All Of It — Get Lit Preview: Angela Flournoy’s ‘The Wilderness’

Host: Alison Stewart (WNYC)
Guest: Angela Flournoy, author
Date: February 2, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of All Of It features Alison Stewart’s conversation with acclaimed novelist Angela Flournoy, centering on her new book, The Wilderness—the February selection for the show’s Get Lit book club. Flournoy discusses the novel’s origins, themes, and characters, sharing insights into the complexities of friendship and coming of age as experienced by four Black women navigating adulthood in America. The conversation delves into the evolution of the novel, generational identity, chosen family, social media’s impact, and writing from multiple perspectives.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Evolution of ‘The Wilderness’

• Flournoy began working on the novel in earnest in 2016, inspired by major cultural and political shifts ([01:55]).
• The original title underwent several changes, from “The Wounded Wilderness” (inspired by a Betye Saar painting), to “The Millennials,” and finally to “The Wilderness” for broader appeal ([02:24]-[03:37]).
• Quote:

  “There was a very short but passionate on my end period of time where it was called ‘The Millennials,’ which was a little bit tongue in cheek, but also just a little bit like me wanting to claim this experience for myself and for these Black women in this book.”
  —Angela Flournoy [02:27]

2. Main Characters and Central Themes

• Explores the interconnected lives of four friends:
  • Desiree, grieving several parental losses, including her estranged sister
  • Nakia, coming into her identity as a queer woman and a culinary entrepreneur
  • January, facing single parenthood after a breakup
  • Monique, a librarian grappling with viral internet attention and racism at work ([00:10]-[00:54])
• The narrative spans from the 2000s through 2027, shifting between New York and Los Angeles.

3. The Power and Portrayal of Chosen Family

• Inspired by her mother’s lifelong friendship, Flournoy wanted to honor the significance of chosen family, not just the family one is born into.
• Quote:

  “There’s a family you’re born into, but sometimes circumstances are just, you’re lucky, you get these other family, the chosen family.”
  —Angela Flournoy [04:00]

• Alison Stewart shares a relatable anecdote about her own “aunties,” emphasizing the universality of chosen kin ([04:48]).

4. Capturing the Twenties—Messiness and Social Media

• Flournoy aimed to depict the “beautiful mess” of being in your twenties, especially before the omnipresence of social media.
• She reflects on the freedom her characters had in the early social media era, compared to the scrutiny young adults face today.
• Quote:

  “I really wanted to capture the feeling of not really knowing what you’re supposed to be doing, and also the feeling of what it’s like to just exist without the eyeballs of social media.”
  —Angela Flournoy [05:24]

• Younger generations now experience amplified pressure due to social media “outside eyeballs” ([06:38]).

5. Writing from a Distance — The Benefit of Hindsight

• Flournoy notes she needed to reach her late thirties to write authentically about this period of life ([06:42]).
• Quote:

  “Now that I am in my 40s, I realize that there is no one moment that you suddenly feel like a grownup...you just are older and you start to...care less about what other people think.”
  —Angela Flournoy [06:42]

6. Characters’ Dreams — Contrast and Tension

• The friends embody different attitudes towards ambition:
  • Nakia is laser-focused on being a restaurateur.
  • January subjugates her artistic ambitions to fit her boyfriend’s stable life vision.
• This creates tension and reflects the reality of friendships with diverging life paths ([07:24]).
• Quote:

  “There had to be a character who already knew what they wanted. This was me in my twenties… And then you have these people who are sort of laser focused on their dreams. Sometimes that can be an inspiration, but sometimes that can also be really annoying.”
  —Angela Flournoy [07:24]

7. Group Storytelling — Multiple Points of View

• Flournoy explains her choice to tell a group story, not just focus on a single friend, to better reflect the realities of friendship networks ([09:01]).
• Her narrative approach is inherently prismatic:

  “We don’t exist in, like, little vacuums...to get a full sense, I needed to tell the whole group’s story of their friendship.”
  —Angela Flournoy [09:01]

8. Building Characters Through Internet Language

• Monique, the librarian character, is presented through her own internet presence (blog, Instagram, poetry).
• Flournoy discusses the challenge and “cringe” of writing believable internet-speak that won’t quickly become dated ([09:51]).
• Quote:

  “It’s very embarrassing to think about the language we use on the Internet. Cause it’s so specific and it is brand new. There are, like, new words that come up every… Every day.”
  —Angela Flournoy [09:51]

9. Reliability of Narration and Truth

• Flournoy ponders the reliability of first-person perspective, asserting that self-perceptions are true to experience, even if not objectively accurate ([11:02]).
• Quote:

  “Oh, are any of us reliable narrators about our own life? ...Because it’s about our perception of what occurred.”
  —Angela Flournoy [11:02]

• Multiple POVs allow the reader to piece together their own understanding of events.

10. Nonlinear Storytelling — Navigating Friendship Memories

• The book’s structure leaps between years, mirroring how people recall friendship — not in a straight line, but through flashpoints and varied perspectives ([11:41]-[12:40]).
• Quote:

  “When I ask people who have been in friendships for decades to tell me about, like, the story of their friendship, it is never linear...for me, it felt like in order to really tell the story of this group, it had to be a prismatic approach.”
  —Angela Flournoy [11:53]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "There’s a family you’re born into, but sometimes circumstances are just, you’re lucky, you get these other family, the chosen family."
  —Angela Flournoy [04:00]
• "I really wanted to capture the feeling of not really knowing what you’re supposed to be doing, and also the feeling of what it’s like to just exist without the eyeballs of social media."
  —Angela Flournoy [05:24]
• "It’s very embarrassing to think about the language we use on the Internet. Cause it’s so specific and it is brand new. There are, like, new words that come up every… Every day."
  —Angela Flournoy [09:51]
• "Oh, are any of us reliable narrators about our own life?...Because it’s about our perception of what occurred."
  —Angela Flournoy [11:02]
• "For me, it felt like in order to really tell the story of this group, it had to be a prismatic approach. Like, you pick the thing up and you look at it from different angles, and at the end you get a sense of all of it."
  —Angela Flournoy [11:53]

Timeline & Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:10-01:55: Alison Stewart introduces Flournoy and the novel’s premise, key characters, and book club details
• 01:55-03:37: Flournoy discusses the novel’s evolution, titles, and generational perspective
• 04:00-04:59: Flournoy reflects on the inspiration of chosen family; Stewart shares her own experience
• 05:15-06:38: The essence of being in your twenties and the influence of a pre-social media landscape
• 06:42-07:24: The value of hindsight and writing about the past from the vantage of middle age
• 07:24-08:44: Contrasts among the friends’ ambitions and how these impact group dynamics
• 09:01-09:46: Choosing a group narrative structure over an individual focus
• 09:51-10:56: Crafting authentic internet language through character, while avoiding being too timestamped
• 11:02-11:41: Exploring reliability in narration and self-perception
• 11:41-12:40: Explaining the book’s nonlinear structure and friendship storytelling

Summary

In this engaging preview, Angela Flournoy reveals the deeper layers behind The Wilderness, a novel about Black women forging adulthood—and family—across decades of cultural change. The conversation gracefully weaves personal inspiration, literary craft, and cultural observation, offering listeners not just a glimpse of the novel but powerful reflections on friendship, ambition, and self-understanding in the age of social media. Flournoy’s candid anecdotes and Stewart’s thoughtful questions make this episode both a celebration of the book and a relevant meditation on contemporary adulthood.