Far too often, people rush to belittle the interests of women. And the literary of genre of romance is one of the most stark examples of this. Despite romance being a leading genre within fiction — in 2022 unit sales of fiction books rose 8.5% compared to 2021, led by a 52.4% increase in sales of romance books — people still continue to put the genre within a box or belittle its contributions to societal culture.

Fortunately for me, I spent a weekend this month with romance lovers who continually push back on these stigmas. The Popular Romance Fiction Conference at Yale University, aptly titled “The Literature of Hope,” was a moment of uplift for the romance genre and a celebration of how it has evolved through the years and what’s in store for the future.

At the conference, I heard from prominent romance authors such as Beverly Jenkins, Eloisa James, Alyssa Cole, Adriana Herrera, and Sarah MacLean, as well as booksellers and publishing insiders.

💁🏾‍♀️ Here are some of my favorite moments from the conference.

• Meeting Black authors: There’s a certain sense of wonder and awe that comes over you when you meet the person who creates the art you enjoy. It’s almost indescribable how I felt meeting Beverly Jenkins, a legendary Black historical romance author. (She even gave me a hug, and I was able to get multiple copies of her books signed! ) I would compare it to seeing your favorite music artist in concert— you’re in awe of their talent and can’t believe the two of you are sharing the same space at the same time. The conference also provided me a space to meet and learn about authors such as Krystal Marquis (author of The Davenports), Vanessa Miller (author of The Light on Halsey Street), and Elysabeth Grace (a.k.a Margo Hendricks and author of Elizabethan Mischief).

• Romance as an area of study: I greatly appreciated the seriousness with which the conference organizers approached the topic of romance fiction as an area of study. Panelists like Dr. Carole Bell shared how romance fiction has served as a historic record of the love people thought they deserved and how they showed love to other people. The bodice rippers of yesteryear, likely have some problematic elements that would easily be admonished today, and rightfully so. Conference panelists also emphasized how scholars and researchers are creating archival work related to the study of romance as a genre that can live on for generations. For example, the Black Romance Podcast, hosted by Dr. Julie E. Moody-Freeman, provides space for authors to give an oral history readers might not find anywhere else. In another example, Dr. Kinohi Nishikawa shared how a lot of archival work shouldn’t focus solely on the “Big Five” publishing houses. Nishikawa shared documentation of early romance works from smaller, publishing houses, some of which were based in the South. Examples included Genesis Press (Mississippi) and Odyssey Books, Inc. (Maryland).

• Romance as a business: At the conference, attendees also heard from Ripped Bodice founders, sisters Leah Koch and Bea Koch, and romance editor Monique Patterson, who works for the imprint Bramble, a part of Tor Publishing Group. Things that stayed with me from this talk were BookTok’s impact on publishing and just how barriers to entry in the publishing world inhibit institutional change. On BookTok, I appreciate a point made by Leah Koch: “I am not a technology expert, but I believe technology experts who have explained to me that algorithms are racist.” To some, this take may be harsh take, but if we were to check our biases, there’s a solid argument for what Leah is saying. Go to any bookstore (including the big, corporate ones like Barnes & Noble) and their BookTok tables are largely full of titles that provide a pretty superficial selection of the romance genre and fiction as a whole. This is not to say these recommendations aren’t good, but it’s possible they’re not as comprehensive as they could be. Because of this, you need booksellers and publishers that don’t purely rely on social media trends and numbers to inform their procurement and the types of novels they’re championing. In terms of working in the publishing world, outside of being an author, I appreciated Patterson acknowledging the unconscious bias that exists within the industry and how it can keep certain stories from being told. (This is something I’ve also witnessed in the journalism world.) Also, Patterson made a good point about Black romance being the core of American romance and that everyone doesn’t have to relate to every book they read for it to be worthy of being told. “We need to get beyond past whatever this idea of convincing people that [BIPOC romance] is also romance or you can relate to it,” she said.

Overall, the conference left me feeling enriched and inspired as a consumer of romance and someone who’s dabbled in fiction writing. I learned I was not alone in the shame I felt as a young girl being drawn to the genre. Now as a grownup, I proudly profess my love for romance (pun intended). I see it as something to be proud of. This conference did a wonderful job emphasizing how romance is more than steamy scenes and stolen glances and touches people fawn over — which are all great things by the way that I definitely enjoy. But romance is also a genre that contains multitudes. Romance allows us to dream and envision a fantasy that we have the power to create across time periods and gives us hope for the world in which we live. Romance fiction provides space for subversion; it’s a place where we can interrogate the status quo on intimacy, desirability, and sexuality.

Recommended media:

• Romance, hip-hop feminism, and Black love: From theory to praxis (Journal of Popular Romance)

• The history of consent in romance (Book Riot)

• Don’t call them trash: Romance novels celebrate female pleasure and aspiration (The Atlantic)

• Black Romance Podcast: Natalie Dunbar with Barbara Keaton (Apple Podcast)

• Jennifer Lynn Barnes: Offering Readers a World to Sink Into (Writer’s Digest)

• Love Between the Covers Documentary (Pluto TV)

• In conversation with Kerry Washington on her new memoir (All Things Considered, NPR, Sept. 27)

• The thirstiest thing a man can do is read (Bustle, Sept. 27)

• How Atlanta’s romance writers are finding new, younger audiences (Atlanta Magazine, Sept. 26)

• Smithsonian acquires Phillis Wheatley collection (The New York Times, $, Sept. 26)

• Back to school: 12 college romance novels you can’t stop reading (Book Riot, Sept. 21)

• Fated Mates Podcast: The Full Banana (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Sept. 19)

• Hoochie Mamas Have Long Been Villainized in Pop Culture, But Black Women Are Reclaiming the Term (Teen Vogue, Sept. 15)

• The 2023 National Book Awards longlists have been announced (Book Riot, Sept. 15)

• Drew Barrymore dropped as National Book Awards host after her talk show resumes during strike (Associated Press, Sept. 12)

• 'I'm a survivor': Black final girls are (literally) killing it (Publishers Weekly, Sept. 7)

• 'A plague on the industry': Book publishing's broken blurb system (Esquire, Sept. 7)

• ‘The Other Black Girl’ has its flaws — but it does fix 1 thing from the novel (HuffPost, Sept. 6)

• 34 Works of Fiction to Read This Fall (The New York Times, $, Sept. 4)

• In “The Aunties,” farmers Donna Dear and Paulette Greene continue Harriet Tubman’s legacy (them, Sept. 1)

Genre Index: 📜 Historical romance | 🖤 Paranormal/Fantasy romance | 💓 Contemporary romance | 🤎 Black romance | 💖 POC Romance | 🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ romance | 🏅 Sports romance | 👩🏾 Women’s fiction | ✌🏾Young adult | 🕵🏾 Mystery/suspense | ✨ Fantasy/science fiction | 📖 Historical fiction

• August & September releases

  • Kiss and Spell by Celestine Martin (Hachette Book Group, 🤎 🖤 💓)

  • The Long Game by Elena Armas (Barnes & Noble, 🏅💖) - Sept. 20

  • All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyer (Essence, ✌🏾) - Sept. 19

  • Call and Response (New Heights Book 3) by Christina C. Jones (Amazon, 🤎💓 ) - Sept. 14

  • Thank You for Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz (Goodreads, 💖 💓) - Sept. 12

  • Full Moon Over Freedom by Angela M. Lopez (Harlequin,💖 💓) - Sept. 5

  • One Blood by Denene Millner (Kirkus Reviews, 📖 👩🏾) - Sept. 5

  • Enchanted to Meet You by Meg Cabot (megcabot.com, 🖤) - Sept. 5

  • The Art of Desire by Stacey Abrams a.k.a Selena Montgomery; the book is a re-release of Abrams’ 2001 book (Cosmopolitan, 🤎🕵🏾) - Sept. 5

  • Her Own Happiness by Eden Appiah-Kubi (Goodreads, 🤎💓) - Sept. 5

  • Girl Have You Read published a round-up of 20 Black indie romances publishing in September. (Girl Have You Read, 🤎)

  • House of Marionne by J. Elle (Storygraph, 🖤 ✌🏾) - Aug. 29

  • Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Goodreads, 🕵🏾 ) - Aug. 29

  • Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley (Goodreads, 💖 💓) - Sept. 26

  • The Art of Scandal by Regina Black (Storygraph, 💖 💓) - Aug. 1

• October releases

  • Stars in Your Eyes by Kacen Callender (Barnes & Noble, 🏳️‍🌈 ✌🏾) - Oct. 10

  • The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed by Noreen Mughees (Goodreads, 💖 💓) — Oct. 10

  • One Steamy Night: A Western Romance by Brenda Jackson (Amazon, 🤎📜 )

📚 Currently reading:

Down to My Soul by Kennedy Ryan; Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Review Rating System:

Review: My Soul to Keep by Kennedy Ryan

Genre: Contemporary Romance 💓

Brooding musician meets rising superstar in Kennedy Ryan’s My Soul to Keep, book one of Ryan’s Soul trilogy. The series follows Rhyson, a musician who’s been in the limelight since childhood, and Kai, a rising singer/dancer who hails from Georgia and makes the move to Los Angeles following the death of her mother. Ryan does a great job of leaning into tropes. I’m a sucker for a good romance that consists of a famous actor/musician and an everyday person/rising star that enters their orbit (shoutout to Jen Calonita’s Secrets of My Hollywood Life series that I was obsessed with when I was younger.) At times, I found the characters within Ryan’s book to be a bit melodramatic, but I think that’s what makes this story work. The stakes are what motivate you to keep reading. Kai feels an undeniable pull to Rhyson, but she doesn’t want people to think he’s the one responsible for her success. The will-they-won't-they tug of war is strong with these two. (Rating: 🥰 Sweet read)

Review: Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Genre: Historical Fiction 📖

I had heard about involuntary sterilization of women of color happening in the U.S., but I’d never realized the breadth to which it happened, and how much was under wraps from the public stretching back to 1970s (and maybe even earlier). The novel, which takes place in the 70s, follows Civil, a new nurse whose job is to administer birth control to Black young women and girls in Alabama. Despite her excitement at the start of the job, she and her friends realize the government-funded clinic she works at is rife with ethical cover-ups. You could feel the intentionality Perkins-Valdez had when she wrote the novel. History and fictional narrative are weaved perfectly together and shed light on Black reproductive justice in a way I’ve never witnessed before. (Rating: 😍 must-read)

“I’m determined to help her soar higher than she ever imagined, if she’ll let me, but when she comes down, I want her to land with me.” — from My Soul to Keep by Kennedy Ryan

That wraps up this edition of Swoon! Is there a topic you’d like me to cover or a book you’d like me to review? Email me at [email protected] to share your suggestions. I’d love to hear from you. See you in October! xoxo,

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