09-05-2025
Kiley Reid: when I have writer's block, I reach for James Baldwin
Kiley Reid is a master at writing from life. Her first novel, Such a Fun Age, about a young black woman who becomes a nanny for a white couple, was drawn from her years nannying for wealthy New Yorkers. It was the zeitgeisty novel of summer 2020 and longlisted for the Booker prize. Come and Get It, out in paperback, is a campus novel about a resident student (paid to work in student accommodation) and a visiting professor who form a complex relationship.
Reid, who is from California, has been both — and that's before you start on the extensive research that goes into her fiction. Perhaps that's why her work has struck a chord. Now, Reid is one of the Booker judges
