Harvard Authors Profile: Aislinn Brophy ’17 on the Magic of Writing

Aislinn Brophy ’17 loves blending the fantastical with the contemporary.

The publication of Brophy’s recent young adult novel, “Spells to Forget Us,” followed the success of their debut novel, “How To Succeed in Witchcraft.” Both books are about witches, but they don’t exist in the same universe, offering the reader an exciting new world to explore. In an interview with The Crimson, Brophy sat down to discuss their authorial aspirations.

“It was never even a question that I was going to be a genre writer, that I was going to write in fantasy,” Brophy said. “Specifically, witches — I think I just liked writing stories about experiences of femininity and magic in that.”

“Spells to Forget Us” tells the story of two teenage girls, one of whom is a witch, who keep finding their way back to each other through a magical series of meetings and breakups.

Brophy was inspired to write these books after reading “Undead Girl Gang” by Lily Anderson, in addition to other YA fantasy novels that came out around 2018, before Brophy had started writing their own novels.

Brophy, who grew up in South Florida and moved to Cambridge to attend Harvard College, allowed these locations to be integral parts of their work. “How to Succeed in Witchcraft” is set in Boca Raton, Florida, while “Spells to Forget Us” is set in the Greater Boston area. The latter even features references to Flour Bakery, Harvard Square, and John W. Weeks Bridge — spots very familiar to Harvard students.

“I really like taking places that have particularly impacted me and that I feel a sense of home about and trying to explore what could be magically lurking around the corner — to give the sense that if you just looked hard enough, you would find the secret portal at the Harvard T-stop,” Brophy said.

Brophy wrote their latest novel during the pandemic when they had moved away from Boston. According to Brophy, setting the novel in the area was their way of “pining” for where they wished to be at that time.

While being an entertaining fantasy romance, “Spells to Forget Us” also deals with pressing issues such as fatphobia and the fetishization of “mixed” race people. One of the protagonists, Aoife, is biracial and her parents are social media influencers who profit off sharing their family experiences with the world.

“I wanted to write specifically about being fetishized as a mixed person,” Brophy said. “When I thought about how to make that larger than life for a book, I thought that [them being an influencer family] seemed like a really good way to do it. Partially because it just heightens all the things that already preexist. Part of my particular horror about influencers and child influencers is that it makes you something to be consumed by other people from an incredibly early age.”

Interestingly, “Spells to Forget Us” features an open ending. This choice allowed Brophy to approach the novel as a “character study,” focusing on growth and change over a typical, “happily ever after” ending. Due to this, the novel contains Brophy’s wisdom about coming of age in the modern era which Brophy hopes will reach their teen audience.

“I think that there is some sense of, as a writer for teens, being able to hold out a vision for the world that I would like them to live in and a world that I would hope that they aspire to live in,” Brophy said.

On a craft level, Brophy credits participating in theater and playwriting at Harvard for helping with their writing. Brophy, who had written books in high school, didn’t really venture into theater until getting to Harvard, but they enjoyed the added freedom that the interpretive nature of playwriting provided.

Brophy’s experiences with playwriting translated well to their aspirations as a novelist, improving their ability to write dialogue and explore first-person characterization.

“A lot of my conception of books is strongly derived from plays in that I perceive first-person fiction as being just a long monologue,” Brophy said. “It should have a fairly strong sense of voice for whoever the narrator is.”

This made writing “Spells to Forget Us” — which switches between the two protagonists’ points of view each chapter — particularly exciting to Brophy, giving them a chance to find each character’s voice.

While writing for both mediums, Brophy approaches their plays and books very differently, catering their plays to an adult audience. Though they consider their books to have traditionally structured narratives, they experiment a lot more with genre in their plays. They also convey a sense of hope in their writing for teens that is not as prevalent in their plays for adults. Still, there are some common themes that Brophy tries to explore through all their art.

“I’m obsessed with the ways that families impact each other, the way that your family impacts the way that you act in the world,” Brophy said. “I’m fascinated by that in both adult and teen spaces.”

They also enjoy approaching difficult topics through a comedic lens, exploring the humor in villainous behaviors and interactions between characters.

“It’s actually fundamentally silly that we are horrible to each other,” Brophy said. “I want you to laugh at the villains in my stories, and then also feel deeply, and then laugh again because it’ll help you feel better and feel catharsis.”

Whether exploring identity, love, family dynamics, or the pains of growing up, Brophy reminds readers of the magic that can be found in everyday life. Through humor and fantasy, Brophy helps their audience embrace the difficult parts and find the lightness.