Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion

Literary fiction. It’s a pretty subjective term right? And when I last looked there were 491 LFPC members, so I’m sure there are 491 different opinions as to what the term means. I realize that as the moderator who puts up the poll of books to choose for our monthly discussions the books I list reflect my opinion of what literary fiction is. At the same time I’m convinced that there are other worthy books and authors outside of my normal purview. So in an attempt to be more inclusive and also get some member feedback I offer this first poll of authors that perhaps are considered “popular” or “urban” as opposed to “literary” but which our members may like to discuss. If this poll is sucessfull I'll offer others of other potentially overlooked books and authors in the future. I’ll put the top 5 vote getters in a poll in the near future (unless the “ none of the above option” is a heavy vote getter).

As always I welcome suggestions for book to include on the monthly polls.
Please share with me your thoughts on the subject.

Well, of this list it would be Cleage, Harris & Golden (in that order). 

But, I've really enjoyed the polls as is. I've been introduced to some phenomenal authors that I knew absolutely nothing about previously. I must have a list of 20 "to be read" books just from the also-ran list of books from this group. I  will occasionally read a book even if it's not one I selected just to join in on the conversation; which I will intend to do with the Danielle Evans book for November. I don't think I would be too inclined to do the same with a Dickey book. Sorry, no disrespect for any of these authors on the list, but they garner enough attention as it is. They will have people lined up to purchase their books without an advanced blurb. On the other hand, Nnedi Okorafor, Irene Sabatini and other sensational writers like them are not afforded that luxury. Sorry, that's just one persons opinion.

Nice idea, Bill!

Interesting idea, Bill. I'd asked somewhere else what prompted this poll. Perhaps like others who are not from the US, I didn't recognise, or only vaguely recognised many of the names. So these are popular/urban are they? How did you find the names? Or are they, as Columbus suggests, part of the landscape there?

I belong to another group that's trying (with little success) to read romance novels. We also had the idea that it would be useful to step outside our norm and read a little more widely. It's not going well so far. :-)

I have to echo Columbus again. The writers on your polls are often new to me anyway, so you're already widening my horizons. Thank you for that.

Hazel, until very recently the Borders (A large US bookstore chain) closest to my job had two sections, one labeled "African-american Literature" and the other African american fiction. The first populated by "serious" works the other urban street lit. I always wondered who had the thankless job of determining which book belonged where? What were their credentials to make such a judgement and a host of other related questions. But perhaps Borders also struggled and is now shelving "serious" books by Black authors in both the general "Literature" category along with their other authored counterparts and the African-american fiction section. "Street-lit" remains ghettoized. The names on the poll are more likely to be found in the "african american fiction ghetto than the more general "literature" section. Perhaps not generating enough cross over appeal to be included in the "Literature" section. But that doesn't mean there are not great books there. Books like "Manchild in the promised land", Soul On Ice, and most of James Baldwin's books surely would have shelved in the Af-am fiction section instead of literature had this demarcation been enforced when they were published. The poll is an effort to crash the gates if the members want to.

Intriguing. Is street-lit always/usually African-American? A few weeks ago, I read a comment about an urban fantasy series, where the vampires spoke (what sounds to my ignorant ears) urban/street slang. Don't know if that was particularly Af-Am. But I've read a similar book where the protagonist was very clearly (including marketing, cover illustrations etc) African-American.

I find the whole business of categorising books to be very interesting, partly because I suspect it's got more to do with brands and marketing, and the marketeers' limited imaginations,than anything else.

Group member and author Carleen Brice has kept the discussion of the separation of books by Black authors going on her blog, White Readers Meet Black Authors at http://welcomewhitefolks.blogspot.com/ ,for about 2 years now. The blog also has great book recommendations.

Thanks, Mina. Lots to read there. I see a lot of popular stuff, at first glance. But I take jo's point, on another thread, that the difference is illusory.

William, was Baldwin not considered literary in his day?

Baldwin broke ground in exploring gritty Black and urban themes. and lives. I don't think that Balwin's accolades came until later in his life after the dust had settled...he had a penchant for exploring then taboo and controversial subjects which would obscure his writing skills...Not comparing the writing skills at all but in todays scene Sister Soulja is more renown for her firey rhetoric than her writing skills and she stirred up quite a bit of controversy and publicity when her first book came out. But I have yet to see any of her books shelved in the Literature section

Carleen pretty much advocates for the whole spectrum of authors, Hazel, but there's lots of literary fiction there, too.

The poll has closed and I must say that I'm a little surprised that the winning selection was "none of the above". So I will not offer an upcoming poll comprised of the authors on the list. I was thinking that one way to widen the appeal and spur larger disscussions by the group was to include some of the more popular and "urban" authors included in the poll but that is clearly not the choice of those who cast their ballots. Do any members have any ideas how to get more folks involved? Right now only about 30 out of over 500 members vote on the monthly book polls and only half that many will comment during the discussions monthly run (less than 3 percent of members!).
So I'll proceed apace, offering what I hope are good quality reads and welcome any suggestions for books to place on future polls (even authors that were included on the poll!).

William, You are doing a great job. Thank you for all the work you do. I am so glad I found this group.

Thank you, Rebecca.

I hope that those who vote in the polls will try to read the discussion book of the month, and if you know other readers who have read the book, please encourage them to join in as well. I am very pleased that the choice of books for the poll is in your capable hands, Bill, and I would second Bill's request for suggestions for future polls, with one request - please don't nominate your own book! Authors in the group can inform others about their books and other writing in the "Member Writings and Requests" folder.

William and all - not sure about engaging other folks. I know I'm reading horribly slowly and so haven't been following the current discussion too much (to avoid spoilers)... this, then, just to express appreciation for your efforts and for the feedback we do get. I would guess that people like being in the loop but might not always have time, energy or interest (all the time) in responding?
not sure..

Don't worry about the official end date for the discussions, Janet. The threads remain open so that any time you finish a book that we have discussed, you can add any comments you want to make. Don't feel rushed or pressured - enjoy your reading!

thanks so much - I do learn from others' thinking and look forward to getting on with the book. someone had mentioned the similarities btwn this and Go Tell It on the Mountain - hard not to think about this as a sort of back story to some of that time/those people in NY. Have a feeling this will shift as I actually get beyond where I am now (John's just gone back to work with Ned at Amy's request)..
thanks all

William:

I am a non-voter for the same reason I am on this discussion list: almost anything this group wants to read is either new to me, or they are books I've read alone and am delighted to have peers with whom I can talk about them at last!

I live in a small, white university town (punctuation intentional). We have many independent bookstores. Most have four shelves called "writers of color". Everything is jammed in there; Chimimanda Adiche, Pearl Cleage, Garcia-Llorca, Terry McMillan, Ha Jin. They are usually too rarefied to include any "urban fiction" unless it's gay (James Earl Hardy, E. Lynn Harris, etc) so I don't even know that the 'urban popular fiction' genre exists.

So, your survey is of value, even though it didn't have the intended results. Putting out a request for new ideas and hearing 'none of the above' in response must be frustrating. But simply having the space to wonder about "literary fiction' vs "popular fiction" is of tremendous value to me.

Many thanks to you, Rona and Mina for making this space possible, and for your leadership in keeping it alive for all of us.

gratefully reading,

Mistinguette S.

Thank You! You're so very welcome!

Pretty good review for an author that I had not heard of and talked about rather disparagingly when I posted that "urban" poll awhile back.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

But I think that we concluded that Susan Straight was not a person of color.

She isn't -- I met her a while ago. Very nice and extremely gifted but she isn't a person of color.

Rachel
The View from Here

True that...her works won't appear in polls here, but they do appear in most Urban/Street/AfAm popular lists.