Meet Justin C. Key: One of Science Fiction’s Most Buzzed-About New Authors

There’s a new outside-the-box thinker on the block — and on the bookshelves.

Los Angeles psychiatrist Justin C. Key, 36, just released his debut offering, The world was not ready for you. The book, published on September 19 by Harper’s, is full of exciting, thought-provoking short stories and is making a big splash in the world of fantasy.

“It’s really a love letter, both to the speculative fiction that I grew up reading and loving, and a love letter to the black community,” Key tells PEOPLE of the book, which is enjoying positive reviews in its first week. According to Kirkus’ starred review of the book, Key “shows in these eight stories the range and ingenuity of such grandmasters as Ray Bradbury, Robert Sheckley, and Theodore Sturgeon, with whom he also shares an acute empathy for human vulnerability—even when, as in the story’s poignant title, an alien race is involved.”

The world wasn’t ready for you, Justin C. Key.

Courtesy of Harper Collins

The title story features the father of a mixed-race child struggling with the need to prepare him for a society that will be prejudiced at best and deadly at worst. “It was one of the hardest stories for me to write,” says Key, who shares two sons and a daughter with his wife, Johanna. “I thought about being the father of black children in America, raising them while dealing with fears that they will grow old and be demonized or seen as a threat.”

It’s one of many real-life scenarios that Key reimagines in a futuristic way. A lifelong sci-fi fan, the Stanford student remembers not always seeing himself in the books and shows he loved.

“I loved Stephen King, Harry Pottereven Michael Crichton To get chills,” he says. But even as a child he noticed, “the default [protagonist] always had blond hair and blue eyes. Even when I started writing early, those were my characters too. But I grew up in all-black communities. Until I thought about it and said, ‘well, wait. Why am I writing like this?'”

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Justin C. Key.

@shotbyaustinj/Instagram

Another part of his experience he relies on is the knowledge he gained as a psychiatrist. “I consider myself a therapist who can prescribe medication,” says Key, who received his doctorate from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and studied psychiatry at UCLA’s Semel Neuropsychiatric Institute.

“I see people suffering from depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, ADHD, addiction, the whole gamut,” he adds of his work at Regeneration Psychiatry, a private practice he runs with two former classmates. “It’s really hard, rewarding work.”

However, he is extremely careful about how his work affects his writing. “I knew early on that I had to be careful not to cut it too deliberately,” he says. “When I’m with my patients, I’m with them for them, I’m thinking of their best interest. I’m careful not to be too informed when I go home and write.”

Still, he adds, “the experiences I’ve had as a medical doctor, looking at the latest technological advances, where we’re lagging behind, I can take all that knowledge and put it on the page.”

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele.

Random House

The world was not ready for you is the first of two books from Ključ under HarperCollins, and the next is a novel that is currently in development. His writing will soon be featured in Jordan Peele’s upcoming book They’re Screaming Out There: An Anthology of New Black Horror, publishes October 3rd from Random House, just in time for Halloween.

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“It’s really cool to be a part of it,” says Key, who came up with the new concept — what if people could be used as a form of living art for others to enjoy? — for Peele’s creepy compilation. “I haven’t met [Peele] still, but the fact that he even knows my name is really exciting,” she says.

All in all, “This is a really awesome moment for me,” Key says. “Something I dreamed about when I was a kid browsing bookstores. Now to be on the bookshelves, to see the reception of my book and the reviews, feels like the start of a long, fruitful writing career.”

The world was not ready for you is now available from Harper, HarperCollins Publishers.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education