Kashana Cauley

Kashana Cauley is the author of the newly released The Payback, a student loan industry heist novel.

She is also the author of The Survivalists, which was published in January 2023 and named a best book of 2023 by the BBC, the Today Show, Vogue, and many other outlets. She’s a TV writer who has written for The Great North, Pod Save America on HBO, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and a former contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She has also written for The Atlantic, Esquire, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, and Rolling Stone, among other publications.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

So far people associate The Payback with the James Brown song of the same name, which is correct. James Brown is singing about getting revenge on someone who crossed him, and The Payback is also a revenge story. My editor and I went through many titles, but when the book went out on submission, before it sold, its working title was Student Loan Payback. No matter how many titles my editor and I went through, I remember both of us gravitating towards the idea of payback over and over again. I like payback because it has the double meaning of what you’re supposed to do with your student loans as well as revenge, so it captures the spirit of the book.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Since I started writing novels at age ten, my teenage self would be unsuprised by The Payback’s general existence, but since I didn’t tell jokes then, she’d be shocked by all the humor in the book.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings are tougher, since I’m a write until the characters have distinctive voices person. I can only outline when I know what the characters sound like, dress, want to listen to music-wise, etc. After I get to know the characters’ voices, the endings of my books tend to announce themselves. I tinker with beginnings a lot more because I assume the reader will take any opportunity to put the book down, so my beginnings have to be airtight.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music and movies. When I find the voice, I write while listening to songs that match that voice, which helps keep me emotionally connected to the story. And movies have taught me a lot about act structure and plotting that I tend to bring into my writing as well. Along with books themselves, Movies help me to outline books, and to think about what book pacing should feel like.

Visit Kashana Cauley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue