Author Shannon Garvey’s personal history is deeply intertwined with the setting and themes of June Baby. Hailing from Rhode Island, Garvey gained firsthand experience with the novel’s world through her time working as a housekeeper and waitress, including when she was a student in the MFA in creative writing program at the University of New Hampshire, where she developed the first draft of her novel (Testa, Keith, & Keenan, Katherine. “Recent MFA Grad’s Debut Novel Garners National Attention.” University of New Hampshire, 27 May 2026). This background provides an authentic foundation for her depiction of the seasonal service industry and the economic disparities that define life in such communities. The novel’s protagonist, Ruth, works as a waitress for years, and her experiences of financial precarity and difficult customers reflect the realities of the industry that Garvey herself knows well. In her acknowledgments, Garvey thanks the “restaurant community in the Seacoast” for the “shift drinks, pep talks, [and] tacos eaten over the trash can” (341), details that ground the novel’s portrayal of restaurant life in lived experience.

To research the novel, Garvey also worked as a housekeeper on Block Island (Nicolaou, Elena. “How ‘June Baby’ Author Shannon Garvey Went from Housekeeping on Block Island to Writing a Novel Set There.” Today, 12 May 2026). Working six days a week in this role, Garvey made time each morning to write the successive drafts of her novel before getting up to engage in her housekeeping duties. This experience directly informs the backstory of Ruth’s mother, Maggie, who “spent the summers as a housekeeper for beach rental properties” (54). This immersive research allowed Garvey to explore the intimate, often-invisible labor that underpins the leisure of the wealthy. By working inside the island’s private homes, Garvey gained a unique perspective on the class divide, a central theme of the novel. Her experience allows the story to authentically portray the hidden lives and sacrifices of the working-class characters who sustain the island’s picturesque facade, adding a layer of social commentary to Ruth’s personal journey of discovery.