Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

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During the past couple of weeks, the Smart Bitches and Karen Scott’s blog hosted heated debates regarding the state of African American romance fiction. For the most part and with few exceptions, romance books written by African Americans are shelved with African American books. To some authors, this is a regressive trait in what we like to pretend is a post racial culture. There has been a request by some authors that readers take a stand since the majority of romance dollars are spent by white females. The problem is that there are several ways in which romance readers can address this issue but I don’t know which is the one we should take.

There was one commenter at the SB’s who said she needed an ally. I find that to be true. If an author or a group of authors stepped up and said this is the direction we would like you to go, then I would take up the standard and run with them. But right now, I am stalled at the starting line, wondering which fork in …

An article in Seattle Weekly today explores the lack of a multi cultural presence in the billion dollar romance industry. Author Edwina Martin-Arnold relates her experiences with Greater Seattle chapter of the Romance Writers of America, “I went to one [GSRWA] meeting, and it was extremely uncomfortable. It was a clique. Seattle’s local chapter is distant—I guess that’s a good word. I stay away.”

The article is largely dismissive of romance stating the the “paperbacks are cheap and hardly literary” and wondering “Why would anyone want to write them?” But it does bring to light the strange practice of segregating the books by author ethnicity instead of by genre. It also questions why such a popular genre is so lacking in multicultural figures, both behind the covers and between them.

Glenda Howard, the executive editor for the African American Harlequin line, Kimani, believes that African-American romance is a growth area, calling it “robust and it’s flourishing.” But authors who aren’t African-American and aren’t Caucasion find themselves adrift. There is no South American, Asian-Pacific Islander writing groups or lines devoted to those ethnicities. “Sarkar-Mishra echoes Flynn’s comments about Asian writers when she says, ‘If it’s …

Last week was banned book week so it is a provocative time for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers to pull Tintin in the Congo from its fall list. Tintin in the Congo has been widely criticized for its racist depiction of Colonial-era Africans. The “in the Cong” book will also be excluded from the box set of 24 books in the Tintin series to be released to coincide with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's forthcoming Tintin movie which is slated to debut in 2008.

Belgian artist Hergé wrote the Tintin book and drew the accompanying illustrations which features dialogue that is considered racist as well as pictures of Africans who resemble monkeys. Borders will be stocking the book in its adult section.

This is truly a tough call. On the one hand, I hate the idea of banning any kind of book. On the other, I hate the idea of racist literature being widely available and perpetuating inaccurate stereotypes.

Via PublishersWeekly.