Episode 1: Welcome to Black Romance Has A History!

Black Romance Has A History

For romance publishing, 1994 was The Summer of Black Love. 1994 was a banner year for Black romance, with more books with Black main characters published in a single year than in any year prior. This week we'll introduce ourselves and set the syllabus for the season. Your hosts for this wild ride are Nicole Jackson and Steve Ammidown, two friends, historians, and romance readers.

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music by Purple Planet

Here's your transcript!

Follow the hosts on the interwebs:

Steve Ammidown

Website: https://romancehistory.com/about/

Socials

IG: @romancehistorian

Bluesky: @stegan.bsky.social

Nicole M. Jackson/Katrina Jackson

Websites:

https://www.katrinajacksonauthor.com

https://www.bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/history/faculty-and-staff/nicole-jackson.html

Socials

IG: @katjacksonbooks

Mentioned in this episode:

Bowling Green State University, Pop Culture Library, Romantic Times Collection, https://lib.bgsu.edu/finding_aids/items/show/2791

Mimi Swartz, “Vivian Stephens Helped Turn Romance Writing Into a Billion-Dollar Industry. Then She Got Pushed Out,” Texas Monthly, https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/vivian-stephens-helped-turn-romance-writing-into-billion-dollar-industry/

Sandra Kitt, The Color of Love

Decades: A Journey of African American Romance, a series of twelve romance novels from 1900-2008

Eric Jerome Dickey

J. California Cooper

Black romance titles published in 1994

Further reading/listening:

Steve Ammidown, "A Black Romance Author Timeline", RomanceHistory.com, https://romancehistory.com/2021/02/16/a-black-romance-timeline/

Steve Ammidown, "Peeling The Onion: An Incomplete History of the 20th Century Romance Novel" (video), presentation to The Inclusive Romance Project, https://youtu.be/cL5brpQXBqM?si=B3Qr7lQFkyCB10LI

Dan Sinykin, “Why Toni Morrison Left Publishing,” Literary Hub, https://lithub.com/why-toni-morrison-left-publishing/

Patrik H. Bass, “Why Black Women Read More Books,” Essence.com, https://www.essence.com/news/why-black-women-read-more-books/

Black Romance Podcast, “Vivian Stephens – Part one,” Interview with Julie Moody-Freeman, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vivian-stephens-part-one/id1528266279?i=1000490448573

BGSU Pop Culture Library, The Vivian Stephens Collection, https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl/named/stephens.html

Piper Huguley, “Her Bodyguard: Sandra Kitt’s The Color of Love as a foundational text for BWWM romance,” Journal of Popular Romance Studies, https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/her-bodyguard-sandra-kitts-the-color-of-love-as-a-foundational-text-for-bwwm-romance/

Keith Boykin, “Just As He Is: An Interview with E. Lynn Harris” https://lambdaliterary.org/2010/07/just-as-he-is-an-interview-with-e-lynn-harris-1997/

Annika Barranti Klein, “Decades: A Journey of African American Romance,” Bookriot,com https://bookriot.com/decades-a-journey-of-african-american-romance/#:~:text=But%20let%20me%20get%20to,and%20continuing%20through%20the%202010s.