SennaI'm increasingly less interested in classic storylines and that arc that we have come to expect.
Danzy SennaMotherhood. It was hard to get lost in anything else completely when children were 3 years old.
Danzy SennaIn terms of music, each novel is different but I usually find my way into an era through the music. In this novel the New People, I listened to a lot of 90s hip-hop, which was just so genius. Also, all the musical references in the book from the Peoples Temple one and only album to Luther Vandross.
Danzy SennaMy fear was like a stray dog, roving the neighborhood of my life, looking for a new source of worry.
Danzy SennaI had been really obsessed with Jonestown for a long time - many years - and had read everything there was to read about it, seen all the footage and the documentaries. I found it really chilling in a personal way - the question of people submitting all their personal power and agency and independent thought it the name of a group or ideology. I could not find a way to write about it directly that didn't feel too heavy.
Danzy Senna