Kiley Reid


Kiley Reid is an American novelist. Her debut novel, Such a Fun Age, was published in December 2019.

Early life and education

Reid was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1987 and raised in Tucson, Arizona, from the age of seven to 20. She graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School and studied theater at the University of Arizona for two years before transferring to Marymount Manhattan College. She later graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Career

Reid's debut novel, Such a Fun Age, was published by G. P. Putnam's Sons on December 31, 2019. It was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2020. It was nominated for the Booker Prize in July 2020.
The novel, which explores the relationship between a young black babysitter and her well-intentioned white employer, was ranked No. 3 on the New York Times hardcover fiction list within two weeks of its U.S. release. It received generally positive reviews in numerous media outlets, including The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, NPR and The Atlantic magazine. It was the first selection of 2020 for Reese Witherspoon's book club.
The Washington Posts review said that "Reid constructs a plot so beautifully intricate and real and fascinating that readers will forget it’s also full of tough questions about race, class and identity." The Atlantic described the book as "a funny, fast-paced, empathetic examination of privilege in America." A review in The New York Times noted the book's "resonant insights into the casual racism in everyday life, especially in the America of the liberal elite," but described Reid's scenes and dialogue as feeling "deliberately styled for a screen adaptation," with "heavy-handed attempts to mimic millennial parlance."
Reid, who spent six years caring for the children of wealthy Manhattanites, began the novel while applying to graduate school. She completed it while earning her MFA degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was awarded the Truman Capote Fellowship and taught undergraduate creative writing workshops with a focus on race and class. The book and screen rights to the story were acquired before she graduated.
Reid's short stories have been featured in Ploughshares, December, New South, and Lumina.

Personal life

Reid lives in Philadelphia with her husband.

Novels