In my last post, I talked about attempting to read all of the 2018 RITA nominees, and to be honest it did stick out to me that this was probably the biggest swathe of white authors I've ever attempted to read in my life. While there are a few authors of color on the list, the absence of black authors was definitely striking. RWA addressed this in a blog post about needing to do better, which has sparked an inspiring (and, at times, enraging) discussion on Twitter amongst romance readers, writers, and booksellers; discussion is 100% necessary for change, and I thought I would be remiss to not mention all of this going on while also posting reviews of the RITA nominees as I read them.
As someone who is not 100% white (I'm half white, half Filipina), I already try to read diversely because I don't like reading about straight white people all of the time. I get incredibly excited when a heroine is Asian or if an author is Filipina, and I love supporting other authors of color besides those who write about characters who reflect my culture and heritage. That's because I just want to read good books, and often good books are written by authors of color and perspectives that are underrepresented in traditional publishing. So for every RITA nominee written by a white author, I'll be reading another romance book by an author of color. I have a ton on my TBR, so this will give me the excuse to work my way through them, and I'll be reviewing them alongside the RITA nominees. My hope is that next year the list of nominees will be more representative of the diversity of romance authors that are writing and being widely read and loved by romance readers. Until then, I think it's essential to keep discussing, keep dialog going, and to keep reading good books, books that happen to be written by black women.
How do you discover authors you love who may not be as widely promoted as most mainstream white authors whose covers feature white models? Are you more likely to use your purchasing power on books written by authors whose work is often pushed to the side in award nominations? I know that I often do; if an author that I know is excellent isn't being recognized by mainstream organizations, I make an effort to buy their books, pre-order their books, and promote them online. I'm also more likely to purchase them for my library; although I don't select our adult romances, I do get to purchase young adult, and contemporary romance is hugely popular amongst the teens at my library, so I'm always making an effort to purchase YA romance written by black authors and authors of color or LGBTQ authors because...dun dun DUN! Teens love reading them! Anyway, I don't know how this will all pan out in regards to the RITAs and the nomination process moving forward, but if there is a positive it's that the bubbles of many are bursting and hopefully that will lead to progress.
We shall see.
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