Senna 's most recent book , '' New People '' ( 2017 ) was named by '' Time '' magazine as one of the Top Ten Novels of 2017 . '' New People '' tells the story of mixed-race Maria and her fiancé Khalil , who live together in '90s Fort Greene , then populated by black artists and bohemians . The seemingly perfect " King and Queen of the Racially Nebulous Prom " is troubled by Maria 's fixation on a black poet she barely knows . The novel was in part inspired by Senna 's fascination with the Jonestown massacre . Doreen St. Félix writing for the '' New Yorker '' praised the novel for making " keen , icy farce of the affectations of the Brooklyn black faux-bohemia . "
Jonestown massacre
Jonestown
Danzy Senna