Tayari's Blog: HOT YAMN! Link time!

Comment #1, by tommy jonq

on the topic of "confessional blogging:"

according to the big book of aa, "our secrets make us sick." the internet can be about as anonymous as it gets; after all, it's a lot easier to broadcast your secrets over the net than it is to tell your mother you're sexually attracted to bugs bunny. if you can get paid to do it, so much the better.

Comment #2, by Jackie

The first time I went to the Harlem Book Fair, I was all excited and it was worth it to see so many AA writers in person and books discounted so that you buy lots of them. There was enough street fiction that you could ignore it if you wanted to or draw closer to see what it was all about. I was last at the book fair in 2006 and it was overrun with street fiction and so many people hawking their self published street fiction. I have to give them this: many were using their marketing tools, but it was just too much. Literary fiction was in short supply. Even popular fiction couldn't find a good spot. One highlight (nod to Ladylee): there were some great bootleg CD oldies.

The panel discussions which covered more serious topics had far fewer people in attendance than the ongoing drama outside. If it was anything like last year, you would have been frustrated by the repetition of just so much urban fiction. It's not that it doesn't have its place on the bookshelf, it's that from my perspective, the bookshelf was about to topple over from all those books with the same story and the same book art. Perhaps this is the one place where disenfranchised writers have their shot at selling and being read. I think it drives away everyone else, because how can you compete with tales of stripers and prison life if yours is the one story that isn't about that? Yes, I did buy some of those books, a DVD even (talk about everything being available!) and forced myself to get through it. I'm telling you, it's the same story over and over again.

For now, I will be content to watch the edited version of the fair on cable. Oh, who am I kidding. I might give it a try again next year because, after all, it is Harlem and there is no place like it.

Comment #3, by ronn

I assisted at the first Harlem Book Fair while working p/t with literary agent/Goddess Marie Brown. It was great being around all these wonderful Black giants of book publishing. Manie Barron and I set up many of the booths, chased away stray cars and calmed some frayed nerves due to miscommunication and disorganization. I returned the second year and was dismayed by the miscommunication and disorganization, but more so by the increasing presence of Ghetto Lit.

I haven't been back since the third year when GL took over, IMMHO. I'm tired of the debate and think those of us that favor literary African American fiction need to find better outlets for our collective frustrations with mainstream publishing.