Emma Straub on the Heartbreak—and the Obsession—That Led to Her Latest Novel

From the title essay in David Foster Wallace’s 1997 nonfiction collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again to Lauren Oyler’s 2023 account of going on a Goop cruise somewhat against her will, the high seas have yielded some wonderfully deep—and deeply entertaining—pieces of writing. Into that space now comes American Fantasy, from author and Brooklyn bookstore owner Emma Straub—a book written with all the effervescence and humanity Straub fans have come to expect as it tackles topics like nostalgia and fandom.

Vogue spoke to Straub about ringing in pub day with a free croissant and matcha, balancing running a bookstore with writing fiction, how her New Kids on the Block obsession fueled the writing of American Fantasy, and experiencing celebrity-cruise life for herself.

Vogue: How are you celebrating the release of your latest novel?

Emma Straub: I mean, the best thing about this pub day is that I feel like I live in the village from Beauty and the Beast, where I’m just sort of twirling down the sidewalk and strangers are calling out, “Happy pub day!” to me. I went into the coffee shop across the street from the bookstore, and the barista said, “Happy pub day!” and then wouldn’t let me pay for my matcha and my almond croissant. So, you know, I’m having a really charmed day.

How did you settle on the boy-band-at-sea narrative of American Fantasy?

I mean, don’t we all want to be trapped at sea with our favorite boy band? [Laughs.] I loved New Kids on the Block as a child, and in 2022, my father had just died and I had just written this really sad book. I was crying every day and I wanted to write something really different, and I saw something online about a New Kids on the Block cruise and I just thought, Well, that’s my next novel.

Have you ever been on a cruise? If not, would you go?

Okay, sometimes people don’t believe me when I say I went on the New Kids on the Block cruise for research. I mean, it was also for profound, deep, personal pleasure, but…I went by myself because I was not interested in being perceived, and I did not want to have to take care of anyone else. I didn’t have to worry about whether someone else was having a good time or if they thought it was a total nightmare; I wanted to fade into the wallpaper as much as possible and just observe.

Did you already have a sense of who your protagonist Annie was as a character when you went on the cruise?

I didn’t go on the cruise until 2023, and I had spent basically all of that year planning the book, so I already had all of the characters. But observing how it all went down and imagining how the characters would interact with each other onboard was really helpful. I mean, I think I could have written the novel without going on the cruise, but it would have been a far inferior version.

Why do you think boy-band nostalgia still hits home for so many people?

Well, let me ask: What was your boy band?

Definitely Backstreet Boys, but I never saw them live. Did you see NKOTB growing up?

I’m so glad you asked that, because I said something to my mother recently about how she never took me to see them, and she said, in all seriousness: “I don’t know if they ever came here.” I was like, “To New York? I promise you, they came to New York City.” So, yeah, I never saw them as a child, and maybe that was part of it too; maybe my deep fandom was partly unsatisfied because I didn’t see them until I was an adult. I think the things that we love in childhood and adolescence have a profound hold on us; for some people it’s boy bands and for some people it’s horses or Laura Ingalls Wilder or Harry Potter or whatever, you know?