Is Enough Enough?

So....we just read on our friend Eisa Ulen’s blog http://www.eisaulen.com/blog/
that bestselling author Omar Tyree has just announced his “retirement” from street lit, stating that last July’s, The Last Street Novel, would be his final book in the genre (The current announcement comes prior to his September release, called Pecking Order). Tyree, the self-proclaimed offspring of Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim, and the “baby daddy” of the new “hood” lit movement, says enough is enough. He didn’t mean to start a trend that led to the avalanche of urban lit and erotica which has flattened much other work about African-American life in its path. Take a read and let us know what you think. Is enough, enough, too much, or too little too late? After all, as he says, publishing is a business. Are readers buying exactly what they want to read, or is a change gonna come?


For the record, I never called my work "street literature" and I never will. When I began to publish ground breaking contemporary novels with Flyy Girl in 1993, and Capital City in 1994, I called them "urban classics." They were "urban" because they dealt with people of color in the inner-city or "urban" population areas. They were "classics" because I considered myself one of the first to start the work of a new era. But now, after sixteen years and sixteen novels in the African-American adult urban fiction game, I feel like the man who created the monster Frankenstein. Things have gotten way out of hand. So it's now time to put up my pen and move on to something new, until the readership is ready to develop a liking for fresh material on other subjects. Read the complete story here:
http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/06/street-lit-000748.php

READIN' & WRITIN' : WHO? WHAT? AND WHY?

As we traveled on book tour we always mentioned that if there are authors you love, you need to support them or you won’t find them on the shelves any longer. Readers are generally horrified to find that we did not have an easy time finding a publisher—either back when Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made was published, or eleven years later for the sequel. We’ve even wondered whether Tryin’ or any of our other books would be published now at all, given the current climate. This always led to the hot topic—the prevalence of “street lit” and erotica in African-American fiction. Whether we’re talking with book clubs or solo readers—even booksellers—we hear concern about the direction of fiction written by and about Black folks. Where are the “good” books? they ask.

In an article in thedailyvoice.com written by Linda Villarosa (see excerpt and link below) discussing the formation of ringShout, “a group dedicated to "recognizing, reclaiming and celebrating literary fiction and non fiction by black writers," she hits upon the difficulty of defining “good”. And for us the even word “literary” sets off alarm bells, since we have been dissed and dismissed, more than a time or two by “literary” writers.

With any form of media—television, movies, music, the written word—the argument can be made that people buy what they want to consume. Does that mean that by and large readers are happy with the available offerings? Are they buying erotica and street lit because it’s readily available and fits in the budget? Because it’s an exciting escape from “real life”? Because it is telling some truth about “us” that is not being spoken elsewhere?
So we ask are you satisfied with the Black fiction you find on the shelves now? If not, what do you want to see more of?

Bookz in da Hood? by LINDA VILLAROSA

Posted February 12, 2008 1:00 PM

Novels like "Making Him Want It," "Crackhead," "Freak in the Sheets" and "Nasty Girls," are hip-checking literary superstars like Toni Morrison off the shelves. Other authors never make it into print, squeezed out by dirty girls (and boys) like Zane, Nikki Turner, Karrine Steffans and their lower rent offspring.

For more on author and journalist Linda Villarosa, go to http://lindavillarosa.com

A new group offers an alternative to "street lit."

A few weeks ago, publishing's Talented Tenth gathered at Random House to celebrate the launch of ringShout, a group dedicated to "recognizing, reclaiming and celebrating literary fiction and non fiction by black writers." The organization's founders--authors Martha Southgate, Eisa Nefertari Ulen and Bridgett Davis; Cave Canem 's Alison Myers and Random House editor Chris Jackson--call ringShout "a place for black literature."

But even as the night sparkled with writers, editors, booksellers and other black literati, a 10,000 pound elephant sat squarely in the center of the room: ghetto fiction, street lit or as one writer has called it "ho for dough books." --- (To read the rest of the article please visit http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/02/bookz-in-da-hood-000079.php )