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- [00:00]
Tracy Thomas
As you all know, the Stacks just celebrated its birthday last month and I cannot thank you all enough for supporting this independent podcast for the last eight years. We truly could not do it without you. My plan is to continue to bring you many more years of great reads, author interviews, behind the scenes looks in the book world and pop culture gossip. But I can only do that with your support. So giving us a listen every week goes a long way. And if you want to go that extra mile, consider consider supporting the Stacks on Patreon and Substack. I will say May is also the month that kicks off summer around here. I believe in the longest possible summer. That's Memorial Day to September 22nd for those who are wondering and summer ushers in the era of the Summer Reading Guide. My non fiction reading guide is coming in May for all of you who are paid subscribers on Patreon or Substack. So that's just a perk to keep in mind in addition to everything else we've got going on like book club meetups, our Discord conversation, bonus episodes, my weekly show and tell over on Substack. Making this podcast takes a village, as they say, and you're part of our village when you support through Patreon and Substack so that me and my amazing team can continue doing what we do best, which is bringing this podcast to you every single week. So if you or your friends are looking to meet other book lovers, support an independent podcast. Come hang out with me at patreon.com the stacks on Patreon and subscribe to my newsletter at Tracy thomas.substack.com I would love to have you.
- [01:40]
Imani Thompson
My really big question writing the book by the end of the book was why do people repeatedly kill be that individuals. But actually I was more interested in kind of states, you know, like why do governments do this? Why do institutions allow this to happen? And I feel that we often do give these justifications, oh religion or war or we need to bring democracy or whatever it is, but to repeatedly there's an innate enjoyment of power in that I think, which is where I feel Yesu really lands at the end.
- [02:19]
Tracy Thomas
Welcome to the Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them. I'm your host Tracy Thomas, and today I am joined by debut author Imani Thompson to discuss her novel Honey. This book follows yrsa, a PhD student at Cambridge whose accidental murder of a problematic male professor awakens a thirst for killing bad men in the name of feminism. Imani and I discussed the inspiration for this book where the title came from and how she was writing and thinking about gender, race, violence and power as she wrote the book. Our book club pick for May is Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu, which we will Discuss on Wednesday, May 27 with Chanda Prescott Weinstein. Everything we talk about on each episode of the Stacks can be found in the link in our show notes. And if you are sitting there listening to this podcast thinking, you know what, I want a space where I can think and talk about books with other people, consider joining the Stacks Pack on Patreon and subscribing to my newsletter unstacked on Substack. It's pretty simple. In either of these spaces, you get yourself perks and bonus content. Plus you can find community conversation hot takes all sorts of stuff and you make it possible for me to make this podcast every single week. To join, go to patreon.com the stacks for the stacks Pack and check out my newsletter at Tracy Thomas Substack. All right, now it's time for my conversation with Imani Thompson. All right, everybody, I am very excited. Many of you have heard me talk this year about how I have dubbed 2026 the year of revenge. And one of the reasons I have done that is because there's a lot of books out this year about revenge and this year and, well, and today I'm going to be talking to an author who wrote a book about bad men getting killed. Her name is Imani Thompson, and the book is called Honey. Imani, welcome to the Stacks.
- [04:19]
Imani Thompson
Thank you so much for having me. It's so lovely to be here.
- [04:22]
Tracy Thomas
I'm so happy to have you. Also, your accent, just, like, is so charming and lovely. And I know that you, you think that all our accents are horrible because they are.
- [04:30]
Imani Thompson
No, no, it's not true.
- [04:34]
Tracy Thomas
I saw what you wrote about Kyle. Okay? There's an American and he's horrible and his V bad. And so, you know, I took it personally.
- [04:42]
Imani Thompson
That's not me. That's on my character.
- [04:46]
Tracy Thomas
Okay, it's okay. It's okay. It's fine. It's fine. You can think whatever you want and so can she. 30 seconds or so. Will you tell folks about Honey?
- [04:56]
Imani Thompson
Yes. So Honey is about the sticky politics of race, gender, and violence, but told through the eyes of a serial killer. So when y, who is a PhD student at Cambridge, accidentally murders a professor who's been having an affair with one of her friends, she set off on a not always righteous task to ridge the world of some of its Batman.
- [05:17]
Tracy Thomas
I love it. Okay. I actually want to Start here. I wasn't planning to talk about this with you, but we're here, so I'm going to. This book is her story, and it's written in third person. Very close third. But it's not written in first person. And so I'm curious why you wrote it that way, because this feels like one of those books that, like, I would be like, yeah, you could justify first person here for sure. But you didn't, so why not?
- [05:46]
Imani Thompson
Yeah, it's really interesting when I start a project because I don't question my impulses that much. I always think the very first page I write it dictates so much for the tone and the rhythm of the rest of the book. And it just came third person close, so I just rolled with it. And it's interesting, the book I'm writing now, it came first person on that first page, so I've also just rolled with that. And I just try not to question it. But I think what's nice about the third person close is it is so near first person, yet you do have the distance of the narrator. And it allows for those moments in the novel as well where the novel, like, really pulls back from her. And there are a couple of scenes where we get this sort of, like, almost sweep of history. And I like that ability to do that with a third person as well. And I think because she's a quite detached and analytical as a character, it's. In a way, it suits her. The third person close as well.
- [06:37]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, I love it. That's probably one of my favorite things about the book. I've been on sort of a. I've been. I've been thinking a lot about first person, and I'm just like, there's not enough books in third person anymore. And it was thrilling because I had started this book, then I had to put it down for a few days. And as I started thinking about this, I was like, oh, honey's in first person. And then I went back, I was like, no, it's not. It's in third person. Like, it's so close, you do feel like it. And then as the book goes on, you're right. There are these moments where you're like, no know, we're solidly in third. Where did you get the idea for this book?
- [07:08]
Imani Thompson
So I've known I've always wanted to be a writer since I was little, and I was in my final year at university, and I was sat in a cafe with my mom, and I was like, I need to come up with this novel. That I have to write out of uni. Like, it's. It's the time. And I knew that I wanted to explore questions I had about being a woman of color in the world, the history of that identity. I also wanted to look at everything I was engaging with at university. The theory, ideas on race, on violence. I knew I wanted to center a black female protagonist. And I just kind of looked at all of that and thought, that's going to be a bit of a tough pitch to a publisher. Themes that I'm engaging with because I was like, I want the book to be funny and I want it to be commercial. So I thought, what if she was murdering bad men? And, you know, instead of being a victim in that space, she had victims. And I was like, wrapping these themes in genre. So that's where the idea came from. And actually, that day at the cafe, my mom was like, and you should call it honey. So it was really, like, very much born at that table.
- [08:05]
Tracy Thomas
Why did she say that?
- [08:07]
Imani Thompson
I don't know where that came from. I think she was like, honey trap. We were talking about Beyonce, the bees, because I think we might have discussed the first murder being with a bee in a San Pellegrino. And, yeah, it just came. And the title really stuck. And that afternoon I started writing. Yuss's voice came to me so immediately, alarmingly so. But then I paused until I'd finish my degree to, like, properly start writing.
- [08:32]
Tracy Thomas
What year was this when you had this honey conversation?
- [08:35]
Imani Thompson
That was the spring of 2022. And then I was doing my finals, and then I graduated. And that autumn was when I was like, okay, I need to get the ball rolling on the manuscript. But I was working full time out of uni. And then the following summer, I got fired, which was really helpful because then I was like, okay, got it. For three months, I'm just going to, like, burn through my savings and finish this manuscript, which is what happened.
- [09:00]
Tracy Thomas
What were you working? What was the job that you got fired from?
- [09:03]
Imani Thompson
I was working. It was actually a charity that was based in North London. And I feel like I shouldn't go into too many details because I would quite quickly give the charity away and the guy away.
- [09:15]
Tracy Thomas
But, like, nonprofit work.
- [09:17]
Imani Thompson
Nonprofit work, yeah.
- [09:19]
Tracy Thomas
Okay. That's what I meant more. I didn't mean, like, specifically. What was the job, though.
- [09:22]
Imani Thompson
We.
- [09:23]
Tracy Thomas
If you wanted to tell me, you know, like, I do feel like we could get revenge for you. I feel like we could figure it out.
- [09:28]
Imani Thompson
Well, maybe one day I'll write it into a novel and that will be why.
- [09:33]
Tracy Thomas
No, no, no. We're not going to kill anybody here, you guys. Don't worry. We're going to leave that for yourself to do. Okay. I love. I love that your mom came up with a title like, that's so crazy because you hadn't written the book.
- [09:47]
Imani Thompson
I know. And what was crazy about that, too, is that when I then sold, there were lots of conversations about the title, because obviously it's not an original title. It doesn't perform that well in search engines. And we went through this whole process with the editors, like, pages and pages of other titles. So many conversations about it. But I was really like, I just feel the novel. I was quite open to changing the title, but I was like, I just feel the novel has to title itself. And I was like, when it got to the point where we had exhausted all possibilities, I was like, I think it just has to be Honey. And I think it did. I think it had to be Honey.
- [10:19]
Tracy Thomas
Do you think when you were writing it, because that was in your mind, you were writing towards it.
- [10:25]
Imani Thompson
In some ways, I was in regards to, like, well, definitely the first murder that happens. That idea of honey trapping, the idea of sweetness. And I use that as a metaphor through the book. You know, how she sort of binges on sugar and craves it, and there's this hunger that she can't satiate. So I liked that imagery.
- [10:46]
Tracy Thomas
I want to know why, I guess, like, this novel, given what you were sort of, like, interested in writing towards race, violence, black women, women of color, what was it about? Revenge or, like, this sort of, like, vigilantism that excited you? That is what took shape. Like, were you thinking about other ideas that could. Could make this happen? Or was there something specifically about the vengeance piece of it? Or, like, not. I guess. I guess vigilante is more than vengeance, though, in some cases. I don't know. They're tied.
- [11:18]
Imani Thompson
No, they definitely are. And it's funny because when I first, like, pitched the novel to myself, I did think, oh, this is going to be like a satirical take on female rage on, like, the very tiresome trope of the angry black woman. And I thought it would be in a sort of that revenge zone. But quite quickly as I started writing, I realized it kind of wasn't about revenge because I realized that Yisa is not that angry. Like, she's not actually driven by this desire for justice as she gives lip service to and as her PhD thesis was. Makes you think she is. There was something much more about power and her addiction to Power that drove the novel. So that was quite interesting for me in the writing process that whilst I had all of these ideas that I think the novel appears to be, I realized, oh, no, I've got this all wrong, actually. There's something completely different. And then it moved into a space beyond rage, which I found a much more interesting space to write from, actually.
- [12:18]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. No, I certainly would not describe her as, like, rageful at all.
- [12:24]
Imani Thompson
Almost like I would say, though, on the revenge front, what I was really keen to do is when I thought, okay, if she's going to be killing people, who's she going to be killing? And then I thought, I'll flip the lens on violence or I'll have her kill men in ways that women are often killed. So there's a sort of cultural revenge, I suppose we could say is going on in the novel.
- [12:46]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, I mean, I certainly think. Yes, I certainly think, like, when you're talking about these bigger ideas of, like, race and power and gender, she is sort of like a Robin Hood for those things for. For. For black women. Right. Like that she. And. And also, like, the lack of rage sort of plays into that. Right. Because so, so many. So much violence done to women by men is done in almost like a casual way, which I think is really interesting.
- [13:17]
Imani Thompson
That's what I was so sick of seeing on TV was the casual violence and the glamorized aspects of the violence as well that I think is. It's just so common to see in our films, on our TV series. So that's what I wanted to be like, well, I'm going to turn that on its head and make it glamorous, but actually victim and perpetrator are switched.
- [13:36]
Tracy Thomas
Did you. Do you feel like, for you, that flip unlocked something? Like, do you think it made things make sense in a different way?
- [13:46]
Imani Thompson
I don't know if it did. I think what I wanted the reader to feel was very uncomfortable in those scenes because we should always feel uncomfortable when we see that violence being levied against anyone. And I wanted it to be a reminder that we should feel uncomfortable, that we shouldn't get used to seeing all of this on our screens all the time. And in terms of unlocking, I don't know that it necessarily did. It just sort of, I would say more so, like, confirmed a lot of the misogyny that I knew was in society. So it was quite depressing. A lot of the research I did and some of the scenes that I wrote.
- [14:19]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, what research did you do?
- [14:22]
Imani Thompson
So for instance, when she stages herself as an escort, I looked at sites where women warn each other about men and predators who are out there. And there are pages and pages of warnings that you can read. And the violence in those pages, I mean, it's, it's just completely horrific. So that was a big one. I looked into incel culture as well. That was another big one. And yeah, none of it was cheery reading. It really wasn't.
- [14:49]
Tracy Thomas
No, I. One of the things I think, just like given the moment that I reading the book right now is, you know, here in the States, we had a weekend like a month ago where there were two really horrific crimes in which men killed their wives and, or children. And I just couldn't help but think about this book, right, Because I was thinking about like this intimate partner violence, you know, and not in this, in the case of this book, like she's killing bad men sort of broadly, but always sort of in very intimate ways. Like she gets them alone. There's this sort of thing, but I don't know, there's just something about flipping what we're seeing that feels so gendered that for me is almost hard to like, read your book as real life because it's like, women don't do this, you know, like women, it's like, what if? But like, we don't. And I'm. I'm curious if you sort of grappled with that element of like, how do I make this feel real? Knowing that like, I mean, yes, some women do, but like, women don't. Like in the same way that like, you know, when we talk about like mass shootings in America, it's like very clear, a very clear group of people who do it. And yes, sometimes other people do it, but like black women don't do mass shootings in America, you know, so I'm wondering how you sort of like grappled with the, the facts of, of the world to make it work for you in the fiction.
- [16:16]
Imani Thompson
Yeah, it's an interesting question because I realized I didn't worry about that too much, I suppose, because the very act of writing fiction is to go into a make believe space, to suspend your disbelief, to go into that space. But once you're in that space, to make it as real as possible and that's it. Grounding your character intentions and grounding those scenes in the world building that you do. So I kind of like that leap into the disbelief. Although I would say I did also read a book called Just As Deadly, which is all about female serial killers. Through history. And let me tell you, there have been some terrible, terrible female killers. I mean, one woman who. She used to take people off to picnics and poison them. She poisoned, like, 47 people. So that was a good reminder to be like, oh, no. Women use. In a way, it's like, Right. The feminism. To be like, no, women can be just as bad. Sure.
- [17:11]
Tracy Thomas
No, of course. I mean, I know that women. I know that women do it, but
- [17:14]
Imani Thompson
I feel like, as you say, it was intentional to put her in positions where normally we see women as the victim. That was very, very intentional. And then to just try and make that as realistic as possible through her psychology.
- [17:28]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah. And. And a lot of this book takes place at. In Cambridge. She is getting her PhD. She's a student. So it's got this sort of academia setting, though we're rarely in a classroom. We are, like, on campus and near campus a lot. What was it about academia that you were like, this is a good place to put this?
- [17:49]
Imani Thompson
I felt Cambridge as an institution was just so ripe for satire because in many ways, it's such a ridiculous and extraordinary place, and for everything that it symbolizes this establishment. Quite a colonial past, the fact that it is a space that has not historically been built for women or women of color. So I was really keen also to show the black perspective in that because I felt there was a lot of. Of literature or films like Saltburn, but often they're from the white perspective at Oxbridge. But there's a lot of real radical work going on within black communities and black thought. So I. I was really keen to show that. And I also was keen to show her really thriving in that institution as well and being, like, bored that she's thriving so much that she's bored and this is what leads her to killing. I think that's a narrative that we don't really get. And very simply, I thought it was a really pretty place to kill some people.
- [18:48]
Tracy Thomas
I love that. Yeah, I love that. And how much were you thinking about, like, satire? Do you think about that as you write? Are you. Are you trying to write towards that, or is that something like, after the fact that you kind of go in and finesse.
- [19:02]
Imani Thompson
It was probably a little bit more after the fact. I feel she's so sarcastic as a character, and. And she. Again, in that sort of detached tone that she has, she is almost. She's aware of the satire of a situation as she is in it. But, yeah, I think it was when I. After I finished a draft and I gave it to my Agent. And she said, I want more Cambridge. That's probably when I went back in and I made Cambridge a bigger character. And I was a little bit more aware of the satire that I was playing up to both of the institution and the academic theory as well.
- [19:36]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, actually, that was my next question was about the academic theory. How were you thinking about sort of, there's lots of, like, Saidiya Hartman comes up in the book. There's Afro pessimism that comes up in the book. What were you wanting to sort of get at with. With that? How were you thinking of linking some of this theory with this narrative?
- [19:58]
Imani Thompson
What's interesting about the theory is that I'd written a number of. I've probably written a couple of drafts and I just couldn't figure out what she was doing for her PhD. I kept changing her topic all the way through the drafts. And then my mum again shout out to my mum was like, you should look at.
- [20:13]
Tracy Thomas
Your mom is like, really great.
- [20:15]
Imani Thompson
She's great. She said, oh, you should look at other pessimism as a theory, which I actually hadn't encountered at university. I had encountered theories that were quite close to it. And then when I read it, I was like, this underpins my plot just perfectly. This is amazing. So I fed it back into the novel, which I also think goes to show that she gives lip service to this theory, that it's not what ultimately underlies her, because it came in at a later draft. But I thought it was perfect for the Afro pessimistic stance. It's really a theory of anarchy and to say liberation is found in death. And, you know, then she, in a way, is like, well, let me take that to the streets. It just neatly fitted what she was doing. But also it was quite a good theory to set her up on to be able to then see her unravel and not be able to justify it by the end.
- [21:05]
Tracy Thomas
There's a question that comes up throughout, like, from her advisor. It's in the text and it's basically this question about, like, how does someone revisit the scene of subjection without replicating the violence itself? Was that something that you were thinking about? Was that a question you were asking yourself as you were writing these scenes? Like, was that informing you at all?
- [21:26]
Imani Thompson
It was, yeah. And I wanted that supervisor to put that question in early because it's an immediate curveball to the justification she's giving. Because I think that's much truer than all of the sort of academic cartwheeling that she goes on around, like, subject Object, I think there is a replication of violence. And this to me was my really big question writing the book by the end of the book was why do people repeatedly kill, be that individuals. But actually I was more interested in kind of states, you know, like, why do governments do this? Why do institutions allow this to happen? And I feel that we often do give these justifications, oh, religion or war or we need to bring democracy or whatever it is. But to repeatedly kill, there's an innate enjoyment of power in that, I think, which is where I feel. Yes, it really lands at the end. And that's where a lot of the theory would recounter all of her behavior as well. That side of Hartman quote counters that.
- [22:30]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, it's interesting. I think what I struggle with is like, can a person from a marginalized identity ever really be compared to the state? Do you know what I mean?
- [22:43]
Imani Thompson
Yeah, it's a really interesting question.
- [22:46]
Tracy Thomas
Like her individual actions sure are like, similar to, but like war and cold blooded murder to me feel different. Especially. Especially if it's being perpetrated by the state versus an individual.
- [23:02]
Imani Thompson
Yes, maybe. Although states are made up of individuals. But to me, I was more interested in the, the structures, I suppose, of power and the structures of violence. And when I thought about it historically, I was like, okay, now we're in a state in our modern world where we have clear victims across the world. Like we have this power victim dynamic around the world. But if you go back into the ancient cultures, you know, that shifts again and it's kind of negative because it's mainly thinking, well, all human beings are pretty capable of some pretty hideous things, no matter who they are or their identity or their culture or where they come from. But it's quite negative.
- [23:41]
Tracy Thomas
Yes, yes. No, you're. But you're not wrong. Yes, everyone, I guess, is capable of it. I think. I think what I was so interested in is like, how does her identity inform her actions?
- [23:55]
Imani Thompson
This.
- [23:56]
Tracy Thomas
I don't want to spoil this other thing, but have you seen the movie, the drama, the like.
- [24:00]
Imani Thompson
Wait a minute. Please don't give me the twist.
- [24:03]
Tracy Thomas
I'm not gonna give you the twist, but one of the things about that movie that I found really interesting to think and talk about was like the identity politics at play. You know, he's Robert Pattinson. He. And in the movie he plays like a British person living in the States at the. At a different Cambridge there in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And she is a black Southern American. And their relationship to sort of like the whole, to each other and their community and their surroundings. You sort of overlay what you understand about those identities. And I found myself doing that a lot in this book, like, trying to make her make sense with what I know. And I found that to be really provocative as a reader of, like, how can I position her behavior within the structures of which I know that she is living? Does that make sense? Without giving anything away, I feel like it's, like, so hard to talk around.
- [25:05]
Imani Thompson
I mean, and that is. That's what we. That's the social theory in the back. I mean, that's why I love the sociology so much, is I'm fascinated by that, like, who we are in our cultural structures. And I think what's really fascinating about her as a character is she is hyper aware of all of this. And that's what was really fun about writing her, was to write someone who was so aware of her cultural positioning and what everything means around her, and then to just so unbothered by it.
- [25:32]
Tracy Thomas
I want to talk about one of my other favorite things about the book, which is actually not my favorite thing about the book. It's my favorite thing about the act like the physical object. But the COVID Yes. You have an amazing cover in the United States and an amazing cover in the uk. How did this happen? Did you have anything to do with either cover? How did they. How did you get so, like. I feel like online there's so much discourse, like, the UK Covers better, the U. S. Covers better for this book. I legitimately do not think there's a better cover. I think they are equally amazing. Were you part of this process at all?
- [26:06]
Imani Thompson
I know. I'm honestly so blessed with the covers. I did put together a Pinterest board that's really claimed to fame at the covers.
- [26:15]
Tracy Thomas
Okay.
- [26:15]
Imani Thompson
But no, it's like, it's fully the designers. I recently met the UK Designer. She's called Poppy, and I was just, like, obsessing with her. I was. I was just so obsessed with the COVID that you've created. And what I like about both of them that feels is sort of like 70s vibes to both. Yes. And in the US cover, too, I. I feel I could see there was paintings by Daniel McKinney that were on my Pinterest board, and I could then see the reference of that into the US cover. And what I love about the UK cover is I just think the pinned B is so smart. It's such a simple image, and it's just so, so smart. So, yeah, I'm so happy with both of them.
- [26:57]
Tracy Thomas
I love it. Okay, let's take a quick break and then we'll be right back. All right y'. All, Spring is here and as you know, this year I've sort of made being comfy and cozy my mission. And Cozy Earth has just upped my game because they have reminded me that I can actually bring the cozy comfort of my home out into the world. I just got a pair of their Cozy Earth clogs and they have become my all day hangout Kick it shoes. I just slip them on in the morning. I'm set for everything I have to do, whether it's morning drop offs with the minis, walking back and forth between the garage where my offices and the house doing some quick errands. It's just like a basic every day I need to throw on a pair of shoes. These clogs are it. Also try them out. If you don't like them, that's fine because Cozy Earth backs everything with 100 night trial because they're confident that you'll love them. And I just told you you're going to love them. So you know you're going to love them. Pl your purchase is backed by a 10 year warranty that protects against damage for an entire decade. That's called commitment to quality. I love them. This spring, give yourself the kind of comfort that lives with you all day, not just the moment you get home. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code the STACKS for an exclusive 20% off your purchase. And if you see a post purchase survey, be sure to mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here on the stacks. True comfort lives here. Starting your own business can be a little intimidating. Trust me, when I first started this podcast, I had to figure it all out on my own. From designing brand assets to scheduling episodes to managing social media. It was way more overwhelming than I originally had expected. That's why it helps to have a tool that can simplify all the tasks you do so you can focus on, you know, the fun stuff. For millions of businesses around the world, that tool is Shopify. Shopify makes starting your own business effortless, offering hundreds of ready to use templates to build your brand identity. AI tools help you to write, copy and enhance images. Built in marketing tools to create bespoke email and social media campaigns, and so much more. The best part is you can manage all your tasks in one place, making your life easier and your business operations way smoother. No need for multiple websites and platforms. Shopify does it all. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com the stacks go to shopify.com the stacks that's shopify.com thestacks
- [29:37]
Imani Thompson
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- [29:55]
Tracy Thomas
We're back and I want to ask you about how you name your characters. How do you name them?
- [30:02]
Imani Thompson
Yes. So when I started writing that afternoon, I looked at my bookshelf because I was like, okay, I need a name. And I kind of just took like a placeholder name and there's. I had the poetry by Yossi Daily Ward on my shelf. So I wrot and then it stuck. I never changed it. I never went back to it. It just felt right. And it was only after I finished the whole book that I decided to look up what it means. And it actually means fury, which I was like, wow, that's so fitting. And then other characters, sometimes the names change a lot. Actually, I think I was listening to your podcast and you were interviewing, asking about names and. And I can't remember which author it was. And she said, you have to remember that the parents give them their names.
- [30:48]
Tracy Thomas
Tiari Jones said that.
- [30:50]
Imani Thompson
I thought it was so smart. I hadn't thought about that before. I was like, I really need to think about this now for my next novels because often I'll just look at long lists of names and just kind of vibe it up. But I was like, that's a much better approach. So I'm going to take that in the future.
- [31:04]
Tracy Thomas
It's such a. No one had ever said that before. And when she said that, I was like, like, wow, what are you, genius? What are you, Tiari Jones, one of the great writers. You must be. Well, because you have so many characters in this book, there's so many named characters. And I was thinking, like, how do you even decide? Or like keep track and are there some that you just know are right and some that you kind of futz with until you get feels right?
- [31:32]
Imani Thompson
Yeah, definitely. I think the name of her ex boyfriend is the one that changed the most. I changed that name probably about five times. Interesting. Interesting. I couldn't figure him out for a little while there. And then I think his name was right. Sometimes I'm still like, is it by the end. Yeah. Sometimes names, they just fall from the sky. Like in my new novel now, the names are really easy, but in this one, definitely, naming the men was tricky.
- [32:03]
Tracy Thomas
Interesting. What else has changed from when you set out to write this book?
- [32:06]
Imani Thompson
If anything, I would say the character who changed the most was her mother. And I love her mother. I think she's probably. I mean, I can't say that Jos is not my favourite character, but I think Candace is amazing. But she revealed herself so slowly to me and it was only at a really late stage that I suddenly realized that she knew this thing about her daughter and then it totally changed her whole character again. But I think that's interesting because I'm sort of in Yussa's head and Yussa doesn't understand her mum. So there was.
- [32:40]
Tracy Thomas
Oh, and so you didn't. I didn't, yeah. Interesting.
- [32:44]
Imani Thompson
And sometimes you explain this to people and they're like, that doesn't make any sense. Like, you make up these characters, you decide. But I'm like, that's not how it works. In the mystics of what's going on. Characters might reveal themselves immediately, or you've got to give them time to figure them out.
- [32:59]
Tracy Thomas
Oh, that's so interesting. As a debut novelist, were there things that surprised you about this process, about putting this book into the world? Were there things that you thought would be one way that were different, or were there things that sort of, I guess, revealed themselves to you?
- [33:14]
Imani Thompson
So far, it has been the most surreal whirlwind of a process because I expected everything to be far harder than it has been at every stage. It's really been such a joy and I. I know how lucky I am to be saying that of the process. I think what I'm grappling with now is, I was thinking today, there's a lot of waiting that happens. You finish your edits and then you spend a lot of months waiting for your book to come out. And I thought once it came out, I'd be done with the waiting, but now I feel I'm sort of waiting for a response. It's a strange state to be in. So I think I have to learn how to just really let things go. Like now that it's out, to really be like, okay, it is fully out. It's like, fully not mine anymore. The waiting is over with the novel because it's a very long process that you hold something and then. What's also funny about the publishing is by the time you get a response on it, you are quite over it. You're what your work with the novel has done. So this can be a funny dynamic too.
- [34:21]
Tracy Thomas
And what for you was the hardest part about writing this book and what came easily for you?
- [34:28]
Imani Thompson
I think because it was my first book, the hardest part was the belief that I could write a book, that I could get to the 85,000 words and see the project through. And you hit kind of. It feels a little like watermarks when you get 40,000 words and you've got half a novel and then you're at 60 and you're like, well, I guess this is a novella. Maybe I can see the end. So it's the belief in that. Because also when you're doing it, I mean, I used to hate people asking me what I was doing. I feel so embarrassed to be like, I'll just start writing. Please don't ask any questions because you feel a little bit deranged in your bedroom. Spending all of these hours on a project and you think there's a high chance that no one will ever see this, that no one will ever care about this. So you have to have this sort of weird compulsive self belief, I suppose, to see the project through to the end. So that's been a lot easier on my second novel because now I'm like, okay, I can write a novel. That's all right.
- [35:27]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah. What's the second novel about? Can you tell us anything about it?
- [35:31]
Imani Thompson
Yes. There are no serial killers in the second one. It's set in the near future. So it's a softly dystopian novel and it's set down in Dorset, where I grew up. It's looking at the climate crisis, migration, and questions of having children in uncertain futures. It's a much quieter novel, I would say, than this one. And I've been playing with form a little bit more, which I've been really enjoying.
- [35:54]
Tracy Thomas
How come nobody who's writing a near future book is like. And it's a great place to be. They're all dystopia. Why can't anything in the near future be good? Give us hope. Okay, Iman, we need help here.
- [36:04]
Imani Thompson
I mean, I wouldn't say it's overly hopeful, but there are parts of it that are hopeful.
- [36:11]
Tracy Thomas
I'm just like, you know, we're on a bad path, like as a world. If everyone who's writing about the near future is like, like, and it's horrible, like we're just. It's the worst things are coming well.
- [36:23]
Imani Thompson
But I would say though, writing about the near future, it feels like the presence just catching up with you. It's. I. Everything I write, I think, well, this could have, this could happen next week and Trump's America or you know, it's very strange when the present feels so dystopian already that yeah, it's a nightmare.
- [36:41]
Tracy Thomas
It's definitely not great living in Trump's America, I can tell you that. Is there anything that's not in the book that you wish was or could have been?
- [36:52]
Imani Thompson
I wish maybe, actually I put a little bit more in about the economic dynamics of the university. I didn't because actually from the perspective of my character in the college that she or she wouldn't be very aware of that. But I find that quite fascinating about the university that it's not like economically equal between the colleges. And there is also a line that I had on the book. It was in a lecture scene where they discuss violence and they talk about non violent movements so such as the civil rights movement. And Yussa challenges the students about these being non violent. And she says, but violence was being used, it was just being weaponized in a different way. And they have a debate about this and I cut it. And sometimes I'm like, well maybe I shouldn't cut that. Maybe that will go into the book I'm writing now.
- [37:40]
Tracy Thomas
The next one. Yeah, just slide it in the next one, it's fine. And if you need to do a serial killing in the next one, it's fine. It in, you know, whatever you need
- [37:49]
Imani Thompson
to do, you know, it is in the future, maybe yes, it will appear at the end of the story. Yeah.
- [37:57]
Tracy Thomas
How, how do you like to write? How many hours a day? How often? Music or no, out in the world at your home, Snacks, beverages, rituals. Tell me about it.
- [38:08]
Imani Thompson
I am the most routineless person now that I write full time. Oh, I had all of these visions of like doing my morning pages and going for my walk with my coffee and writing £500 words by lunch. I honestly don't do any of this. I procrastinate all day long and then normally it hits about 10pm and I think I better write something. But I feel there is something in the procrastinating where I'm constantly thinking about the novel and it takes a while for your ideas to kind of fatten or for a scene to be ready to write. And I have gotten quite good at listening in and being like, okay, I think, think that scene is good to go now. And I think if it comes sometimes then it can come out quicker on the page because I spent so long thinking about it. I listen to a lot of music. I have playlists for both my books. I always put the playlist on when I start writing. And I will often move around the house, dance around the house to songs, to try and get into the texture or the rhythm of a scene. It's very rhythmic how I write. And I kind of know if I'm on beat and if I'm not on beat. And I also try to. I like the quiet. I think I like the night because it feels like the world quietens down and I can kind of get out my own way and just listen to the story a bit better.
- [39:26]
Tracy Thomas
What about snacks and beverages?
- [39:29]
Imani Thompson
Snacks? So much tea. I am British. I mean, of course I drink tea all day long.
- [39:34]
Tracy Thomas
One kind of tea. How do you take it? It give me the deets.
- [39:38]
Imani Thompson
I do like an Earl Grey with oat milk. Got really into chai recently. Also like a ginger tea, like fresh ginger tea. But, yeah, I. I get a bit twitchy if it's been too long and I don't have a hot drink in front of me. And snacks. I'm also a real grazer. I feel like I eat like a little bird, but I think it's another form of procrastination. Sure stuck. Like, let's go see what's in the fridge again, you know?
- [39:59]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I. I love tea and I am. I've often been told that I drink tea like a British person.
- [40:08]
Imani Thompson
Well, you should be honest. How do you take your tea?
- [40:12]
Tracy Thomas
With sugar and milk?
- [40:13]
Imani Thompson
Oh, with sugar. That's a bit controversial.
- [40:16]
Tracy Thomas
As opposed to honey, you mean? Well, or just sweetener at all?
- [40:20]
Imani Thompson
No, no sweetener in the tea.
- [40:21]
Tracy Thomas
What about milk, though?
- [40:23]
Imani Thompson
Milk? Well, I feel like milk is quite sweet, so I think that sweetens up the tea.
- [40:28]
Tracy Thomas
Milk is not quite sweet. How dare you. No, sugar is quite sweet. Milk is milk.
- [40:33]
Imani Thompson
Milk, you're like.
- [40:34]
Tracy Thomas
But, oh, but oat milk. Oat milk is sweet.
- [40:38]
Imani Thompson
Oat milk is sweet. Exactly. Yes.
- [40:40]
Tracy Thomas
Oat milk is sweet.
- [40:41]
Imani Thompson
My gamma, she's real Jamaican, she puts condensed milk in her tea. That's scandalous.
- [40:46]
Tracy Thomas
That's also sweet. I love this. I see. I put half and half when I have it at the house. That's my personal favorite. But I love tea. And whenever I travel abroad, I try to find whatever Earl Gray or like breakfast tea or whatever, because it's better than here in the States. We have crap tea here. And you all have great tea. It's real. It's quite bad. I've discovered, you know, my. My international brands that work. But, like, even something that's just like a basic Everyday, like I'm really into berries, like the Irish tea. And it's. I think berries tea is fantastic. And like compared that to, you know, like Lipton, which is just like absolute crap. I'm just like, this is their Lipton. It's like this is just everyday Irish tea. But it's amazing and I am obsessed with it. So shout out to you all for your, I guess, colonization skills. We appreciate it.
- [41:43]
Imani Thompson
I'm pleased you're such a tea connoisseur.
- [41:46]
Tracy Thomas
I am, I am. I love tea. What do you. Besides the playlist or. I guess not when you're writing, but like just in life when you're procrastinating. What sort of stuff were you reading, watching, consuming while you were making the book?
- [42:03]
Imani Thompson
So for Honey, sorry, I was like, so in my book at the moment that I was going to tell you all about that. So for Honey, I did quite a bit of reading. After a draft stage, my agent gave me a really great list of books. Big Swiss was on that list, which I loved. I thought that it was also boy parts. It was books that we wanted to kind of match the tone or comparative titles. So I found that really interesting to read after writing. If I'm in a real writing stage, I tend not to read. I can't take on other narratives and stories. So anything I will read in that is normally nonfiction. So for Honey, there was Afro pessimism. I read that book I was reading Saidiya Hartman, Audre Lorde. I love her essay so much, especially her essay the Uses of Anger that really informed the early stages of writing Honey. And also early on I read My Sister the Serial Killer. So I'll kind of absorb quite a lot of information and then I'll push the books aside, I'll write and if I'm stuck, then often I'll go back and absorb. But I love tv, so I watched a lot of TV and Killing Eve really informed Honey shows like Peep show and. And Fleabag. These shows with these real, like bleak comedies. A bleak comedy and also promising young women as a film as well. It's very visual in my mind when I write. So sometimes actually film and TV can impact the world even more.
- [43:32]
Tracy Thomas
You write now for full time?
- [43:34]
Imani Thompson
Yes.
- [43:35]
Tracy Thomas
Do you ever think that you would want to take back on another job just as like a thing to like relieve the pressure of the writing?
- [43:44]
Imani Thompson
I think so every time. Every morning when I wake up, I think, surely I have to go to another job. Surely this doesn't feel right. This can't be my job. It feels so ridiculous. And I'm like, so happy that it's been the case. But I love teaching and I tutored for many years and I would really love to teach again in the future. So that's what I have my eye on. I'm like, okay, if I get this next book done and I have some ideas for some other projects, but I would definitely like to weave teaching back in because I love being a bookseller as well. I just miss the chats that you have with your colleagues.
- [44:17]
Tracy Thomas
You were a bookseller?
- [44:18]
Imani Thompson
I was, yeah.
- [44:19]
Tracy Thomas
I didn't know that. Can you say which bookstore?
- [44:22]
Imani Thompson
Yes, at Daunt Books in London, which is a really beautiful collection of independent bookstores. And yeah, I loved recommending books. But what was really wonderful about that job was all of my colleagues. It was like a low key writers group. So you get to go to work and chat about. About writing and projects. And I have another friend now from dawn who's on submission at the moment. So it's been a really amazing community that's formed around that.
- [44:50]
Tracy Thomas
Did you go there for your book tour or are you going?
- [44:53]
Imani Thompson
I do have an event in a couple of weeks. Yeah, in the books where I used to do all the events. So I feel like. I feel a bit weird. I'll be like, I need to watch this. Yeah.
- [45:03]
Tracy Thomas
They're gonna be like, okay, so here's the rundown. You're gonna be like, I wrote the rundown. Okay. I invented this. Like, don't tell me what to do. I already know. That's amazing. I didn't realize you were a bookseller. What? When you were in your book selling days, what kind of books were you reading? What were you recommending? What are the books that, like, people would be like, oh, this is what Imani is reading.
- [45:26]
Imani Thompson
Well, what it was really lovely about the job is that it made me read a lot more fairy contemporary fiction. I feel like for say, log, I was just reading Deadline authors, as you kind of do at university. And then some of my big recommendations were Hot Milk by Deborah Levy. I love that book so much. Enter Ghost. After I read that by Isbal Hamad. I think that's an incredible book. Actually, Big Swiss was another one I like to recommend. But what's very fun about the job as well is if someone's like, okay, these are the books I like. And then you have to figure out their palette and you have to figure out what, what book to put into their hands, it's. Yeah, yeah. And when you see them being excited about it and buying your recommendations, it's very satisfying as a job. Yeah.
- [46:10]
Tracy Thomas
Yes. That's my favorite part about my job. I'm always like. When I get. When I know that I, like, got the right recommendation to the right person, and I'm just like, yes. Like, it's like a puzzle, right? You're like, okay, input this. And then you're like, okay, well, I don't want to give them that exact thing. I want to give them the next. Next thing or the thing that sort of, like, does that, but differently or, you know, like, it's like you're always, like, kind of computing. How far can I push this person? And what. You know, it's like, oh, I've only ever read John Steinbeck. It's like, okay, great. Like, let's. How can we pivot? Where do we go? And I. I do love that challenge. It's. It's very fun because I feel like it puts all the reading that I do to use. I'm like, I've read all these books. What for, if not to, like, press it into someone else's hands?
- [46:54]
Imani Thompson
Yes.
- [46:55]
Tracy Thomas
And you do feel really, like, celebratory.
- [46:57]
Imani Thompson
You really do, don't you? It's such a joy being like, here's this whole world for you to go and enjoy. But sometimes we just.
- [47:03]
Tracy Thomas
I'm always like, come back and tell me.
- [47:05]
Imani Thompson
Yes. And sometimes people would as well. They'd come back in and they'd be like, oh, I'm at such and such. But we'd also get some strange requests. I remember one guy saying, I'm looking for a book for my summer holidays. And he was like, it has to have a male protagonist. I was like, he's like, it has to have a male protagonist and be written by a man. I was like, oh, why? And he was like, well, how will I relate to it if it's written by a woman I sold?
- [47:27]
Tracy Thomas
I don't know. How would he.
- [47:28]
Imani Thompson
This white?
- [47:29]
Tracy Thomas
What an impossible question.
- [47:31]
Imani Thompson
I know. And then I gave him Caleb Nelson's Open Water, and he was, like, very happy with that. I thought, I don't know why, but you're gonna relate to that.
- [47:39]
Tracy Thomas
Interesting. Did he. Did you ever hear back from him?
- [47:41]
Imani Thompson
No. No. He probably hated the book as well. He was.
- [47:44]
Tracy Thomas
I'm so curious. I'd love to know. I'd love to know. Yes. The how will I relate? Thing that men do is very weird to me.
- [47:52]
Imani Thompson
I'm like, this is the point of reading.
- [47:56]
Tracy Thomas
But also, like, how many times have you been asked in your career as a student and, like, as A human to relate to a book by someone about someone that has nothing to do with you. And no one's like, oh, you won't relate to the Great Gatsby little black girl. Like there's not a chance, right? Like everyone's like, no, you'll. You'll relate. It's the, it's the Great Gatsby. I don't know if that's like school reading for you all, but it's school reading for us.
- [48:19]
Imani Thompson
What's, what's a book that you tend to recommend to people?
- [48:23]
Tracy Thomas
Well, I love nonfiction, so I, I'm always, especially online, like in book spaces online, because they are so fiction heavy that I recommend a lot less fiction in general because I feel like everyone else is doing that. So I feel as the sort of non fiction girly of the world that I'm, I'm doing that a lot. But I think one of my, like most people, most regular recommendations for people in real life is Heavy by Kia say Lehman. I recommend that memoir all the time. I'm a big Patrick, Rad and Keefe fan. So, like, that kind of investigative journalism or like a John Krocauer? I recommend them a lot. I recommend the Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson all the time. And I'm always sort of recommending like up investigative journalism, like, kind of always going that direction. And then as far as fiction, like your book, I. I love a unlikable air quotes woman. Ideally an unlikable black woman character. So like Dancy Senna. I love Luster. I love.
- [49:31]
Imani Thompson
Yes.
- [49:31]
Tracy Thomas
You know, your book definitely fits on that list. I feel like one of these days I just need to make a post of like, these are my. This is like my list of black women acting fucking crazy in the best way. Enjoy. Because that is. That's my fiction sweet spot, I'd say.
- [49:48]
Imani Thompson
Yeah.
- [49:48]
Tracy Thomas
Sula, of course.
- [49:50]
Imani Thompson
Yes. No, these are great recommendations.
- [49:53]
Tracy Thomas
Yes. So I could come work at Daunt Books. I'm very excited.
- [49:55]
Imani Thompson
You could, you definitely could.
- [49:58]
Tracy Thomas
Earlier this year, Christiana Mbakue Medina came on the show and she's from London and that's her favorite bookstore.
- [50:04]
Imani Thompson
Oh, that's really. No, they are beautiful bookstores and they also, they arrange the stores by country, which is very fun if you're browsing. Less fun if you're the bookseller because it's not where the author is from, it's where the book was set. So really test your knowledge.
- [50:18]
Tracy Thomas
Oh, interesting. That's really hard.
- [50:22]
Imani Thompson
Really hard. Yeah.
- [50:23]
Tracy Thomas
And then within that. Is it alphabetical within that it's been
- [50:29]
Imani Thompson
like, I can't quite remember how the shelves were, but it would be like non fiction travel history novels. So to be honest, whenever I got to the shelf, I would just look at it and pray, well, what about
- [50:42]
Tracy Thomas
like a book that travels around the world? Or like you're in a, like it's like goes back and forth from the UK to Vietnam or something like, then. Then what?
- [50:50]
Imani Thompson
Then you're in a whole host of troubles.
- [50:54]
Tracy Thomas
Wow, that sounds horrible. People get mad at me because I organize my book by rainbow shelves, but I'm like, this sounds way more controversial.
- [51:01]
Imani Thompson
It was because it's originally a travel bookshop, so that's where it comes from. And I mean it is really cool to read around the world. But yeah, as I say, it's a bit stressful if you've tried to find the book.
- [51:13]
Tracy Thomas
Well. Or if you're just like browsing and you're like hoping to just like, oh, I want to read like a romance novel. And you're like, okay, where was it set? I have no. Like that's such an interesting. Like you'd have to go in with like a different energy.
- [51:26]
Imani Thompson
Yes, yes, you did. Which, which can be nice as well in a bookshelf that it's like, oh, what will I do? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [51:33]
Tracy Thomas
I feel like it's a good. Probably like a great bookstore for Discovery, but less good bookstore if you're like, I want this exact kind of book. Like, I want this feeling. It's like, well, you could get that feeling anywhere in the world. What about for people who love Honey? What are some other books that you would recommend that are in conversation with it?
- [51:54]
Imani Thompson
Well, I would say big Swiss for its tone, not as much for its subject matter. I mean there's a quite unhinged swimming going on in that novel as well. Lasting is a good shout. That was a novel that I really thought of in writing. Honey My Sister the Serial Killer, I guess is a very obvious one there, which is like, it's a really great read if you want another serial killer. But actually I also would go on the nonfiction side of. I mean the work of Saidiya Hartman is just pro revolutionary. It really changed how I thought about a lot of things. Effort Hirsch as well. I love her book and her book British really set me on the train for studying sociology. So that's a big non fiction one I like to recommend. And actually another on this is I don't know if you've read Akala's book like Natives or if you know who a Carla is. But he. So he has this amazing address that he gave at the Oxford Union and it's all about the whitewashing of history. And I watched it when I was 15 and it opened my mind to so much. And then his book also opened my mind to so much. I read it before going to university and he's one of the most articulate men. And he came into the bookshop one time and I couldn't handle it. I actually couldn't speak to him. I didn't even make eye contact. My colleague was like, it's Akala. I was like, no, it's too much. I could handle Ryan Gosling, but I couldn't deal with him. So I think he's a really great writer. I would definitely look at his work.
- [53:21]
Tracy Thomas
Wait, I love this. This is amazing that you couldn't handle it. I love it. This is so relatable. Wait, the book is called Native?
- [53:29]
Imani Thompson
Yes. Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire. It's again, a look at the uk because I feel a lot of. I mean, a lot of the race theory in the book, interestingly, comes from the state states and we can kind of forget about it in the uk, but there are really great writers doing really good work in Britain and the history of Britain, which is very fascinating.
- [53:49]
Tracy Thomas
So, okay, then why do you think that you featured writers from the States in the book?
- [53:55]
Imani Thompson
I think it just so happened that that theory fit the plot so well. I think it was mainly that it was like Afro pessimism just really, really worked. And I mean, at university I did. So there is an intellectual ecosystem in America that we don't have in the UK because there are so fewer black academics in the uk. So a lot of what we study is very much informed by America, but which is why it's also great to balance that with history and academics from the uk. But, yeah, I think when you go into the world of race theory, it's more often than not you're jumping across the ocean to go get to get lots of ideas.
- [54:36]
Tracy Thomas
Here's my last question for you. If you could have one person, dead or alive, read this book, who would you want it to be? Oh,
- [54:45]
Imani Thompson
well, someone who comes to mind is my granny because she hasn't read the book. And I don't. I don't know that she would have loved it if she was still alive, but I inherited all of her books, so she was like a big intellectual influence in my life. And then someone alive is. I do. I would really like Saidiya Hartman to read the book. I'd be interested to know how she feels about her theory being used in this way.
- [55:09]
Tracy Thomas
Would you talk to her if you met her, though? Like, if she walked into your. Like into the coffee shop you were working at?
- [55:15]
Imani Thompson
Because I so regret not talking to a Carla. I'd be like, learn from your mistakes and talk to her.
- [55:20]
Tracy Thomas
Okay. Okay.
- [55:21]
Imani Thompson
I think I would.
- [55:21]
Tracy Thomas
You just get brave. You just be like, hi, here's my book.
- [55:26]
Imani Thompson
I think it's. Cause I was, like, so overwhelmed by. Because I was, like, he had, like, such an impact on my intellectual life. It's like, if I were to be a. Just feel like you just, like, bow to these people, you know?
- [55:36]
Tracy Thomas
Yes, totally. Totally. I know. I get it. That's amazing. All right, well, everybody at home, you can get honey. Now. Wherever you get your books, if you're in the uk, you get the pink cover with the B. If you're in the States, you get the black and red and yellow cover with the honey.
- [55:52]
Imani Thompson
You win.
- [55:53]
Tracy Thomas
You win. I don't know. When this book gets translated into all these other countries, how will they compete? What will happen? Who will know? Who will reign supreme with this beautiful cover? The inside is good no matter where you get it. The outside might be a battle. So far, so great. But, Imani, thank you so much for being here.
- [56:13]
Imani Thompson
No, thank you so much for having me. This is such a lovely conversation.
- [56:16]
Tracy Thomas
And everyone else, we will see you in the stacks. All right, y', all, thank you so much for listening. And thank you again to Imani Thompson for joining the podcast. And I'd like to say a quick thank you to Rachel Parker for helping to make this episode possible. Our book club pick for May is Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu, which we will Discuss on Wednesday, May 27 with Chanda Prescod Weinstein. If you love the Stacks, if you want inside access to it, if you want bonus content, head to patreon.com thestacks to join the Stacks Pack and and you can subscribe to my newsletter unstacked at Tracy Thomas substack. Com. Please make sure that wherever you are listening to this podcast right this very second, you are subscribed. Click that subscribe button. And if you are listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, pause, leave us a rating and a review and then go on with your day. For more from the Stacks, you can follow us on social media. We are at the Stacks Pod on on Instagram threads and YouTube, and the website is thestaxpodcast.com Today's episode of the Stacks was edited by Christian Duenas with production assistance from Sahara Clement. Additional support was provided by Sheree Marquez and our theme music is from Tagirijis. The Stax is created and produced by me, Tracy Thomas.
- [57:39]
Mackenzie
My name is Mackenzie and I started a GoFundMe for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis and we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with.
- [58:26]
Imani Thompson
GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform, trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com that's gofundme.com gofundme.com this podcast is supported by GoFundMe.
- [58:40]
Tracy Thomas
This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar.
- [58:42]
IQ Bar Spokesperson
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