I had planned to publish this interview after the holidays, but I changed my mind. Yesterday morning, I read an article in
‘s publication The Free Press about one of the scions of the Cox Cable empire/family. The entire article did feel as if it was ripe for a TV series adaptation (a Succession knockoff on steroids). Reading it convinced me that this interview about ‘s first book is perfect right now, while we are again thinking about how America’s elites have completely detached themselves from reality and have lost the plot.Kate co-authored Kill The Rich with the writer and comedian Jack Allison, who has written for Jimmy Kimmel Live! among other TV shows. I decided to interview Kate because she and I know each other. We attended the same MFA creative writing program and later worked together on a influencer marketing team for a global company.
At the beginning of the interview I mention that I knew she was going to end up publishing books. There are many people who dream of becoming a writer. They get into MFA programs because they do have some talent, but most do not have the drive to sustain a writing career. Writing is work. It can be extremely rewarding but it is also tedious, unglamorous and stressful. As Kate mentions later in the interview, it would be a good thing if MFA programs would stop admitting students straight out of undergraduate programs.
Kate herself had worked prior to entering the program and before that she received a BFA in dramatic writing from Tisch School of the Arts. When I sat down to read Kill The Rich, I immediately noted that the pace of the writing was extremely action oriented, fast paced and very visual. I recognized something in it that reminds me of dramatic writing for TV or film more than is typical in literary fiction.
Kill The Rich is extremely funny with a biting, sharp humor that tears into everyone and everything. It holds up America and shows the reader just how insane and inane our politics and society have become, with our obsession over rich celebrities who have no real talent and lack intelligence. It demolishes all who are playing an active role in this charade that has become American political culture.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who needs a laugh, wherever they fall on the political spectrum. And, if you are turned off by the provocative title, just remember that you aren’t one of the elites this book is taking aim at. Even if you believe you are.
The interview includes a reading from a section of the novel, if you are curious about it, and an overview of the collaborative process that Kate and Jack took to create it. Kate began the first drafts of Kill The Rich in her Substack, though she has now removed the serialized stories. Just in case you are curious and go hunting for them.
Kate also gives some advice to anyone who is attempting to work on their first novel.
Let me know your thoughts on the interview! I hope you check out the book.
About Kill The Rich:
In this political satire-thriller, we follow a government official, an exiled influencer, and a burned-out delivery driver, living through a culture obsessed presidency that signs the policy to Kill the Rich.
The year is 2038, America’s new President won with a simple, snappy campaign slogan: Kill The Rich. Now in office, his administration kicks off with a televised public hanging of Kim Kardashian, whose lip kits have poisoned a working-class city.
The execution sets three very different people on a collision course that will change the nation forever. Jay, a senior adviser and best friend to the President, is hyper-focused on finding the next billionaire head to roll. Chloe, an influencer living in Russian exile, is willing to do anything to get her life of luxury back. Sasha, a burned-out pizza delivery driver, is desperate to find her missing brother.
Their stories converge in a cryptocurrency-fueled secessionist city in the Nevada desert where they must come together to thwart an insurrection by the internet-poisoned, meme-obsessed, richest man in the world.
About the authors
Jack Allison is a WGA Award-Winning writer based in Los Angeles. He has written for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Academy Awards, The Emmy Awards, and Funny Or Die. He is the co-host of the pop culture podcast
. Kill The Rich is his debut novel.Kate Shapiro is a Miami-based writer. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and holds a BFA from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She won first place in the Summer Literary Seminars 2018 Fiction Contest. Her work can be seen in Fence, X-R-A-Y, and Interim. Kill The Rich, published by Clash Books, is her debut novel.
You can purchase the novel from your local bookstore, Bookshop, Barnes and Noble, Target, or Amazon.