Narrative Magazine
Story of the Week 2025
The Sugar Factory
In late August 2006, ambitious young reporter Lila Fairfax moves from Pittsburgh to a Brooklyn walk-up to intern at the New York Mirror. Tasked with covering the fierce battle over the historic Domino Sugar Refinery on the Williamsburg waterfront, her journalistic objectivity is put to the test when she falls for Luke, an enigmatic artist squatting inside the factory.
Read a chapter from the novel in progress, published in Narrative Magazine.
Inside The Sugar Factory
The novel is set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2006, as a fight over the future of the old Domino Sugar Refinery divides the neighborhood. Three things the novel explores:
The place
The Domino Sugar Refinery
The fight over the factory divides a community, from former workers to descendants of the enslaved people who once supplied the refinery with raw sugar.
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The artist
The Exposure Project
Luke, an enigmatic artist squatting inside the factory, broadcasts his life around the clock via a web experiment including live streams and public therapy sessions.
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The plan
Brooklyn Artists Trust
Gallery owner Christine Wright wants to turn the landmark into mixed-income housing, studios and public spaces. Standing in her way is the developer Mark Unger.
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Rachel has an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Maryland. A chapter of her novel in progress, The Sugar Factory, was published in Narrative Magazine in 2025. She was a columnist for the New York Daily News, and has also written for Discovery Channel Books, Wondertime Magazine, and The Huffington Post.