Honor Levy Doesn’t Want To Make You Angry

Honor Levy is a creature of the Internet; she knows what makes it tick. So when the 26-year-old, Dimes Square-adjacent author released her debut book — the provocatively titled, extremely online story collection My First Book — it was only a matter of time before she incited a Twitter frenzy.

Levy swears it’s not intentional. “My friends were saying ‘Oh, you have to do something kind of bad to get people angry and to buy your book.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. I do not want to make people angry,’” she tells Bustle. Especially since the stories you’ll find in My First Book are far more nuanced than 280 characters can convey, deftly exploring everything from falling in love in a chat room to having empathy for those who have been “Me Too’d.”

Even when Levy does feel like courting dissension, she never forces it. For example, she recently debated weighing in on the “literary it girl” discourse — a conversation that began on Bustle’s sister site NYLON and has proliferated on Twitter — but decided it wasn’t meant to be. “I was laying in bed a few days ago, and I was like, ‘Please, God, give me a hot take tonight,’” she says. “I searched the word [‘literary it girl’] on Twitter to see the first time somebody said it, and I read through all [the tweets] and had nothing to add.” Controversy must come naturally, or not at all: “It’s like [being an] it girl. It’s supposed to effortless.”

Still, sometimes Levy effortlessly brings up controversial topics. “I’ve been putting a story in ChatGPT and [having it] rewrite it as if RuPaul said it, with as much drag queen slang as possible. It’s fun and [I use it] sometimes to get myself out of a rut,” she says. “The other day, I put a story of mine into ChatGPT, and I was like, ‘Please write an AP English-level, five-paragraph essay outline, written by a high schooler about this story.’” After all, who better to judge a young, online writer than a younger, more online one?

Below, Levy reflects on her writing habits, “boohoo” songs, and meme essays.

On the indie novella she’s reading:

I’m reading a really short book from Inpatient Press called Rip It Up. The writer, Kō Machida, is a literary it boy in Japan, and they’d said the book was untranslatable. But Inpatient was like, “Let’s fricking do it.” It’s set in a hyper-real Japan, circa Y2K, and it catalogues the misdeeds and misgivings of a down-and-out wannabe debonair.

On cataloging her life via Spotify:

I saw a tweet once [that said to] listen to a song that gets you really emotional before writing. So I have my Spotify playlist of “boohoo” songs. I have extensive Spotify playlists because every single year, since I was 15, I’ve made a playlist of all the new songs I’ve heard that year that affected me. I wish I’d had a consistent diary, but this is the only thing that I’ve done consistently.

I just made a playlist of songs that I was listening to while writing the book. Like The Sundays’ song “Here’s Where the Story Ends” or the Girls at Our Best! song “Politics!” I also love a good story song like “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” or “Travelin’ Soldier.”

On the “Internet culture” writing she admires:

I read Gene McHugh, who wrote that blog a long time ago coining the term “Post Internet.” I liked Sam Kriss’ “The Internet Is Made of Demons” because it’s so weird and strange when somebody just writes an essay about a meme. I love it. But I don’t think you really have to read cultural commentary about the Internet if you’re on it.

On the creative technique she’s testing out:

I’m trying to start The Artist’s Way, so I can have a healthy relationship with creating. Writing shouldn’t be torture, but [if the writing goes bad] I become so angry. I don’t write for a week and a half, and I just pick the scab. So I’m excited for The Artist’s Way... I just have to start.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.