We chat with author Katie Naymon about You Between The Lines, which follows a former sorority girl who starts a prestigious poetry MFA program only to discover that one of her classmates is her high school crush-turned-nemesis—and he can’t stop writing about her.
Hi, Katie! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I’m Katie Naymon, author of You Between the Lines, what I’ve lovingly dubbed the Slutty MFA Novel, which comes out February 18. I’m a born-and-raised Ohioan who moved to Stockholm, Sweden for love, and I’ve been here for almost 7 years. Otherwise, I’m extremely passionate about cats. I’m crying now just thinking about them.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
In elementary and middle school, I inhaled books. Messed up my sleep over it. Couldn’t get enough. My interest in writing sort of naturally flowed from that—the feeling of, This is so compelling, could I also tell stories? But when it comes to writing, what I viscerally remember is being in middle school and reading contemporary poetry for the first time. I didn’t really get it, but we read “in Just” but e.e. cummings, and there’s a line that goes, “when the world is puddle-wonderful.” I remember thinking, That’s amazing. Puddle-wonderful. How one could just combine nouns and adjectives and verbs in ways that we weren’t taught in school. I worry this is coming off as cheesy, but that poem opened up an expansiveness in language that was almost druglike in its possibility. It felt transgressive in a sexy way. You’re telling me I can manipulate language to make it do what I want it to do instead of just following rules? I didn’t even know it was an option.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Meet Felicity, among every other book American Girl has ever released. Life-changing literature.
- The one that made you want to become an author: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld spoke to me in a way no other book had, and almost 20 years later, I still follow Curtis anywhere she goes.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess was dumbfoundingly good, and it’s the kind of book where I want to talk about it and unpack it literally at all times.
Your debut novel, You Between the Lines, is out February 18th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Tortured Poets Department, happier ending.
What can readers expect?
I wouldn’t call it a romcom, but it’s a steamy and angsty academic rivals-to-lovers romance (with hopefully some funny moments) set in a creative writing MFA program. It’s got a messy will-they-won’t-they dynamic that plays out both in real life but also across the characters’ writing. If you liked Emily Henry’s Beach Read and Tia Williams’ Seven Days in June, I’m hoping you’ll enjoy this.
Where did the inspiration for You Between the Lines come from?
I think it’s a truth universally acknowledged that if you’re in a college English class, there’s going to be some guy who thinks he’s the next David Foster Wallace. One of my best friends had a crush on one of these guys. We were obsessed with him. It was an entire thing—great hair, went to a fancy liberal arts college for English, and he’d even self-published a book of short stories as a high schooler, which is so funny and pretentious to me now, but at the time, we were feral for how self-assured he was as a 19-year-old. They had this encounter, at his college, when he was a freshman and she was still in high school. He was weird and dismissive and the whole thing was horribly awkward, but we always wondered about him and the what-if of it all. So when I sat down to write a book, I pulled this man from my high school brain and created a thought experiment: what if it had worked out between them? How could I take this type of guy, the one that is so annoying and yet you want them to like you so badly, and pair him with a woman that would completely destabilize him, make him get over himself, and he’d fall in love with her?
But then the question was, where would these people meet? The characters came to me before I knew the setting of the book. But they say to write what you know, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s how utterly scary, exhilarating, and exposing it is to have your writing dissected in front of your classmates while you silently watch. So when figuring out where Hot Pretentious Guy would live, it was obviously an MFA program, which is my own background. There was just so much material to be mined from that kind of setting. There were multiple couples in my program and you could easily see how it could transfer over into the writing (and occasionally, it did). How delicious, how fraught! I had to set a romance in that space.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I love fight scenes. I know some readers detest third act breakups, but I’m a fan. I think fight scenes can almost be as delicious as steamy scenes, because for them to really work, the characters need to be pushing the others’ buttons in the perfect way that’s going to cause maximum emotional pain. And to do that means they have to know each other. See each other. To me, there’s nothing hotter really than being seen, than being studied, than being the sole object of someone’s focus. That’s really apparent in a good fight or breakup scene. Third act breakups don’t work for me when the conflict is simple miscommunication—but when it’s the result of seeing someone in a way that they can’t see themselves yet and breaking it down for them in an articulated way? Delectable. Especially between two writers who really know how to cut to the core of the other? So juicy, and it makes the HEA that much more earned. I had a great time writing every jab.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I’d have a breakdown at least every other day. Plot is tough for me. I’m really comfortable at a scene or line level, but when it comes to plot moves, I’m not a natural. In trying to figure out what to do with YBTL, I would sit with a physical notebook and pen and sketch out webs of different conflicts I could make happen in the book because I’d freak out about not knowing where the book was going and I’d feel completely unable to move forward unless I knew exactly what my next move was. The biggest gamechanger for me was just realizing that any problem was Future Katie’s problem, and that SHE would figure it out. That usually meant skipping around between scenes or stepping away from the manuscript or reading another author’s book just to see if I could get inspiration. And I always did. So even now when I’m really frustrated with a plot point, I just tell myself, oh, Future Katie will solve it and move on before I send myself into a complete spiral. I usually still do the spiral because I can, though.
This is your debut! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
You Between the Lines is the first book I’ve ever written. I studied poetry, not fiction, so while I don’t have the drawer of manuscripts many of my peers have, I do have a drawer of poems, which I don’t think are so dissimilar to novels—they too have beginnings, middles, and ends. They too have been pored over in multiple revisions. My day jobs since I graduated college have also been writing in some capacity, in journalism or copywriting, both of which have trained me in “plotting”, be it an article for a magazine or campaign messaging for a billboard ad.
I think all of that writing experience let me approach this project confidently—I definitely didn’t know what I was doing, but I was certain I’d figure it out. I think it also helped that because I didn’t have any sort of identity as a “fiction writer,” it lowered the stakes. Everything was a test, everything was fun. I think the reason why I’ve never published a poem is perhaps because my early writing identity is too tied up in it. “I should be good at it” because it’s what I studied. With fiction, it was more like, Who cares if I suck at this, lol! (The problem is that only worked once. Now, unfortunately, I care.)
After I worked on a few drafts of YBTL with friend feedback, I started querying. Querying went quickly, and so did submission. I’m really grateful for that because even though everything was fast, I still managed to make it as horrible as possible. My passion in life, second to cats, is to suffer.
What’s next for you?
I have a bad tendency to be obsessed with “what’s next,” to the detriment of enjoying the present. So I’m challenging myself to just soak all of this up and to really be proud of this moment. I’m beyond excited to meet readers in person at my book events this month. People have been unbelievably kind and thoughtful in their responses to YBTL, and I know I’m going to cry a lot, which I hate doing in public, but alas. Going home to the US for the launch also means spending lots of time in my favorite bookstores, going to Trader Joe’s, and yes, spending time with my 22-year-old childhood cat. I’m buzzing!
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up in 2025?
There’s so many romances I’m excited about, but the list would be long and I’m terrified of leaving one out. So I’ll tell you some of the non-romance books I’m pumped about. I can’t wait to read Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld, Good Girl by Aria Aber, Blob by Maggie Su, and Crush by Ada Calhoun.
