Zakiya Dalila Harris on Tina Fey, James Baldwin, and the Book With the Best Opening Line

Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com’s books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you’re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you’re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.

From writing in a diary since age six to co-writing the TV adaptation of her recently published debut novel, The Other Black Girl (Atria), with Rashida Jones for Hulu, Zakiya Dalila Harris has always lived words and stories. (Her father is a writer and journalism professor; her older sister hosts NPR’s pop culture podcast.)

By now, the New York Times bestseller’s origin story is well known: Harris, an assistant editor at her predominantly white workplace of Knopf Doubleday, encounters another Black girl in the ladies’ room, but she doesn’t reciprocate Harris’s curiosity or openness to connection. When she returns to her desk, she starts writing about two Black women navigating the predominantly white workplace of Wagner Books, with a horror/sci-fi twist (influences include Get Out, Night of the Living Dead, Horror Noire, Octavia E. Butler, Black Mirror, and Passing, whose author Nella Larsen inspired TOBG’s protagonist’s name). Within a few months, she quit her job to work full time on the book that sparked a bidding war. And Aja Naomi King voiced the audiobook!

Harris, whose first name is Swahili for “intelligent,” was born and raised in Connecticut, went to UNC at Chapel Hill, and has an MFA in creative writing from The New School. She previously worked at a cupcake shop, a pie shop, and an ice cream shop; writes everything longhand first; was co-head painter on her high school musical set crew; co-hosts the Dead Writer Drama podcast; and lives with her fiance in Brooklyn. Likes: cinnamon, Yogi Kava Stress Relief Tea, Wrap Life head wraps, Cheez-Its, Search Party, the Still Processing podcast, and Bill Withers’s “Still Bill” as a writing soundtrack. Dislikes: Being photographed, being cold, eggs (by themselves), and ketchup.

The book that…

…made me weep uncontrollably:

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo. Everything about this sweeping family saga had me deep in my feelings, but Marilyn and David’s relationship especially wrecked me.

…I recommend over and over again:

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton. You don’t have to be a fan of rock ‘n’ roll or oral histories to fall for this book—but I am, so I especially loved it. Plus, Walton illustrates the story of fictional rock ‘n’ roll musician Opal Jewel so beautifully that you’ll swear she was real.

…I swear I’ll finish one day:

Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. I’ve started it, and I’ve always wanted to finish it, but it’s so long! For now, I’m happy with having seen the television show.

…currently sits on my nightstand:

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner. It’s summer, it’s beautifully written, it’s flawed, complicated women, and I love getting lost in it.

…made me laugh out loud:

Bossypants by Tina Fey. Her voice shines through in every single anecdote and retelling, and it’s really just a delight to read.

…I’d like turned into a Netflix show:

A Choice of Weapons by Gordon Parks. Parks had such an interesting life and career trajectory, and it would be interesting to see how he went from growing up on a farm to becoming an award-winning writer, photographer, and filmmaker.

…I last bought:

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith. I had the opportunity to read the proposal for this book back when I worked in publishing, and it blew me away then. I can’t wait to read the full, finished book now.

…has the best title:

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. “Southern”? “Book Club”? “Vampires”? Yes, please.

…has the best opening line:

“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” From Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. I cheated and gave you two lines, but you really can’t have one without the other! Do openings get any better than that?

…should be on every college syllabus:

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. It’s so beautifully written and so historically important.

…I consider literary comfort food:

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron. Ephron turns even the most everyday of topics into literary magic.

…makes me feel seen:

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She depicts the nuances that exist within the Black diaspora so beautifully; plus, every sentence is a work of art.

…features the coolest book jacket:

Luster by Raven Leilani. The mood of the cover—shimmery and fluorescent and charged—speaks so well to the mood of the book.

…everyone should read:

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin. Everybody should read at least one work of Baldwin’s in their lifetime, and if they only read one work, this one should be it.

…surprised me:

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. I read it for the first time as a teenager, and while I definitely enjoyed a few of the books that I was required to read in high school, this particular one stuck with me. Until Kindred, I’d never read about slavery through the lens of sci-fi—and Butler executes it brilliantly.

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