We chat with author Gabrielle Korn about Long Island Girls, which is a sharply observed, deeply nostalgic coming-of-age story set against the indie music scene of the early 2000s.
Hi, Gabrielle! Welcome back! What have you been up to since we last spoke for Yours For The Taking?
Hi! Thank you for having me back. I have been doing so much writing since then! I wrote The Shutouts, which is the sequel to Yours for the Taking, plus Long Island Girls, and a new thing I can’t talk about yet. I did a few ghostwriting gigs. My wife and I acquired a tiny pitbull with no ears and named her Norma. And I grew my hair out.
Your latest novel, Long Island Girls, is out June 23rd! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Nostalgia, queer yearning, indie rock.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect to fall in love with Susan Goldstein, a queer woman from Long Island, while she claws her way up the ladder at an independent record label, and Eliza, the complicated love interest from back home who moves in and out of her life for mysterious reasons. It’s about the difference between love and obsesson, connection and projection. And personally I think the indie rock vibes are very fun.
Where did the inspiration for Long Island Girls come from?
I was at a music festival called Just Like Heaven, and all the headliners were bands I loved in high school. I started thinking about why music from our adolescence hits different, and what that might represent. All at once I imagined Susan, a character who can’t let go of the past, from the music she listens to, to the girl she’s obsessed with.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing Jonny Lakes so much. He’s the lead singer of Susan’s favorite band who eventually becomes a close friend and mentor. He’s the kind of queer fairy godmother I wish I’d had when I was young. He’s funny and insightful, and there for Susan in a way that I really loved creating. Plus, by getting to know Jonny, we get to understand the reality of being a working musician—he’s holding down a day job to support his art, and through her friendship with him, Susan gradually takes her blinders off and starts to really understand who gets to make art under capitalism.
Alright, with the book set in the early 2000s indie music world, hit us with some music recs!
Like the main character of Long Island Girls, most of my new favorite music is made by my old favorite artists. Will Sheff, the lead singer of Okkervil River, has the second album of his solo project coming out in July—I heard him play some songs from it live last month and it’s wonderful (the first album, Spiral Season, is on constant rotation over here). Snocaps, which is Katie Crutchfield (of Waxatchee) and her twin sister Allison, has a self-titled album out that I love. And Perfume Genius’s new album Glory is also amazing.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Since the book takes place over twenty years, the biggest challenge was figuring out what moments to include in the story. In my first draft, there were twenty short chapters, each one devoted to a year of Susan’s life. The problem with doing it that way is that the moments with Eliza get sort of lost in all the other plot points. So I decided to only have one chapter in between each chapter where Eliza is present, and write quick little flashbacks to catch the reader up where necessary. I think it works better, but cutting it down was definitely a challenge.
With Long Island Girls being your third published novel, what are some of the key lessons you’ve learned about writing and publishing since your debut?
That it takes a long time to build a readership. I think it’s really common to have a fantasy that there’s going to be one thing you create that’s so successful, it changes your life. The reality is that success builds on itself. There’s a saying that it takes ten years to be an overnight success. I think it’s probably more like twenty. And the sooner you can reframe that, and see each thing you do as contributing to a larger, ever-growing whole, the more satisfied you’ll feel.
What’s next for you?
I’m about to go on tour to promote Long Island Girls, and I’m finishing up my next book. I hope to do absolutely nothing for the month of August.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?
Recently I really loved reading So Young, So Old by Grant Ginder, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, and Love Me Tender by Constance Debré. I just preordered Body Language by Meg Howrey—I’m a huge fan of her work and can’t wait for this one. And my friends have some great books out this year that I’m dying to shout out: Mac Crane’s Perverts, Camille Perri’s Social Animals, Rasheed Newson’s There’s Only One Sin In Hollywood, Emily St. John Mandel’s Exit Party, and Kirsten King’s A Good Person.
