In Conversation: On Monster in the Middle: A Novel & The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

Dawnie Walton is a fiction writer and journalist whose work explores identity, place, and the influence of pop culture. She has also been an executive-level editor for magazine and multimedia brands that include Essence, Entertainment Weekly, Getty Images, and LIFE. Fiercely independent Opal, the central character in Walton’s The Final Revival of Opal & Nev (37 Ink), pushes against the grain in her style and attitude, the very embodiment of Afro-punk before the term existed. She believes she can be a star. So when aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records. But then a violent, life-changing incident – sparked by a rival band signed to her label brandishing a Confederate flag at a concert – throws her dreams into chaos. It will change the lives of those she loves, and be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women. Especially Black women who dare to speak their truth. The New Yorker called it a “lively take on the music industry’s commercialism, racism, and sexism, and also a commentary on how history and memory are refracted through changing cultural currents.”

Jill Tracey has been a member of the Hot 105 FM radio family for more than a decade and has the distinction of being one of South Florida’s most popular personalities. A native of Detroit, she first burst onto the media scene as a South Beach gossip columnist, which led to a career in radio and TV that has taken her to Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and now back to Miami. She’s currently on air Saturday and Sunday evenings, and on Sunday nights hosts Hot Talk with Jill Tracey.

Tiphanie Yanique is the author of Land of Love and Drowning: A Novel, and the poetry collection Wife. Her short fiction has been published in The New Yorker and anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2020. In Monster in the Middle: A Novel (Riverhead Books), when Fly, a Black American musician, meets Stela, a Catholic science teacher from the Caribbean, in 21st-century New York City, it seems like fate. But are they meant to be? Moving across decades, from the U.S. to the Virgin Islands to Ghana and back again, Monster in the Middle explores how family lore and love stories that happened well before they even met mark a new couple’s story. What challenges and traumas do they inherit? What hopes and ambitions will keep them moving forward? Exploring desire and identity, religion and class, passion and obligation, the story suggests that to answer the question “Who are we meant to be with?” we must first understand who we are and how we came to be. Kirkus found it “unique and memorable ... A rich and honest examination of family histories, cultural disconnection, and the way people fall in love.”