Queer, Tamil American writer Malavika Kannan has accomplished something extraordinary with her aptly titled debut novel “Unprecedented Times” (Henry Holt and Company, 2026). With humor and pathos in equal measure, Kannan deftly covers a variety of topics, all of which she gives just the right amount of attention. As narrated by main character Rishi, the subjects include Florida, being the child of immigrants, college campus life, coming out, first queer sexual experiences, climate change, activism, COVID, the country’s response to the pandemic, and sexual assault, to mention a few. Kannan was gracious enough to make time for an interview in the autumn of 2026.

Malavika Kannan will be at the Miami Book Fair on Nov. 22 at 2 pm, Room 8301 (Bldg. 8, Third Floor).

“Unprecedented Times” is your debut novel, which made me wonder how much of Malavika is in Rishi?

Rishi is written in a way that intentionally courts autofiction allegations, but she is a fictional character. There are experiences that she and I share, things that happened to her that actually happened to exes of mine, things I totally made up. She is my alter ego and evil twin and muse. 

At the start of the novel, there are moments of laugh-out-loud humor. Please say something about humor as a literary device

I wrote this book exactly like I talk. My friends have joked that reading the book is like hanging out with me, but for like 10 hours. I really wanted to get a specific cadence on the page, one that is queer and Gen Z and rapid-fire smart like the Internet. 

Along with the humor, the book also deals with serious subjects, such as sexual assault. Do you prefer one style of writing over the other?

I don’t view those styles as separate. Even the sexual assault scene, though it is harrowing, has some gut punch moments of dark humor and situational comedy via callbacks. I think it’s a knife-edge form of humor, the girls might call it a dialectic, that many queer people inhabit effortlessly. 

I live in Fort Lauderdale and was here during the pandemic. Rishi’s family is based in Okeechobee, a town about which you say, “you can never tell the difference between fireworks, bullets, and rain.” I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to Florida politics of late, but there are signs of a possible change in the air. What do you think about that?

I love Florida and it shaped me immensely, and I have many friends and loved ones and family who still live there, but Florida also broke my heart. I know many queer and trans people in New York, where I now live, who literally fled because the environment grew too politically hostile. That being said, I know that the south has always led the nation in terms of its tenacity and political organizing. I am really rooting for those folks, especially people who are generationally connected to Florida, who continue to fight. 

COVID becomes its own character in “Unprecedented Times.” Was it always your intention to write about the pandemic, or did it insert itself into the story line?

It was always my intention to write a campus novel set during the pandemic. I felt like it was a quintessential Gen Z experience and I could not imagine a campus novel going any other way.

Queerness and coming out are also a big part of the book, and you include a mention of the Pulse nightclub shooting. As a queer person of a certain age, please tell the readers about the impact such an event had on you personally.

Being gay in Florida during the first Trump presidency was traumatic. The Pulse shooting happened the summer I came out, and it really scared me. I feel like there is a micro-generational difference between queer Gen Z people who were in high school in the 2010s, and those in the 2020s. I was an adolescent before TikTok, before the algorithm connected me to a broader country of queer people, in a community where I had no evidence not to believe that being queer would lead to marginalization and maybe even murder. 

There is a sizable amount of geography in the book, including Okeechobee, Palo Alto, and New York City. What role does place play in your work?

Rishi is Miss America; she gets to experience a lot of different corners of the country and different ways of being in her quest to understand what makes for a good life.

Near the end of the book, Rishi’s friend Kavya says re: the pandemic - “Now that we know how many real people live and die without their stories getting told, it feels just wasteful to invent fictional ones.” Do you share that sentiment?

No, I don’t. If I actually did I wouldn’t write a book! I don’t think Kavya does either, I think she’s probably just being melodramatic in a way that befits the heightened emotions of that time.

“Unprecedented Times” is very cinematic. If there was a movie version of the book, who would you want to play Rishi? Georgia? Kavya? Rishi’s parents?

I think I would exclusively cast internet comedians. There are so many brown girl comedians I follow on TikTok who are sharp and funny and that would be my ideal casting pool for Rishi. My friend Tara Raani crushed the audiobook to the point that people thought she was me reading. I think Diya Joukani, the It-girl influencer from Mumbai with swaggy futch fashion, could be Kavya if she masc’ed it up a bit. I think my parents could play Rishi’s parents. I don’t know enough white actresses to know who is Georgia, but they would have to be really earnest and have kind eyes. 

Have you started working on or thinking about your next book?

I am working on my first collection of essays, “Rage Bait,” which covers some of the same philosophical and moral questions as “Unprecedented Times,” such as what complicity and agency mean to young Americans, but through the genre of cultural criticism.