A quick spin around the web

The NAACP Image Awards

were announced and the line-up looks great! I'm especially pleased to see Before I Forget nominated. Y'all know how I love that book.

Charles Johnson interview

The author of Middle Passage and winner of a MacArthur grant has a great conversation with The Root.

Breakout Book

Wench seems poised to break out of the pack! It's been in Essence and People and soon to be in O Magazine. Twitterers are tweeting rampantly about it.  I got my copy the other day and a quick peek turned into reading the first 2 chapters. I'm mad at you Dolen Perkins-Valdez for creating such an intriguing story! I need to finish Wildflowers before I crack open another book, and there's a couple other books in the queue. Luckily, Dolen's agreed to do a Q&A with me, so I have an excuse to move her book up the line. :) In the meantime, Tayari Jones has a blog post about the book.

More upcoming releases
Angela Benson, Marilyn Griffith and Tia McCollors have a collection of novellas about winning the lottery out next month called A Million Blessings. Who hasn't wondered what it would be like to hit the jackpot? But it might not be all it's cracked up to be.

Kayla Perrin has a romantic thriller Spring Break coming in March. Publishers Weekly says it builds a mood of "nail-biting suspense."

Support literary programs
The Literary Freedom project (which publishes Mosaic Literary Magazine) is seeking donations. (And here's their list of the best 6 books of 2009.

Color Online is discussing "art for art's sake" in their salon this week. They also seek books for their library. Here's their wish list. I have a stack of books I'm planning to send soon. Really!

Meet: Angela Benson, author of SINS OF THE FATHER

Like Christian fiction? You need to know Angela Benson. Her new novel (her 12th!) Sins of the Father hits stores today. After reading about Benson and her writing, I hope you will go out and buy it! (After this post are links to interesting stories in the media about black authors.)

About Angela Benson

Though Angela Benson began writing fiction in Miss Milizo's fifth grade English class, her first book was not published until 1994, more than thirty years later! Since then, Angela has published eleven novels, one novella, and a nonfiction writing book. Her books have appeared on national, regional and local bestseller lists, and she has won several writing awards, including Best Multicultural Romance from Romantic Times magazine, and Best Contemporary Ethnic Romance from Affaire de Coeur magazine. She was a finalist for the 2000 Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award in Multicultural Romance.

Angela made a faith move to Christian fiction in 2000 with the publication of Awakening Mercy, the first book in her Genesis House series from Tyndale House Publishers. Awakening Mercy was a finalist for both the RITA Award given by Romance Writers of America (RWA) and the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction. The second book in the Genesis House series, Abiding Hope, was published in September 2001. Abiding Hope was awarded the Emma Award for Best Inspirational Romance presented by the Romance Slam Jam. The third book and final book of the series, Enduring Love, is not yet scheduled.

BET Books, now Harlequin's Kimani Press purchased the mass market rights to Awakening Mercy and Abiding Hope in 2000 and released mass market editions of the titles in June 2002 and June 2003, respectively. Angela's first hardcover title, The Amen Sisters, was released in September 2005 by Walk Worthy Press. The Essence bestselling title won the Emma Award for Best Inspirational Romance. The trade paperback edition was released in November 2007. Up Pops the Devil, published by HarperCollins (Avon A) in August 2008, was Angela's eleventh novel. It was selected the November 2008 African-American Book Club Pick at Books-A-Million and was featured in the September-October 2008 issue of UPSCALE Magazine.
March 2010 will see the publication of her second novella, Showers of Blessings, in the A Million Blessings (Dafina) anthology. Angela has a diverse education and work history. She majored in mathematics at Spelman College and Industrial Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), and worked for fifteen years as an engineer in the telecommunications industry. She holds Masters degrees in operations research and human resources development. Her most recent degree is a doctorate in instructional technology from the University of Georgia. Dr. Benson is now an associate professor of educational technology at the University of Alabama.

About Sins of the Father

Booklist Magazine said, "Benson’s newest inspirational family drama raises more issues than it resolves, but the themes will resound with many readers and her portrayal of a newly reformed, albeit occasionally backsliding, sinner is masterful."

You can read an excerpt here.

Now to our Q&A!

White Readers Meet Black Authors: Describe your work for someone unfamiliar with it. What's your writing style like? What subjects/themes do you explore?

Angela Benson: I consider my stories inspirational family dramas. The main characters are related, the story problem threatens to break the family bonds in some way, and the faith of one or more characters is challenged. In The Amen Sisters, twin sisters are at odds because one joins a cult. In Up Pops the Devil, a drug dealer becomes a Christian while in prison and decides to leave the drug business that he ran with his sister. In Sins of the Father, a man with two families attempts to bring them together. My stories also have ensemble casts, with 3-5 point-of-view characters.

WRMBA: What's your latest novel about?

AB: At its simplest, Sins of the Father is about an absentee father who tries to make amends with the two children he has ignored for almost thirty years. His decision strains his marriage and his relationship with the son he did raise. In addition, he finds winning over his two adult outside children difficult as one doesn't trust him and the other only wants revenge.

WRMBA: What's your goal(s) as a writer? Do you set out to educate? entertain? illuminate?

AB: My goal as a writer is to encourage. I want folks to feel better about themselves and their situations after reading my books. I don't attempt to answer life's problems, but I do try to show that we can meet that challenges that face us and, not only survive, but grow and flourish.

WRMBA: What's next for you?

AB: My contract with Avon/HarperCollins ends with Sins of the Father. I recently submitted a proposal to them for my next book. I hope to have some good news in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I have a novella in the upcoming Millions of Blessings anthology being published by Dafina in March 2010. Marilynn Griffith and Tia McCollors, two wonderful people and great authors, have novellas in it as well.

WRMBA: What's the best book (or who's the best writer) that not enough people know about?

AB: Sharon Ewell Foster's Passing by Samaria. This book touched me deeply. If I had to explain racism to someone, I would use this book to do it. The book not only presents the problem eloquently, but it also provides the solution. It's not an easy book to read (from the heart's perspective) but I highly recommend it.

Thank you Angela and best wishes on your latest novel!

Black Romance Novels: Guest Blogger Dee Stewart

With Valentine's Day on the horizon, we're talking romance today. Guys, a juicy novel is a great way to let your sweetheart know how you feel. Smart Bitches Who Read Trashy Books will help you decide what she might like. Want more ideas for your sweetheart, your best friend or yourself? Check out APOOO's All About Love Virtual Tour for interviews with a variety of romance writers. And White Readers Meet Black Authors is also here to help!

Here's a great article about the genesis of black romance novels.

Some authors to try:
Donna Hill
Leslie Esdaile Banks
Brenda Jackson
Francis Ray
Rochelle Alers
Readers, what are your favorite romances?

And from Guest Blogger Dee Stewart comes her favorite overall romances (see, told you we read your books!) and her favorite black romance novels. Thanks Dee!
Everything below is from Dee:

I'm a big romance novel fool. So big I watch the Sound of Music weekly. I have Pride & Prejudice on my nightstand, a complete collection of Shakespeare and the brooding Thomas Hardy novels , and I have a huge, big crush on all things Chris Botti and Sade. I got it bad y'all. I can find romance in just about any good tale. But the novels below drip with heart-yearning love and are page turners. Enjoy!

1. Atonement, Ian McEwan. Tragic, heartwrenching love story. The title tells the tale, the plot kicks in the gut. heart break at its best.
2. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Teen angst set during the Biafran war. Beautiful prose despite so much national confusion
3. Zora & Nicky- a modernized version of Romeo & Juliette set between two racially divided megachurches.
4. Shopgirl- Steve Martin is a comic icon, but I crave his romanctic novellas. Shopgirl is poignant, succint, and pitch perfect.
5. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer.You're never too young to fall in love with a vampire. Really. Edward's tortured love for Bella makes you fall for him so badly.
6. Nella Larsen, Quicksand and Passing. Both novellas are about African American women during the Harlem Renaissance who chose to pass for white for a better life. But the love story, that thing we women want so badly, kills them.
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Schaffer. I'm a sucker for period pirces with love stories intertwined. This one is set in WWII with a twinge of humor to get through the hard parts.
8. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates. Skip the movie and read the book. Although I want to see Leonardo and Kate again. I urge you to relish the book soon after if you can't resist the cinema. What Yates does with a story is profound and the unraveling of a marriage/rebirth of a marriage is incredible. Your heart will tear apart reading this one.
9. Stardust, Neil Gaman. Oh, I love a good fairy tale. I love an adult one even better. This beauty is reminiscent of Princess Bride, but so much more. The idea of falling in love with a star reminds me of Stevie Wonder's hit "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Me." You'll love this fantasy.
10. Tess of the D'ubbervilles, Thomas Hardy. I love pastorals. I do. Mariette in Ectasy, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. But Thomas Hardy...ooh what it does with a simple cow milking scene takes my breath away.
A bonus, an unconventional love story is Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. Forget Brad Pitt for a moment. What Chucky P does with the story frame is amazing. More importantly the premise of a disturbed man who believes the only way to a disturbed woman's hurt is to believe in his own reinvention of himself is what Crazy in Love has to mean. LOL.
Dee Stewart's Top 10 Black Romances
1. Zora & Nicky, Claudia Burney
2. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3. Kindred, Octavia Butler
4. Abraham's Well, Sharon Ewell Foster
5. Quicksand, Nella Larsen
6. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
7. Awakening Mercy, Angela Benson
8. Jewel, Beverly Jenkins
9. Too Beautiful to Die, Glenville Lovell
10. Love, Toni Morrison