Q&A: Black Hoosier author debuts with ‘Under the Neon Lights’ 

“Under the Neon Lights,” by Hoosier poet and YA author Arriel Vinson, is a lesson for young Black girls in showing up for community. 

Hitting the shelves June 3, “Under the Neon Lights” is a fiction novel in verse and Vinson’s literary debut. The Recorder sat down with Vinson ahead of the book’s official launch to discuss her writing journey, connections to Indianapolis and the importance of skating rinks and other third spaces. 

Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity. 

Tell me a little about yourself, your background as a Hoosier, and how you got into writing. 

Arriel Vinson: I have always enjoyed writing. I did it as a child, but I went to undergrad at IU Bloomington for journalism. I really enjoyed writing for the newspaper, I enjoyed working for the magazine, and I was always writing Black stories. The thing about journalism, for me, was you don’t get a lot of creative agency unless you’re writing a really long feature story; you have to go with the facts. I just had a lot more fun imagining things, making them up, creating the stories that I knew existed factually, but creating a fictional world around them.  

What were some of the things that inspired you growing up here in Indianapolis?  

Vinson: I was very lucky to have parents who value the arts and creativity. My mom and I were always going to the library, and we read everything; we were voracious readers. My dad got me involved in Asante children’s theater … and I think just kind of being able to dabble in different art forms is what really inspired me to be creative, to write creatively, to kind of move outside of the confines of journalism. I also think it took a long time for me to understand that I want to write creatively and that I wanted to write a novel. This is my home. This is where my family is. This is where my friends are. I’m always going to rep where I’m from in my writing and I think it also informs my writing in so many ways, it requires me to slow down … It requires me to think about what’s around me and really cherish that. 

Having previously worked at the Indianapolis Recorder, what was it like making the leap from journalism to poetry and then fiction? 

Vinson: It was a large leap … When you’re in journalism, you know the story because you can see it already. … But with fiction and poetry you kind of have to come up with all of it and figure out where it’s even trying to take you, whereas I think journalism already has sometimes a predetermined path for the story.  

Switching from journalism to poetry was probably the hardest part. I had a different grasp and understanding of language, and (in) journalism you can be lyrical. But again, that is mostly reserved for feature stories. I had to teach myself and use others’ work to teach myself what it meant to be a poet, how to create images out of thin air how to make something sound good. 

“Under the Neon Lights” is about a young Black girl who falls in love in a skating rink that’s about to be shut down. Can you talk about some of the deeper themes? 

Vinson: At the core of the novel, it’s about building community, and I don’t think I realized that when I started writing it. I really started taking this manuscript seriously in 2020. …  It really helped me consider how we show up for each other, but it also made me think about the fact that most times showing up for others takes effort, and sometimes it’s inconvenient, but it helps with all in the end.  

I really thought it was important to think about how complex our lives are when we have one goal, which is maybe to keep this rink from closing or to find ways to keep it living rather.  … “Under the Neon Lights” is a book about a poor girl or a girl who lives in the hood, who is trying to figure out why she’s losing everything she loves. I wanted for people who have lost places they love to feel seen. I wanted Black girls to feel seen; I wanted people who are questioning their self-worth to feel seen. 

What made “Under the Neon Lights” special? 

Vinson: I grew up going to the skating rink, and … I grew up really caring about that setting. The fictional skating rink in this novel is one of the only places that Black teens or Black people can be themselves. I thought it was really important to think about third spaces; to think about the places that welcome us, one, in general, and two, as Black people, especially Black teens.  

“Under the Neon Lights” is a young adult novel written in verse. Why it was important to you to write under this genre? 

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Vinson: A novel verse is a novel told in poems, so every poem leads you to the next one in the story. I thought it was really important because skating is so rhythmic and it’s so fun. It’s so musical. I wanted my readers to be able to feel that, and I think in prose sometimes with all the description and all of the exposition, you don’t get that feeling as quickly; you don’t get to cut down into it. 

Who do you hope picks up this book and what do you hope they’ll gain from the story? 

Vinson: I hope that Black girls in Indianapolis, all over the Midwest and all over the U.S. pick up this book, especially the Black girls who feel like maybe their life is falling apart because everything is falling apart around them. … I also want them to understand that they have agency in their life. You have agency in the community you’re in, you have agency in the relationship you’re in. 

I want readers to come away with some hope, especially during this administration when there are so many things that are keeping us from the things we love.  

The launch party for “Under the Neon Lights” will be hosted at Loudmouth Books, followed by a skate party at Skateland. What is the significance of involving community and Black-owned businesses in your success? 

Vinson: I can’t say that I write for Black girls or for Black people in general if I’m not also supporting those spaces in those people and other parts of my life. I was raised that way first of all. My dad … He made sure that I was going to love my Blackness and want to share it.  I think it’s so crucial that we support Black-owned businesses because they’re small businesses often, and it’s the support of us that keeps them going. … I’m about what I talk about, and it actually was never a thought that I would choose something else, choose spaces that didn’t cater to Black people. 

Of course this is a Black publication and this is a Black book, but I do want to say that “Under the Neon Lights” is a universal story of loss and friendship and first love, so perhaps you’re not a Black teen girl, maybe you’re an adult, but I think we can still all relate to the things that (my protagonist) is experiencing. 

Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.