Author Q&A with Jayne Allen – Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
When I first saw the book Black Girls Must Die Exhausted circulating on social media, I just KNEW I had to have it in my hands! The title SCREAMED “This is my life!” and I can’t wait to read it next month!
Book Synopsis: BLACK GIRLS MUST DIE EXHAUSTED (BGMDE) is something that 33-year-old Tabitha Walker has heard her grandmother say before. Of course, her grandmother (who happens to be white) was referring to the 1950’s and what she observed in the nascent times of civil rights. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, Marc– a “paper-perfect” boyfriend, and a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, Tabitha never imagined how this phrase could apply to her as a black girl in contemporary times – until everything changed. An unexpected doctor’s diagnosis awakens Tabitha to an unperceived culprit, threatening the one thing that has always mattered most – having a family of her own.
While simultaneously confronting the everyday experience of race, complex modern relationships and a workplace rival who feels entitled to her position, she must leverage the power of laughter, love, and courageous self-care to bring a healing stronger than she ever imagined – before the phrase “black girls must die exhausted” takes on a new and unwanted meaning in her own life.
Now for the really fun stuff! Excited to have this little Q&A on hand for y’all with author Jayne Allen, so here we go!
Q: Can you tell us about the cover for Black Girls Must Die Exhausted? Who designed it and what is the significance?
JA: The cover was designed by a Somali artist, Monira Mussabal. I originally sourced it via a design contest on a site called 99Designs. The book title caught her attention, where she might have otherwise not noticed the project. Once she read the description of the book and where I was looking to take the work, she contacted me and told me that she just knew in her heart that this project was meant for her. Her sister had passed about a year prior, and this was her own tribute.
In the creative brief, I specified that I wanted to display lush verdancy on the cover – deep green leaves, and flowers – like a vibrant, thriving garden of life. And I wanted a black woman on the cover in the midst of all of this. The title of the book takes a journey in meaning along with the story, and I wanted to create a juxtaposition and a promise in the visuals on the cover. The book is a celebration of life and of the lives of black women.
Q: How did you come up with the title, Black Girls Must Die Exhausted?
JA: The title might have come to me before the book concept did. It occurred to me in a period where I was feeling unseen, unprotected and uncelebrated as a black woman specifically. I felt like I was stuffing my blackness away and the burden was heavy on my spirit. I was searching my soul for the truth of how to most fully express how I personally felt. So, it was just a phrase that popped into my mind, like damn, black girls must literally die exhausted at the end of it all. We carry a double and triple burden relative to most people, and it makes us strong, capable and beautiful, but boy does it cost us something as well.
After I started working on the book, people tried to discourage me from moving forward with the title, but I couldn’t shake it. It was my truth that I couldn’t deny. I knew if it spoke to me so profoundly, that it would speak to other women like me. Truth carries its own power. I really enjoyed bringing different and deeper meanings into the title in the process of writing the book.
Q: What do you want readers to take away from the book?
JA: I want women to close the book and feel seen, valued and beautiful in their strength. I want people who read the book to realize that they just witnessed an unapologetic celebration of black women. I want them to feel like they know the Black Girls Must Die Exhausted characters as 3-dimensional “people” who they’re ready to keep growing with as the series continues to unfold in the next two books. And very important, I want to spark discussions about important topics that we don’t spend enough focus on — like reproductive health, mental health, workplace coping and “impostor syndrome,” and an appreciation of the beauty of strength that comes as a reward for surviving a struggle.
Q: Relationships between women seem to be a foreground focus in Black Girls Must Die Exhausted? Did you intend that? What about the men?
JA: I did intend for the relationships between women to be highlighted. There is a central relationship between the protagonist Tabby, and her grandmother, Granny Tab. There is so much love between them. They are truly family. And it is even more beautiful that their relationship makes race moot other than the perspective that it provides to each of them. My favorite scene to write in the book was the one in which Tabby and her grandmother discuss race from such an intimate place that I almost felt like an intruder writing it.
The relationships between women are multi-generational as well. You really get to see the power of friendship it all of its various forms – and the trials that it bears. Love can truly bear all things and transform all things.
Keeping in mind that this is a trilogy, and from the perspective of the protagonist who is also the narrator, you’ll see the men from her perspective in this book. But we’re building. Book one is primarily about the women and their relationships – the later books will spend more time unpacking more about the men, but you get to meet them and learn quite a bit about them and who they are in book one. In later books, you’ll see more about who they are becoming, for the better or worse.
Q: So much about the book and the characters feels familiar. How much of the book is autobiographical?
JA: I think that all writers drop nuggets of reality into their stories, and indeed their own perspectives and views of the world, but Black Girls Must Die Exhausted is definitely fiction. There are no people that any of the characters are based on that I know of. That said, the situations and the people in them are a result of a lot of background work, research, and development, so they are meant to ring true to life and feel like something worth investing in emotionally for the journey of the series.
Q: Are there any characters that you want the reader to dislike?
JA: When I wrote this book, I thought of it as a human mystery — a mystery of human behavior. I wanted it to be something that you could read more than once and have a different experience each time, picking up on more and more of the clues that I dropped. There are layers. There are two sides to every story and nobody in any of my books is all bad, no matter how they might appear on the surface of their actions.
Q: What can we expect in your follow to BGMDE?
JA: In this series, I plan to continue to explore and unpack the experience of race. The complexity of the relationships will continue to evolve, and the characters will grow. You’ll start to get other perspectives beyond just that of Tabby, but she’ll continue to be your central protagonist as we make our way to the series finale in book three. I intend for each book to stand on its own, but be worth the investment of growing with the characters in book one and staying with them all the way through. Also, I’m considering a prequel about Granny Tab and her life’s journey.
Hope y’all enjoyed that little treat! Now who’s reading this with me in April?
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