Page 87 - Marie Claire Australia (January 2020)

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G I R L O F T H E M O M E N T

KILEY

REID

Put this debut author at the
top of your reading pile

Nine is Kiley Reid’s number. It is the
number of years she lived in New York
City as a babysitter, spending her evenings
hugging other people’s children goodnight.
It’s the number of crushing rejection letters
she received from every graduate school
she applied to in 2015 after finally pursuing
her lifelong dream of being a writer. And,
amazingly, it’s the number of triumphant
acceptances she received from those
same nine schools the very next year,
culminating in her attending the prestigious
Iowa Writers’ Workshop (yes, that’s the
one Lena Dunham attended in Girls).
It was those three moments of her life
that led her to write the summer’s most
hotly anticipated debut novel Such A Fun
Age. A sharp, observant and sometimes
uncomfortable story about power, race
and class told through the conflicting
perspectives of a 20-something black
babysitter and her wealthy, white boss.
“It’s a story about well-intentioned
people who sometimes make mistakes
and you don’t tell the reader which people
READ IT
Such A Fun Age are good and which ones are bad,” says
by Kiley Reid the 32-year-old, who grew up in Tucson,
(Bloomsbury, Arizona, before moving to New York
$29.99) is out where she worked as a babysitter and
January 7.
became obsessed with class dynamics.
“I was fascinated by the very strange
dynamics of the relationship between
parents and the people they pay to take
care of their children,” reflects Reid, who
after her recent wedding to scholar Nathan
Rosenberg moved to the leafy suburbs of
Philadelphia, where her novel is set.
“Publishing a book is a big dream come
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID GODDARD. it’s the best challenge to do it again. But
true, and now as I start novel number two,

every day I’m realising how much work
I have ahead of me so I might be a few
years,” says Reid, with a nervous laugh.
Let’s hope we’re not waiting nine.

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