Morgan Rogers’ tender and heartwarming debut, Honey Girl, tells the story of Grace Porter, a 28-year-old queer, Black woman. Fresh out of a rigorous PhD program, Grace embarks on a celebratory Vegas trip with her best friends. The novel opens with Grace hungover and recalling a “hazy, champagne-pink” memory of marrying a woman whose name she does not remember. This leads her on a wild adventure spanning from Portland to New York City to Florida to discover her mystery bride and, ultimately, herself.
Honey Girl has all the markings of a traditional coming-of-age story: the sometimes awkward, sometimes joyous thrill of growing up, a swoon-worthy romance, aching loneliness, hilarious dialogue, a cast of imperfect friends, and well-meaning family members. Yet it is ultimately Grace’s journey to self-acceptance and to figure out how to fit into the world as a depressed, anxious, Black lesbian that ultimately strikes the biggest emotional chord. The novel is simultaneously a quiet exploration of identity as well as an explosion of queer love and growth. Readers — especially queer Black millennials — will revel in Grace’s wondrous, expansive trip through star-searching and self-actualization.
I recently had the immense honor of interviewing Morgan (she/they) to chat about everything from mental health to music.
Jas Hammonds
One of my favorite things about the novel is the wide, diverse cast of secondary characters. What is your process for crafting so many different personalities and creating believable friend groups?
Morgan Rogers
Mostly, I think about the people I want to be friends with. I think about the people I am friends with. And I think I kind of made a mixture of that, all the care and vulnerability and sadness and anger and unspeakable love you have for your friends. And then I gave them jobs and hobbies that real people have, because that’s how I want them to read. You have these people coming from all walks of life, all different cultures, and the thing that unites them is their kindness and their queerness and their want to be accepted by someone. And they also want to be that acceptance for each other.
Jas Hammonds
As the child of two parents in the Army, Grace’s struggles with her stern military father resonated with me especially. What were you hoping readers who also struggle with strict parental relationships take away from Grace and the Colonel’s relationship?
Morgan Rogers
That parents aren’t perfect. That parents aren’t invincible. They aren’t infallible or all-knowing or messengers from God. They fuck up and sometimes they expect too much from their kids. I think what I want people to take away is what Grace ultimately takes away. She has to put herself first. She has to put her mental and emotional health first. And that means deciding what kind of relationship with her parents, particularly her father, Colonel, who wants so much for and from her, she’s going to have and still, like, take care of herself.
Also! That your parents have their own trauma and sometimes that passes down to you. And then, you’re the one that has to go to therapy or read all the books or work on skills that help you live and function and survive. Parents are people, and they’re not always good. They’re not always healthy. In Grace’s situation, her parents love her so much but they really struggle in showing it, and she really struggles in understanding what it is they’re trying to give her. Just like Grace doesn’t have all the answers, neither do the people that raised her.
Jas Hammonds
Found families are often vital to queer people of color’s survival and wellbeing. In Honey Girl, Grace is fortunate enough to have multiple close friend relationships, both long-established and budding. Can you talk more about chosen families as a theme in your work? How do these friendships affect Grace’s character development?
Morgan Rogers
I totally agree with this. Found family, chosen family, they are such an integral part to queer people of color being supported and surviving. I could not imagine writing a book and not including this aspect. For Grace, her chosen family in Portland gives her stability. They give her honesty. They give her care. They give her hard truths. They mess up and she messes up, and they give her unconditional love. They are people that understand her mental illness, people that understand her Blackness, people that understand how hard she’s struggled to get this far. In New York, she’s kind of invited into Yuki’s chosen family, and they are different from her own, but they are just as valuable. They accept her as Yuki’s wife and as her own person, and give her insight into this woman she married in the desert and is trying to know. They struggle and they go along with Yuki’s weird shenanigans and they are, like, unfathomably supportive of this Vegas wedding and this person that now just lives with them for the summer. Neither Grace nor Yuki would be the people they are without their chosen families.
Jas Hammonds
Who or what inspires your writing? Are there any authors you would love to put on people’s radars?
Morgan Rogers
I get my writing inspiration from music more than anything. The only time I’m not listening to music is when I’m sleeping. But, I definitely feel compelled to level up and aspire to be like certain writers when I read their work. That’s the best feeling, I think. When you read a book and it makes you want to write. This is my time to give my radio shout-out for writers to check out: Leesa Cross-Smith, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Nekesa Afia, Catherine Adel West, Akwaeke Emezi, and definitely so many more. There are so many talented writers out there. It’s kind of disrespectful, like, how dare you be this good?
Jas Hammonds
Grace navigates anxiety, depression, and self-harm over the course of the novel. What were you hoping to add to the conversation about Black mental health by showing these struggles and Grace’s subsequent (honest and hilarious) search for a therapist?
Morgan Rogers
Living with mental illnesses is really hard, surprise! And also, going to therapy and actually opening up and incorporating the lessons from a therapist is really hard. I struggle with both of those things. When you’re Black especially, you’re kind of expected to go through life in survival mode. The people before you survived worse, you know? But, like, they did not survive worse for us to be out here struggling if we don’t have to be. You don’t have to be on that rise and grind bullshit. You don’t have to find awful coping mechanisms and put your head down and just push through. I want Black people to thrive, and in Grace’s case, that means medication, and finding the right therapist, and getting some semblance of sturdiness and balance before she reaches out to right her wrongs.
Finding the right therapist was just something I wanted to touch on, because it’s hard out here. Black therapists are not in abundance. And when we find one, we might encounter our own intra-community roadblocks. It might take more than one try to find the person that works for you, and Grace learned that firsthand. I currently have a white lady therapist, and who knew that would work out? She still owes me reparations, though, but she’s great, besides that.
Jas Hammonds
You consider music to be your greatest creative inspiration. Did that in any way influence your decision to give Yuki a radio show? If Honey Girl had a soundtrack, what artists would be featured?
Morgan Rogers
Yuki’s radio show was fully inspired by the show Frasier, and I regret nothing.
Honey Girl does have a soundtrack! One day I will share the songs but some of the artists are: NAO, Frances Forever, Mitski, Lous and the Yakuza, Janelle Monáe, Rina Sawayama, UMI, and Lorde.
Jas Hammonds
What’s next in the Morgan Rogers universe? Can readers expect more queer, Black, millennial stories from you?
Morgan Rogers
Oh, definitely. I want to play around with genres in the future, I think. I’m working on something now that veers into speculative, maybe. But queer, Black millennials are my people, so they will always be at the heart of the story.
FICTION
Honey Girl
By Morgan Rogers
Park Row Books
Published February 23, 2021
