Style, love, and hip-hop converge in Amy DuBois Barnett’s sparkling fiction debut.
On this episode of Fully Booked, Amy DuBois Barnett joins us to discuss If I Ruled the World (Flatiron Books, Jan. 27), the story of Nikki Rose, a brainy, beautiful magazine editor on the rise in 1990s New York. In an admiring review, Kirkus calls Barnett’s debut novel—slated to become a Hulu series, produced by Emma Watts and Lee Daniels—a “lively, likable novel.” If I Ruled the World has “serious things to say about Black women’s empowerment, while also dishing up plenty of sex, fashion, and friendship,” Kirkus writes.
Barnett is an award-winning media executive and author, who made history as the first Black woman to helm a major mainstream American magazine, Teen People. She also served as editor-in-chief of Ebony and Honey, and was the of Harper’s Bazaar. She graduated from Brown University and has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. She lives in Los Angeles.
Here’s a bit more from our review of If I Ruled the World: “A foolish indiscretion with media mogul Alonzo Griffin almost derails Nikki Rose’s career before it starts. Luckily, a mentor in human resources hooks her up with an editorial job at a Vogue-like fashion magazine, with a powerful editor to match.…With everything looking up—more money, her parents’ pride, the support of her uptight boyfriend—Nikki would be crazy to throw it all away to head up Sugar, a fledgling magazine devoted to Black women and urban culture, right?… Getting celebrities for the cover, battling Alonzo’s revenge-based sabotage, placating her new boyfriend, JJ, a hip-hop mogul, and maintaining a positive influence on the culture is a lot to ask of someone just turning 30.…Nevertheless, Nikki remains our girl as she navigates all the complexities of skin color, misogyny in hip-hop, the do’s and don’ts of work wear, the implicit and explicit racism of publishing, and keeping your oldest friends as you move up.”
Barnett and I discuss the complexities of Nikki’s journey, as she works to become an editor-in-chief; 1990s magazine culture; the impact of hip-hop; Barnett’s writing process; the departmental harmony required to produce a monthly; and much more.
Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, John McMurtrie, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.
EDITORS’ PICKS:
Wrong Friend by Charise Mericle Harper, illus. by Rory Lucey (First Second)
Troubled Waters: A River’s Journey Toward Justice by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Bryan Collier (Bloomsbury)
The World of Leonard Cohen, ed. by David R. Shumway (Cambridge Univ.)
How To Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley (Pantheon)
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:
Children of the Fullness by Cyd Ropp, illus. by Elfaza Studio
We Met at a Halloween Party by Marcus R. Ferrell
What We Hold No Longer by Aaron Gedaliah
The Beekeeper’s Question by Christina Baldwin
Unbuttoning by Ross Taosaka
Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.
