Itโs 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 SennaWriting New People I was thinking a lot about the era that I came of age - the 90's. Brooklyn, in particular, this moment when I lived there. The sense of possibility. I was also trying to find a way to write about Jonestown. I had read about it a lot and I had the sense that the story could really start to drive one over the edge.
Danzy SennaI'm felt I was writing about love and desire and community and belonging and grief and a whole host of other issues. But race is never far from the surface.
Danzy SennaI think about some of the novels I love - The Stranger, Disgrace, Quicksand and Passing, Giovanni's Room, The Talented Mr. Ripley. I think I'm more intrigued by characters who don't do the right thing and where we are allowed to identify with their shame/dishonesty/envy... whatever.
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 Senna