Colored Television

Jane is a forty-something writer, a Gen X daughter of an interracial marriage, raising two kids with her painter husband, Lenny, in a city that seems to glitter by day and unravel by night. She’s been working for years—too many—on a sprawling second novel about four centuries of mixed-race life in America. Her agent wants a tidy answer; her editor calls it a monster. And money is tight.

So when TV finally calls, Jane answers. She steps into the bright rooms and cold hallways of development deals, general meetings, and brainstorms fueled by green smoothies—and sometimes pills. A charismatic superstar producer offers her the thing every writer wants: a shot. He wants a show about mulattos—funny, fast, timely. He wants Jane’s voice. He also wants it yesterday.

Soon, late-night outlines bleed into morning school drop-offs, and the confidence she thought she needed to write becomes the confidence she needs just to hold her life together. There’s a borrowed glass house in the hills, a friend who becomes a boss, a daughter who wants a doll they can’t afford, a son who believes he’s from another planet, and a marriage that’s strong enough to take the hit—until it isn’t. When Hollywood delivers its classic third-act twist—flattery, theft, applause that isn’t for her—Jane has to decide what still belongs to her: her family, her work, her story.

• Readers who love sharp, voice-driven literary fiction with a satirical edge
• Artists, writers, and creatives navigating family, money, and ambition
• Fans of LA stories about race, class, and the entertainment machine

Danzy Senna is the author of four previous works of fiction, including the bestselling Caucasia and, most recently, New People, as well as a memoir. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches writing at the University of Southern California.