I was at my parents’ house when I found out and was able to tell them in person. How did that make you feel?īennett: That was one of the more surreal moments. Q: The book was on a lot of “best” lists and was one of former President Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2020. Q: What inspired you to write about the concept of passing?īennett: From the idea of this town, I was interested in writing about colorism and passing, which in a sense are two sides of the same coin - and the impact that color has on these people’s lives as they move from Black to white. Mallard is really a place that pushes those ideas to the extreme. How did you come up with such a concept?īennett: My mom is originally from Louisiana, and she remembered towns like that, mostly occupied by lighter-skinned Black people.

Question: “The Vanishing Half” begins in the 1960s in Mallard, Louisiana, a town in which light-skinned Blacks are the cultivated majority. She spoke recently by telephone with The Dispatch.

These days, Bennett is working on her third novel and occasionally appears in public events, mostly virtual, such as her event Sunday presented by the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Visual arts: 'There's No Place Like Home' a reflection of artists' myriad styles She has written numerous essays, including “I Don’t Know What to Do With Good White People” and “Addy Walker, An American Girl,” about the Pleasant Company’s first Black doll. She published her debut novel, “The Mothers,” in 2016. The novel, which delves deeply into the concept of identity, was a New York Times best-seller and designated as one of the newspaper’s best books of 2020.īennett, 31, who grew up in southern California, attended Stanford University and the University of Michigan and now lives in New York. In Brit Bennett’s novel “The Vanishing Half,” light-skinned African American twin sisters are separated when one of them decides to pass as white, leaving her family behind.

The vanishing half hbo