Dang! We Old!

I cannot believe how fast time has flown. It seems like its just been a few years since I was driving up to Oakland every other week to a reading/signing at Marcus Books. I was in at least three book clubs and was reading the tons of black fiction being produced by a slew of black female writers. I was somewhat of a snob and basically began to swear of the "dating game" fiction which seemed to be page after page of drama filled relationships with no good men and stupid women.

My favorite authors seemed to disappear for a while. However, the women who "started it all" are a little older, more seasoned and coming up for air with new novels.

"'The black chick-lit books that I've read, it's all about 'gotta find a man' and that's it,' she said. 'These characters just spring up, they don't have a background, they don't have parents, they don't have brother and sisters and concerns.' She has used her novels (the others are 'Good Hair,' 'The Itch' and 'Acting Out') to explore issues like class divisions among blacks, buppie ennui and the juggling acts of even privileged wives and mothers. These issues are a far cry from slavery or the ghetto, which she said she was told in 1989 was what she had to write about to be published.

Ms. McMillan's blockbuster 'Waiting to Exhale' is widely considered the wakeup call to publishers that readers craved stories about the lives of black women.

During the 90's, Mr. Bass said, black women writers like Pearl Cleage, Bebe Moore Campbell, Diane McKinney-Whetstone and Tina McElroy Ansa - all of whom have new or soon-to-be released books - benefited from Ms. McMillan's high profile and staked out their own territory. Their characters, too, reflect more mature lives affected by issues like remarriage and children, career struggles and troubled family members."

(cross posted at my book blog)