Kathryn Stockett, author of the immensely commercially successful novel The Help, has published her sophomore novel, The Calamity Club, marking her return to the literary scene after a 17-year hiatus. The new book, released on May 5, 2026, quickly achieved New York Times bestseller status, once again placing Stockett in the spotlight.
Stockett’s debut, The Help, released in 2009, was a global phenomenon, selling between 10 and 15 million copies and gracing the New York Times Best Seller list for more than 100 weeks. This widespread popularity led to a 2011 film adaptation, directed by Tate Taylor, which earned Octavia Spencer an Academy Award. Interestingly, the novel faced a long road to publication, being rejected by 60 literary agents over approximately three and a half years before the 61st agent took it on.
Despite its commercial triumph, The Help was not without significant controversy. Critics pointed to issues concerning its portrayal of race, voice, and Southern narrative agency, frequently citing a ‘white savior’ narrative and a reliance on a white perspective. The Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH) specifically criticized the novel’s historical accuracy, its use of stereotypical Black dialect, its depiction of Black men, and its downplaying of the sexual harassment and violence experienced by Black women during the era depicted.
The scrutiny extended to a lawsuit filed against Stockett by Ablene Cooper, a housekeeper for Stockett’s brother. Cooper claimed the character Aibileen Clark was based on her without consent and sought $75,000 in damages. However, Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green dismissed the lawsuit, citing Mississippi’s one-year statute of limitations. Cooper had received a copy of The Help in January 2009 but did not read it until 2010, filing her lawsuit in February 2011, which the court deemed too late. Stockett, for her part, maintained that the character Aibileen was based on her family’s late housekeeper, Demetrie McLorn, and expressed sadness over the lawsuit, stating she did not know Cooper well.
Following the intense media scrutiny surrounding The Help, Kathryn Stockett entered a 17-year publishing hiatus. During this period, she experienced a divorce and lived in Bali for two years. Her original publisher ultimately ‘fired’ her due to the extended delay in producing a second novel, a time Stockett described as feeling like a ‘failure’ with many ‘false starts.’
Now, with the release of The Calamity Club by Spiegel & Grau, Stockett dives back into historical fiction. Set in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1933 during the Great Depression, the novel centers on three women navigating themes of poverty, hypocrisy, and constrained freedoms. Stockett deliberately included Black characters and addressed themes of racism and hypocrisy in The Calamity Club, stating it would be impossible to set a novel in 1930s Mississippi without doing so.