Kai Harris is a writer and educator. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Kweli Journal, Longform, and the Killens Review, among others. She also has published poetry, personal essays, and peer-reviewed academic articles on topics related to Black girlhood and womanhood, the slave narrative genre, motherhood, and Black identity. What the Fireflies Knew: A Novel (Tiny Reparations Books) follows almost-11-year-old Kenyatta “KB” Bernice after her father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit. Soon after that, KB and her teenage sister, Nia, are sent by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing, Michigan. Over the course of a summer, KB attempts to navigate a world that has turned upside down. As she wavers between resentment, abandonment, and loneliness, she sets out to carve a different identity for herself and find her own voice. What the Fireflies Knew explores family, identity, race, and that heartbreaking but necessary component of growing up – the realization that loved ones can be flawed, and the perfect family we all dream of looks different up close.
