He was right for her. She was his one and only.
Here’s a funny story from the CBC: Harlequin of the Harlequin romance novels have created new imprints to appeal to (female) readers of African and (East?) Asian descent:
Publishing houses across North American are creating new lines of romances aimed at people of Asian and African descent, according to Brian Miller, a Seattle journalist who follows the market for romance novels.
While that may sound like disgusting targeted marketing, Miller makes this excellent point about how people of colour have been traditionally left out of romance novels, or at least rarely seen as protagonists:
“So much of romance has been English and set in the past, whereas people of colour were the great other across the waves,” he told CBC cultural affairs show Q.
Damn right we should all have equal rights to trashy romance novels!
Does anyone know of romance novels that appeal to queer women?
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six comments
Well, ethnic minorities in Canada/US and immigrants have been too busy working rather than writing in the past. Also, for many, language has been an issue. Only now are there more people who are comfortable enough to express themeselves creatively in English. Also, I really don't understand if minorities really need to read about people of their own culture (or a similar culture) to truly understand and love a book. Oftentimes, I read books about Chinese immigrants or children of these immigrants and find that I can't relate to it because these books are written by an older generation who didn't live the suburban lifestyle that many Chinese Canadians do today. What do I, a girl who grew up in suburban Willowdale, Ontario in the 80s and 90s have in common with someone who grew up in 1950s Chinatown?
*Cynthia published Aspirations, her debut novel in 2007. Aspirations is about four young women (three white, one East Asian) and their life the year after they graduate from university.
Posted by Cynthia
January 10, 2008, 9:12 AM
The term "minorities" is generally not used anymore (as stipulated by the UN!) - in major Canadian cities like Toronto there are sometimes more people of colour than white folks. That would mean that it's actually more accurate to refer to white folks as minorities! So now generally the terms "marginalised" or "racialised" are more in vogue.
Obviously a book doesn't need to be written from your point of view for you to be able to enjoy it. The point is however that English literature has been dominated by a totally white (often male, often upper class, highly educated, straight etc) perspective for hundreds of years. This even trickles over to Harlequin romance. For people of colour who are tired of having their experience be invisible, it can be empowering to finally have narratives that reflect your life experience.
I don't know if I agree that it is "only now" that people of colour are able to speak English. In Canada for e.g. the Chinese railway workers arrived in Canada at the same time, if not before, the ancestors of white folks in Canada. Thanks to colonisation, people from non-Anglo societies have been speaking English for decades. Myself included!
Posted by Thea
January 10, 2008, 1:34 PM
Yep, Bold Strokes Books. http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com. The publisher (and also a novelist) has been accepted to the Romance Writers of America. There are some queer gems in the more mainstream lesbian romance lit genre.
Smitty
Posted by Azarnes
January 10, 2008, 2:13 PM
Ethnic minorities in the US have been "too busy working"?
What?
I'm appalled at this misinformation being propogated in a magazine for young women. People of African descent in America have been writing since Phyllis Wheatley wrote poetry in the 1770s, let alone the Harlem Renaissance.
Posted by Delux
January 12, 2008, 10:31 AM
The misinformation you refer to came from Cynthia (in a comment,) not from the magazine (in the post) - so the magazine is not "propogating" this information to young women. It's important to distinguish between the magazine and people who comment.
Posted by SAYZ
January 12, 2008, 11:11 AM
Shameless seems so excellent, I was surprised to see that kind of comment go unchallenged. Thanks for responding.
Posted by Delux
January 13, 2008, 5:59 PM
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