I didn’t read her work but I plan on reading one of her novels very soon. I’m ashamed to say but I never picked anything from Octavia Butler, she’s a must read for any sci-fi fan.

reminded me of a couple of books/authors i have been meaning to pick up. i loved junot diaz’s brief, wondrous life of osca wao but haven’t read drown yet…been wanting to read mat johnson since i came across him on the twitters a few months back…

also, don’t know how quirky you thought danzy senna’s ‘caucasia’ was, but i hv always wondered what she was up to after that book…

ty much for the post sis, definitely bookmarking this page for the next time i head to the bookstore.

Tayari Jones, Leaving Atlanta

wait…we talking fiction…

asha bandele, Daughter
Walter Dean Myers–he STAY puttin in work, representing young urban people (and he’s like 100!)
Sapphire
Delores Phillips, The Darkest Child
Martha Southgate, Third Girl from the Left
Edwidge Danticat, everything LOL

Martha Southgate is awesome too. She writes YA fiction (Another Way to Dance + The Fall of Rome) that doesn’t pander and works for, uh, old(er) adults too.

And there’s Shay Youngblood (Soul Kiss + Black Girl in Paris) but she moved toward painting after 9/11; I don’t think she writes anymore.

Digging the Paul Beatty and Mat Johnson (who is on the Twitter) love too.

This is such a beautiful, lyrical novel. I picked it up randomly in Busboys and I fell in love. The author’s based in DC, too.

my opinion is that just as we do not support our local artists, we do not celebrate our own authors. i think this goes to the community’s apathy towards reading. so if you’re not reading, how will you know what is good fiction and what it not? you like what you are told to like. same with the videos we watch, the movies, the music on the radio, even what we learn…

i agree. we have many more shades and shapes to our experiences – just like everyone else. our stories are multi-layered.

once again, the irresponsibility of those in charge of distribution gets unchecked. i say, focus the shift back onto us. i.e., value reading more, sharing books with each other (like you’re doing here), and supporting homegrown authors. we have two or three major black bookstores here in los angeles. not a huge market for black writers. you would think so, but it’s not. same goes for poetry. unless you have a connection with the cultural affairs department, your work will go unnoticed. book fairs are dismal. if you are not a big name, folks will come and just buy a children’s book. so word-of-mouth must happen..

having said that, i don’t have much to contribute by way of black fiction. i read books of poems/essays. right now, i’m on opal palmer adisa “euros muse: poems & essays. i really adore her…

the last true black fiction book that had a lasting impression for ME is “invisible life” by e. lynn harris. i thought i would have a problem with it but i was deeply involved and deeply moved. i was shocked at my response to it. it was definitely entering another world haunted by it, but then sympathizing in the end. i have purchased my first octavia butler novel – her last “fledgling.” that will begin my journey into her world…

other than that, i read a lot of self-help/spiritual, non-fiction, and research studies..i have started a list of books recommended by others. time to devote is slim, but i am anxious…

but thank you for challenging me to look deeper into black fiction and for your list from which to build my new list of black fiction.

jj

I have a booklist that’s a good 30 pages in Word plus anther 150 books in Google Books that I came across and thought were interesting.

I have never seen anyone shout out Bodega Dreams, but I loved that book. I met the author when it first came out at the Harlem Book Fair.

Additions to the list:
The farming of bones
By – Edwidge Danticat

Kinky Gazpacho
By ? Lori L. Tharps

The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification
by Caille Millner

That’s all I got for now, I’ll add more later after some sleep