Homebodies: Tembe Denton-Hurst's Debut About Walking Away From Media

In 2023, Tembe Denton-Hurst published a debut about a young Black media writer who quits her job with a letter — and then has to live with what happens next. Melanie Benjamin and Edward Kelsey Moore read Homebodies, the debut novel by Tembe Denton-Hurst (HarperVia, 2023). Mickey Hayward works a media job that's mostly listicles instead of the journalism she wanted. When she's laid off, she writes a detailed letter calling out racism and sexism in the industry — it goes nowhere, at first. She retreats to her Maryland hometown to regroup, reconnect with old friends, and reconsider her relationship with her girlfriend Lex, just as the letter unexpectedly goes viral without her.