Charmaine Wilkerson is a Caribbean-American writer who has lived in Jamaica and Italy. Her debut novel Black Cake is a New York Times bestseller, a #ReadWithJenna book club pick, and the basis for the Hulu/Disney+ screen series of the same name. Her forthcoming novel Good Dirt hits shelves January 2025. Charmaine is a former news and communication professional whose award-winning short fiction has appeared in various anthologies and magazines.
Tell us about your latest novel, Good Dirt.
This is the story of a young Connecticut woman who runs off to a village in France to escape painful memories, only to find her past catches up with her. At age 29, Ebby Freeman continues to struggle with the trauma of a childhood tragedy and, more recently, the humiliating end to a storybook romance. Part of the key to finding a different way to live with all that has happened is for Ebby to piece together the connection between a beloved family heirloom and everything that has happened to her.
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How has your experience with Black Cake influenced your approach to your next novel? Are there any key lessons you’re carrying forward into your new project? What can readers expect in terms of tone or style from your upcoming work?
The family in Good Dirt is very different from the one in Black Cake and yet this second novel is in conversation with the first. Once again, we see the power that stories have to shape a person’s identity and their way of navigating the world. This emerges as we go back and forth between the past and the present and learn more about Ebby’s family. The story of the family heirloom highlights details from history and, in particular, Black people’s experiences that we do not find often, if ever, in the pages of a novel. But despite the historical elements, Good Dirt is deeply anchored in contemporary relationships and attitudes.
The central event in your new novel revolves around a childhood tragedy. How did you approach writing such an emotionally charged moment, and what role does trauma play in shaping Ebby’s journey?
The most dramatic scene was the first thing that came to me. Little Ebby stepped onto the page in front of me as I thought back to my own past as a television journalist. The character and scenario are fictional, but they are an exploration of a question that has stayed with me since my early professional years. I used to walk into people’s homes at the worst times in their lives. I would go away wondering what it would take for them to find a way to move forward with the grief or anger or confusion that they might be carrying when their very personal pain had been subjected to the public gaze. In other words, their lives had become news because of something terrible. This is what happens to Ebby, and despite her loving family and financial good fortune, she grows up hating that strangers still remember what happened to her.
The concept of family legacy is prominent in your book. How do you explore the idea of inheritance—both tangible and intangible—and its impact on future generations?
There is no tangible legacy without the intangible. Stories, memories, and emotions carry weight, and they lend meaning to objects. In Ebby’s family, an old food-storage jar becomes a historic family possession and is treated like a character in its own right. Produced by an enslaved man in the American South, the jar ends up in New England and becomes part of how the Freemans define themselves, even as they go from hardship to great prosperity.
Ebby’s search for answers takes her to France. What role does the setting play in her personal growth and her exploration of her family’s past? Why did you choose France as the backdrop for this chapter of her journey?
Ebby is not running to France so much as she is running away from home. She just happens to choose France because she has a friend with a home in a semi-rural area, off the beaten path. While working on the early stages of this novel, I was spending time in a similar setting in southwest France, and it began to influence my imagination.
The novel’s setting spans multiple locations and time periods. How did you approach this aspect of your novel and what kind of research was required?
I was fully invested in the contemporary story but knew that I needed to do research to flesh out details of Ebby’s family history. I knew that her father loved living by the coast and that his ancestors had included seafarers, so I started by reading about Black sailors in the 1800s. That was just the beginning. The more I read, and the more archival photographs I saw, the more my research wandered into other areas. Ultimately I conducted research that helped me to build a variety of scenarios: The story of where the jar was made and how it ended up in New England. The places where ancestors in danger found refuge. The first woman physician in the family. The story of how Ebby’s mother was given her unusual name. And, of course, the love stories from the past.
How did it feel to see Black Cake come to life on screen?
A bit strange but quite wonderful. It was something like my novel but also, it was its own entity. At one point, I found myself shedding tears during a scene and I thought, Why am I crying? This is my story. But of course, it was not. Not entirely. It was an extension of the story. An interpretation. Another art form.
Adaptations often bring changes to the source material. Was there anything in the series that surprised or excited you compared to the book?
There were some changes to the storyline but what I found most interesting was how the screenwriters and actors inserted entire scenes that had been implied in my writing but which I had not spelled out. I had made conscious choices to leave certain details off the page, but I was pleased to see how effectively the series team brought them to life.
Do you have a favorite moment or scene from the Black Cake series that you were particularly excited for fans of the book to see?
I loved seeing details that we typically don’t see in fiction. Black people surfing in the Caribbean and California, as they do in real life. Schoolchildren and adults in the Caribbean going about their routines. And when we see the incredible beauty of the Caribbean locations, specifically in Jamaica, we see local people enjoying those locations, not only tourists.
What are you working on next?
I’m working on another multi-location, family drama. There’s an element that may be of interest to foodies. But no cake.
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