Tuesday evening, students gathered in the Summit Trail Solarium for an author event featuring Kelsey Day, which included a book signing and Q&A session about their debut novel.

Day is an author from Southern Appalachia and has previously written works of poetry. They wrote their first book at the age of 10 and were inspired by community support to continue writing.

Their first poetry book, published in their senior year of high school in 2018, titled “The Last Four Years,” became a best seller in Boone the year of its publication. Two years later, it became a required text at App State. “The Spiral Key” is their debut young adult novel that was published by Penguin Random House on Feb. 24.

“The Spiral Key” is centered around two former best friends, Madison Pembroke and Bree Benson, who are trapped inside Ametrine, a virtual reality party gone wrong. The two become trapped inside the simulation, forcing them to confront unresolved issues within their friendship as well as the dangers of virtual reality. The novel explores many themes of toxic friendships, betrayal, revenge and queer representation. 

“The setup of the world is designed to punish one of the characters, and the details of the world are drawn from the details of their friendship,” Day said.

Day said they utilized the friendship of Pembroke and Benson as a foil for creating this world and to explore how technology acts specifically on the bodies of young people.

“I’m a speculative writer, and I like writing into these technologically and potentially charged spaces and exploring how technology acts on the bodies of young people, in the minds of young people,” Day said.

Incorporating virtual reality into the book allowed Day to explore this concept, they said.

“I’m fascinated by memory and how we remember conflict differently. What I wanted to do was have one character force another to experience their version of the past and see those differences and cracks in their perception,” Day said.

Day said they wanted to represent the power struggle that exists within relationships due to conflict.

“What happens when the way you remember something is totally different from the person you used to love, who remembers it so differently, and what happens when you’re forced to live in that reality, and the stakes are life or death?” Day said.

Day was inspired to write the book after seeing many novels about romantic relationships but wanted to instead examine the dynamic of a friendship breakup.

“Queer friendships are so unique because when folks don’t realize that they are queer yet or when they aren’t out yet, there’s this particular intensity to those friendships because you’re in this thing together,” Day said.

Day explained that these friendships are not casual acquaintanceships and that you are a part of a deeper community. 

“What I’m most thrilled for people to get to experience is the complexity of that relationship — giving some cultural attention to this phenomenon of really painful, queer friendship break ups because there’s not enough of it in the world,” Day said. 

The event was hosted by Appalachian Popular Programming Society, with support from two of its committees: The Appalachian Heritage Council and Representational and International Student Engagement, also known as RISE. The collaboration brought together both groups’ interest in highlighting diverse voices.

RISE has organized author events in the past, this time partnering with the Heritage Council to expand the event’s reach. Planning began in November, when they were connected with Day through a local community member.

Nashbi Cruz-Martinez, chairperson of the RISE council and a junior majoring in electronic media broadcasting, explained the importance of community connections to make events possible.

“Just being able to connect with the community and go to an Appalachian Heritage event and talk to people who were like, ‘Yeah, I had this friend who is now an author, and they are touring the country and just got signed with Penguin Random House,’” Cruz-Martinez said. 

Rosalie McCracken, a junior English secondary education major and chairperson of the Appalachian Heritage Council, helped coordinate the event. She led the Q&A session with the author and shared the experiences of working with the publishing side of the event.

“I’ve never interacted with a publicist or a publisher; it was really cool. They were super consistent in communication and sent us promo materials,” McCracken said. 

The Spiral Key is available for purchase through Day’s website as well as Amazon, Penguin Random House and Barnes & Noble.