R.F. Kuang’s latest novel, follows a young white woman, June, as her life blossoms—then unravels—after plagiarizing a book written by her Asian-American “bestie,” Athena. It’s a satirical story about the pitfalls of identity politics that for both writers, is a little too familiar.R.F. KUANG: You too! Oh my gosh. I need to get all my fangirling out of the way before we start.
HARRIS: You got the publishing world so spot-on in the book, like the details of sensitivity reads and what it’s like to be an assistant of color working on a book. What was the experience like for you? HARRIS: I absolutely experienced the same thing with my book, with the intent, of course, of talking about how messed up the world of publishing really is in the way that we commodify voices of color, we commodify certain situations.
HARRIS: Totally. Like you said, we all know Junes. And yet, I don’t think it’s a matter of only June being evil. There are so many other forces at play that are creating the environment where she feels she needs to steal this story as her own.