How Acclaimed Debut Novelist Kai Thomas Writes

The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

Acclaimed debut novelist, Kai Thomas, spoke to me about writing historical fiction that interweaves Black and Indigenous cultures, the power of storytelling, keeping grounded in his work, and his novel “In the Upper Country.”

Kai Thomas is a writer, carpenter, and land steward of Soul Fire Farm a community-centered “… farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system.”

His debut novel is In the Upper Country and described as “... an unforgettable story that unearths the tangled fates of two resilient women from different generations with different pasts …. as they reveal the deeply connected histories of Black and Indigenous peoples of North America and their relationship to the land around them.”

A Publishers Weekly starred review called it, “... [a] mesmerizing debut [that] explores freedom, family, and the interconnections between white, Black, and Indigenous communities in 1859 Canada….”

Stay calm and write on ...

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In this file Kai Thomas and I discussed:

• How an MFA program helped him find his confidence as a writer
• The importance of mentorship, peer evaluation, and fiction workshops for honing his debut
• Gleaning inspiration from his own cultural heritage and an old photograph
• Exploring lesser-known chapters of history
• Finding a balance between research and writing
• Trusting the process
• And a lot more!

Show Notes:

• In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas (Amazon)
• KaiThomasAuthor.com
• SOUL FIRE FARM
• Kelton Reid on Twitter

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