What's Possible At the Brooklyn Community Pride Center: Interview with Young Adult Author Kelsey Day
- Feb 12
- 5 min read
About:
We sat down with Young Adult author Kelsey Day to talk about their debut young adult thriller, "The Spiral Key" written at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center. In this conversation, Kelsey shares what it meant to have space, community, and creative support while developing their novel, and how queer friendship, memory, and resilience shape the heart of the story. From late evenings at BCPC’s writers group to a book heading to shelves nationwide, this is a powerful example of what becomes possible when LGBTQ+ Brooklynites have access to affirming space and community.
Q&A
*The Q&A portion is edited for length. Watch the video above for the full interview*
BCPC: Can you share your name, your pronouns, and what you created at BCPC that’s now heading to bookshelves in February?
Kelsey Day: My name is Kelsey Day. I use they/them pronouns, and I wrote a young adult novel called The Spiral Key. It’s a thriller about a high school senior named Bree Benson who, after experiencing a very intense queer friendship breakup, is thrown into a revenge scheme plotted against her and has to fight for her life to escape it.
BCPC: What does it feel like knowing something you created is becoming a tangible book on the shelf?
Kelsey Day:I feel like the luckiest person alive, genuinely. I’ve dreamed of this ever since I was a little kid—which I know every writer says—but it’s genuinely true. Getting to experience this process has been everything I could have wanted and more. I just feel really grateful and really, really excited.
BCPC: What did a typical writing day at BCPC look like for you?
Kelsey Day:I first got involved with the community center in the summer of 2022. I had just moved to New York from North Carolina for a job in publishing, and I was very lonely. I didn’t really have any friends yet—I literally knew no one.
I started going because there was a writing club at the time, and it was actually through that writers group that I met my first friend in the city. We went to Pride together, and it was really beautiful.
I work a pretty tiring day job, so I wouldn’t even get to the center until five or six in the evening. I was always scrabbling for any time I could find. I happened to live near the Pride Center, so after work I would swing by and go to the writers group. Having not only community but friendship made a really big difference in my early days in New York and in the early days of working on my book. Having a community that’s holding you accountable to your dreams makes those dreams more possible.
BCPC: How did being in a queer, community-centered environment affect your creative process?
Kelsey Day:When I’m surrounded by other queer people, there’s this sense of euphoric possibility. It feels like you can do anything, which sounds cheesy, but it genuinely feels true—especially as someone who grew up without a vibrant, out queer community.
I grew up closeted and without many other queer friends, and part of my creativity was blocked off. Being around queer people helps me open that back up—especially creative, community-driven queer people who share similar values and politics, and who get what I’m trying to do with my art. It makes me a better writer, and I think a better person too.
BCPC: How did you first find BCPC?
Kelsey Day:I was taking my laundry to a laundromat in Crown Heights, and someone handed me a flyer on the street. I decided to stop by because it was just a block away. I was really lonely at the time, and having someone approach me like that felt inviting. I felt seen and chosen. Flyering works.
BCPC: What’s something you never expected to come out of a community center—but did?
Kelsey Day:I don’t know exactly what I was expecting. I remember being nervous when I came in. I certainly didn’t expect to encounter such a creative community.
Being in spaces like this makes possible not only friendship and community, but different worlds. Friendship is where politics grow, where we learn how to move together and protect each other. That feels more important now than ever.
BCPC: Can you share more about your upcoming event at BCPC?
Kelsey Day:I’ll be doing a book event at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center on Thursday, February 26. I’ll be hosting a collage workshop where we’ll talk about queer friendship breakups and create art to help express some of that.
Queer friendship breakups—and queer friendship in general—are incredibly intense, but our culture doesn’t treat them with the same seriousness as romantic breakups. My book is about that intensity. We’ll make collage, I’ll read from my work, and I’ll sign books. I’d love for folks to come through.
BCPC: Can you tell us a bit more about what The Spiral Key is about?
Kelsey Day:The Spiral Key follows a high school senior named Bree Benson who’s experienced a brutal queer friendship breakup. Her ex-best friend throws a hugely popular birthday party in a virtual reality created by her very rich parents, and Bree is never invited—until senior year. Thinking it’s an olive branch, she goes, and quickly realizes it’s a trap. She becomes trapped in the virtual reality and has to fight for her life while her ex-best friend tries to communicate the pain of their breakup through this world.
BCPC: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
Kelsey Day:The book is very much about memory. These two best friends remember their friendship and breakup very differently, and you start to wonder what’s true and what actually happened.
Memory feels like a collage—we experience something once, and then we remember the memory, and then the memory of the memory. There’s this patchwork happening. I hope readers come away feeling more softness toward the people who hurt us or who we hurt while we were young and figuring out who we were. We’re always telling ourselves stories about who we are, and the main character is definitely doing that. That tension is the juiciest part of the story.
BCPC: What are three words that come to mind when you think of BCPC?
Kelsey Day:Friendship. Creativity. Resilience.
You can join us on February 26 in welcoming (back) author Kelsey Day to Brooklyn Pride as they read and sign their new young adult novel, The Spiral Key, and lead us in a queer collage workshop! Registration is free but required
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About us:
The Brooklyn Community Pride Center (BCPC) is the primary provider of community space, programming, and resources for LGBTQ+Brooklyn. We do so at our Pride Center, located in Crown Heights, and throughout the borough.