Death had been on author and poet Amber McBride\u2019s mind for a while.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2008, her father, Mario, had a near-death experience. Mario, who had prostate cancer, was scheduled for a simple surgery. But he struggled to regain consciousness after the operation. Under anesthesia, Mario said he saw himself peacefully floating above his own body until his long-dead grandmother told him to go back to the living world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Death returned when McBride was teaching at the University of Virginia in 2022. A gunman killed three of the school\u2019s football players in a mass shooting that stunned the campus. The horrific incident came not long after McBride had pondered writing about the cruel irony of children dying not long after their lives began.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RELATED: Best Black Books of 2023<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cChildren in general \u2014 their souls are just so young \u2014 it doesn\u2019t feel like they should be leaving,\u201d McBride tells Word in Black. \u201cThe idea of, \u2018I hope there is a place in between before whatever is next or not next, where they can acclimate before they go,\u2019 kind of popped up in my head.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Death serving as her muse, McBride wrote \u201cThe Leaving Room,\u201d a novel that has been listed as a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award.\u00a0<\/p>\n The novel, which releases on Oct. 14, follows Gospel, the Keeper of The Leaving Room, a liminal space between life and death where young souls go after they die. When another Keeper, Melodee, arrives at the Leaving Room, the two fall in love. Wanting to continue their romance, Gospel and Melodee must find a way to escape the Leaving Room.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED: Do We Love You? Ruth Forman Says Yes<\/a><\/p>\n Besides dealing with themes involving love, grief, and queer representation, a central theme of \u201cThe Leaving Room\u201d is death itself. McBride sees the novel as a way to pierce the protective veil about the subject that parents often wrap around their children, particularly when a loved one dies.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t talk about death with young people,\u201d McBride says. Bringing death out of the shadows, she says, \u201copens up conversations so we can have more honest discussions. Children do pass. How do we bring that conversation to the table, so that friends who experience it, or kids who are going through it, feel like they can talk about it like it\u2019s not taboo?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The fantasy novel isn\u2019t just for entertainment, McBride says; students can learn a lot about death reading \u201cThe Leaving Room.\u201d And because the story unfolds in verse, McBride says, it can be an excellent way for teachers to introduce poetry to children.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED: \u2018Family Spirit\u2019: A Page-Turner With a Beating Heart<\/a><\/p>\n Despite the novel\u2019s literary recognition, McBride worries that its subject matter and its inclusion of queer characters could make it vulnerable to being banned in schools.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can always happen, right?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The novel\u2019s release comes just weeks after PEN America, a free speech advocacy nonprofit, released its list of the most banned books for the 2024-2025 school year.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Censored or not, McBride says, it\u2019s important to continue to write books that can challenge parents and young readers alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to keep writing the most authentic stories that young people want to hear,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I think that in doing that, you\u2019re always going to risk being banned. I think that young people are often not respected for the depth of things that they can talk about and that they can understand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n