Brooke Champagne’s memoir, NOLA Face, is distinguished by a fully formed literary voice that brings descriptions of her fractious family and storied home of New Orleans to vivid, indelible life. By turns funny, frightening, and deeply moving, Champagne’s essays are as entertaining and immersive as they are insightful about identity, family bonds, and the city that shaped her. This dazzling debut was a shoo-in for our list of the best indie books of 2024; we asked the author questions about her process by email.

The book’s setting of New Orleans is so strikingly realized and integral to the narrative; how do you think the city has influenced your voice as a writer?

This might be said of all cities, but New Orleans, in particular, is a place where you walk down a single city block and observe people living hundreds of totally different lives. So, any mundane daily walk provides a rich cast of characters. Also, growing up in the city speaking both English and Spanish, with many different types of slang along with formal, academic English, has provided me a multiplicity of voices to cull from. It’s taught me that my writing voice, while ideally easily identifiable, is not one singular thing. There’s no “right” and “wrong” way to use my voice; there’s only “more.” The “more” part of writing, and of living, is perhaps the main imprint New Orleans has left on me.

What inspired you during the writing of the book? What were you reading, listening to, watching?

I wrote a lot while my baby was lying on me or feeding from my breast, which certainly influenced my work. As I wrote, I read very little, though the guidance of literary heroes like Proust, García Márquez, Allende, and Mary Karr worked through me as I drafted. I did, however, binge-watch two TV shows back-to-back at the midpoint of writing that guided my narrative voice: Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. These shows about female friendship and family were so warm, unhinged, and hilarious, they’ll always remain among my faves. I also listened to Beyoncé’s Lemonade so often that I could probably still sing the entire album (though nobody wants me to do that).

Where and when did you write the book? Describe the scene, the time of day, the necessary accoutrements or talismans.

Writing with children means I was often working from bed, on my notes app, at all hours of the day and night. If I was ever lucky enough to work from my office, I’d rub my amethyst worry stone for anxiety, light my lavender candle for the same, and repeatedly impale my mini-voodoo doll to eradicate my enemies—in other words, my inner critical voices (by which I mean mostly just me).

What was most challenging about writing this book? And most rewarding?

There’s always a challenge when contending with faulty memories (which is to say, all memories) and writing about family members who never asked to be written about. I try my best to honor their sides of the story—when they’re willing to share them—and to always write from a place of trying to understand the deep truth of the situation and my own complicity in the events.

What book or books published in 2024 are among your favorites?

I’m in awe of almost every book I read, but here’s a single handful of my top 2024:Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley, Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib, Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, and Knife: Meditations on an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie.

Arthur Smith is an Indie editor.