Lori Tharps is an author of nonfiction and fiction, a former college professor, a mother of three, and a literary activist. Firmly believing in the power of storytelling, she currently runs a literary platform called Reed, Write, and Create where they celebrate and support BIPOC authors and stories. Her first novel, Substitute Me, is about Zora, a Black woman in New York City who becomes the nanny of a wealthy white family now that the mother, Kate, is transitioning back to work.
Maddye Perry: When did you get your start as a writer?
Lori Tharps: When I was eight years old, my mom bought me an antique Remington typewriter, and I started writing plays and stories. Now, of course, nobody paid me for those things, but that’s really when I started writing. I mean, once I had that typewriter, it was like you couldn’t stop me. My undergraduate degree was in education, and I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I thought ‘being a teacher was a good backup plan because the original idea was to write novels which isn’t a job’. So, after two years of working, not in education, but PR, I realized that I wanted to have a job that was focused on telling stories. So, I went to Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism…and from then on, my career has been in the world of words. I spent over 10 years working in different magazines and then transitioned into academia, where I worked at Temple University for almost 15 years in the journalism department.
MP: How did your experience as an educator and journalist help you write those books?
LT: I think the reason I love being a journalist is it works well with my personality. I’m nosy and curious, which I think are the two main components of any writer; but as a journalist, it’s a really good habit or personality trait, whatever you want to call it. Even if I wasn’t a journalist, I’d still be asking people everything about their business, I’m just naturally curious. Journalism has given me access to information, to stories, to knowledge banks that I wouldn’t otherwise have had access to or interest in. Being able to tell stories around things that I’m not even interested in has forced me to be a better storyteller and educator.
MP: How did it feel switching from journalism and nonfiction to writing Substitute Me?
LT: My original dream/plan was to write fiction. I wanted to write novels, but I needed a job. I kind of had that feeling that I was just slumming it as a journalist and then as a professor until I could write these novels. But along the way, I fell in love with journalism. I fell in love with academia, so it wasn’t like I was just waiting to get out of there. The desire to write fiction was always there. If you look at the way that my books came out, I wrote Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America first, which is a straightforward kind of nonfiction; historical reportage. Then I wrote a memoir, which is kind of hybrid creative nonfiction; and then I wrote a novel. So, I was training myself. By the time, I got to Substitute Me, to be honest, even though I had the idea, I defaulted because I was afraid to write a novel. At first, I was like ‘I’m a nonfiction writer’… I lived in NYC at the time when I first started thinking about this novel. I was horrified when I noticed how the nannies in the city were treated and how people viewed nannies from different parts of the world. I started trying to report that story, thinking of it as a book-length piece. Nobody would share their horror stories, understandably, but I was like, ‘I still want to write about this in some way’, and that’s when I decided I was going to take what I saw and turn it into fiction.
MP: Most of this novel is from two female perspectives. Why do you think it’s important to focus on race relations specifically from the female perspective?
LT: The reason I wanted to talk about nanny culture is because there are so many societal ills present –it’s “women’s work,” right? It’s not giving as much attention or discussion, and a lot of abuse happens on the job. Women are usually the ones hiring the nanny, managing the nanny, and making the rules for the nanny. And a lot of what happens is abuse, not necessarily violently abusive, it doesn’t necessarily look like the abuse or mistreatment that we assume is racist…when I wrote this book, the term microaggression did not even exist or maybe it existed, but it wasn’t used as it’s used today. It’s these more subtle versions of racism and subtle differences in privilege and race between people in the domestic sphere. I deliberately made Zora in the same class as Kate. I want it to show that this is not something that’s about class; it’s about privilege and perception. Readers can’t believe that somebody would be that tone deaf, unaware that, again because I’m a journalist, I didn’t make up anything in this book. Almost everything that comes out of Kate’s mouth happened like I observed, witnessed, or was at the opposite end of.
MP: Did anything else surprise you from audience responses to the novel?
LT: It surprised me how people either really liked the ending or really got mad at the ending. It’s just interesting for me to see what would make a person happy with the ending and what would make a person mad about the ending.
MP: How did this novel influence you to pivot over to your podcast and platform Reed, Write, and Create? Did that influence you in any way to continue this new project?
LT: Yes, absolutely. Since 2021, when we moved to Spain, I decided to focus my attention on fiction. Like every story I’ve told since 2014, every story I’ve reported, every book I’ve written, and every class I’ve taught has helped prepare me for this next phase of my life. That’s when I realized there are so many more people like me who are in a place where they want to create. You know it’s a mental game of committing to your writing, of knowing what to do first. So, I created this platform because I needed it and I’m a giver. I wanted to help as many other writers, particularly BIPOC women writers, to get their stories out into the world.
Lori Tharps has created a community to support and promote BIPOC writers. Reed, Write, & Create has many platforms including a podcast featuring Tharps and her tips for writers and an online bookstore to purchase books from BIPOC writers internationally.
Maddye Perry is an undergraduate senior in Entertainment and Arts Management with a concentration in Performing Arts and two minors, Playwriting and Business Administration. Maddye has written for her senior project blog, Maddye with a YE, on Substack, which focuses on the large art scene in the city. She has also been in the Philly theater scene since 2023. She has worked for Philadelphia Theatre Company, Ensemble Arts, Hedgerow Theatre Company, and right here at Drexel’s Theatre Company. She’s spent her past few years stage managing shows in the Philly area. However, her love for writing and books brought her to DPG, and she hopes to continue writing after college.