Jessica Francis Kane: Follow Your Obsessions
In this interview, author Jessica Francis Kane discusses how her decades-long admiration for one author’s work led her to write her new literary novel, Fonseca.
Jessica Francis Kane is the author of the national bestseller Rules for Visiting, This Close, The Report, and Bending Heaven.This Close was longlisted for The Story Prize, The Report was a finalist for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and Rules for Visiting was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in many publications, including Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, McSweeney’s, ZYZZYVA, and Granta. She lives in New York City and Connecticut. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.
In this interview, Jessica discusses how her decades-long admiration for one author’s work led her to write her new literary novel, Fonseca, her hope for readers, and more.
Name: Jessica Francis Kane
Literary agent: PJ Mark
Book title: Fonseca
Publisher: Penguin Press
Release date: August 12, 2025
Genre/category: Literary Fiction; historical fiction
Previous titles: Rules for Visiting; This Close: Stories; The Report; Bending Heaven
Elevator pitch: A British novelist makes a difficult trip to Mexico with her young son, seeking money and inspiration, but nothing goes to plan. Based on the mystery surrounding Penelope Fitzgerald’s real journey in 1952.
What prompted you to write this book?
A combination of my abiding love for Fitzgerald’s nine perfect novels, which I’ve been reading and rereading for two decades, and my curiosity about her trip to Mexico. It was such a desperate journey! She was 36, pregnant, and on the brink of bankruptcy. She had not yet published a book but wanted to. She traveled with her young son and stayed three months. What was she doing there, and what might have happened that informed her later work? These were the questions I wanted to try and answer.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I started work in 2017 and the book is coming out this year. So, very specifically, eight years. But you could also say 26, counting from when I was living in London in 1999 and read Penelope Fitzgerald’s Offshore. My obsession dates to that time. The idea for Fonseca—what if I write the Mexico novel Fitzgerald didn’t—remained remarkably close to the original pitch.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
This is the first book I’ve written that uses Spanish, a language I do not speak. I loved having the manuscript read and vetted by Spanish speakers, two of them. What I learned from them changed a few scenes in lovely ways.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
Yes. A huge one. A few months into writing, I got a letter from Penelope Fitzgerald’s literary executor, her son-in-law Terence Dooley. He said the family was aware of the novel and wanted to be in touch. I immediately stopped writing. I emailed the family; in fact, I began emailing fairly regularly with Fitzgerald’s son, Valpy, and elder daughter, Tina, which was a delight, but work on my novel had ceased. I was terrified. For six months I worried that I would not be able to write the novel, and then one day I asked myself what kind of novel about Fitzgerald I would want to read. The answer was: I would want to see some of this amazing correspondence with her grown children. So, what had almost derailed the project ended up becoming part of it.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
If they have not read Fitzgerald, I hope they will immediately want to read all her novels. If they are already Fitzgerald fans, I hope they will appreciate the portrait I’ve made of her. And Fitzgerald aside, Fonseca is a story about how far someone is willing to go to secure a dream. I think we all have such a place.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Follow your obsessions. It feels lonely and crazy sometimes, but if you believe in them other people will too, and you will create something enduring.
