Naima Coster GSAS ‘12: National Book Foundation Honoree
Naima Coster GSAS ‘12, photo credit: Jonathan Jiménez Pérez
By Gabrielle DiNizo
“Gin. Brooklyn. And Mother.” The three words Naima Coster, GSAS ‘12, uses to describe her debut novel Halsey Street. The fiction work, centered around questions of family, identity, race and gentrification, grew out of her time as a student at Fordham. The alum has recently earned recognition from the National Book Foundation.
‘Five Under Thirty-Five.’ These three words describe the award given to young, fiction writers, whose work is predicted to leave a lasting impression on the literary field. This year, for the first time in the foundation’s history, all five nominees were women of color: K-Ming Chang (author of Bestiary), Raven Leilani (author of Luster), Fatima Farheen Mirza (author of A Place For Us) and C Pam Zhang (author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold). “Being in this company has been as profound an honor as the honor itself,” Coster says. “Amazing books by women of color have been published since books were published. It is exciting, but also fitting. ” Coster receives this well-deserved nomination from Tayari Jones, a writer whom she also greatly admires.
Coster’s career began to take shape while she was earning her master’s degree at Fordham, where she studied English with a focus on creative writing. In her first semester, Coster took a nonfiction writing class. She recalls the class, taught by Helene Stapinski, as a pivotal moment for her as a writer. Stapinski, who herself had written extensively for The New York Times, encouraged Coster to publish one of her pieces, “Remembering When Brooklyn Was Mine.” This process of publishing helped Coster find an agent and begin to write publicly about the topics she cared about. “It was a work of nonfiction, but it gave me the seeds to begin imagining Halsey Street.”
Coster reflects on her time at Fordham and remembers her classmates and teachers who kept her going despite the challenges of writing a novel, which is a difficult process because “you keep working without being able to fully see the thing you are creating.” Coster found the structure and the support, two things that are important to all writers; not only award-winning alumni, but also student writers who are just starting out on their journey. She stresses that “It’s not just what we learn to do on the page, but it’s who we have in our life that helps sustain our resolve to keep working...To find other writers both mentors and peers to remind you of the importance of the work,” Coster explains. “There is value in it, especially in a world that doesn’t always seem to value creative work.”
Naima Coster GSAS ‘12, photo credit: B.A. Van Sise
Coster’s approach to writing reveals how genuine she is: “Writing for me is an exercise in learning to trust myself and learning to trust others to receive what I have to offer, with curiosity and openness.” Her work is both confident and daring, vulnerable and revealing. As a writer, she has learned to keep going even when uncertain. This “stop and go confidence” is a practice she lives in her everyday life.
Coster holds the title of novelist and essayist, but she also shares her thoughtful approach to creative writing as a teacher/lecturer at institutions, such as Catapult, University of Michigan, and Antioch University. Coster strives to provide her students with a canon that is representative of today and gives light to all voices. Our work as writers is to “make sure that we are writing with sensitivity and clarity and that we are trying to see past any recycled or received narratives. And I think that is important work.” Her vast portfolio of published essays, including “Who Gets to Write About Gentrification?”, “Brooklyn Born” and “How to Write When You’re Not Sure About Anything” model this; each piece displays Coster’s thoughtful and inquisitive voice. The essays appear in publications, such as The Cut, The Paris Review, and Literary Hub. Not to mention, her contribution to “Somewhere in New York City,” a piece co-written by classmates in Stapinski’s class that can be found on The Observer to this day.
During the surge of the pandemic, Coster not only won a national award, but she has also finished her second novel. What’s Mine and Yours will be released in March 2021 by Grand Central Publishing and is available now for preorder. Neither of Coster’s novels have been written out of a single experience or moment. Instead, she states that “As a writer, I’m always collecting experiences and questions, both my own and experiences of others.” Coster did just that as a student at Fordham. This year, the National Book Foundation honors her first work of fiction with the ‘5 Under 35’ award. Her words, whether spoken in an interview or written on the page, will leave you thinking, feeling, and inspired.