It’s time for our weekly roundup of tweets from or about BIPOC, LGBTQIAP+, and/or otherwise underrepresented writers, reviewers, and list curators. If you don’t already, please follow these accounts and be sure to always retweet the original post.
First, a little news of our own.
Now get comfy. We’ve got a lot to cover this week.
Life comes at you fast in Romancelandia. On August 12, Jack Publishing announced they had hired known racist Sue Grimshaw as editor-at-large. On August 17, they announced that they had parted ways with Grimshaw with no acknowledgement of her racism.
In the interim, one author made the claim that romance isn’t political, and Laura Vivanco responded with academic receipts.
And Mel broke down how deeply embedded racism is in the economics of publishing.
Queerness is not a trope, but tropes belong in queer romance.
And another submission to the never-ending list of authors writing outside their experience. Mel took some time to educate people on the nuance of marginalized identities and the importance of sensitivity readers (and staying in your lane). Be sure to click on her Ko-Fi at the end of the thread.
LaQuette breaks it down with a useful analogy.
She also has a few recommendations for actual Hatian romance writers.
To delve deeper, listen to these recordings of RWA panels on the subject.
RWA has approved the proposed changes to the RITA judging process that will include training judges about implicit bias.
Do you need something beautiful in your eyeballs now? Sil asked people to share their favorite non-illustrated covers and, as always, Romancelandians delivered.
Speaking of covers, Omniverse Press is giving away cover design services to five romance, sci-fi/fantasy, or YA authors who are trans and/or POC. Enter below!
One of the reasons we decided to focus our directory on authors is that there are already so many great resources of diverse books, such as @BawdyBookworms’ Diverse Romance Press List.
And of course WOC in Romance’s weekly list.
As well as Girl, Have You Read’s.
And a new resource from Steph.
In addition to putting together the weekly releases for WOC in Romance, Rebekah started a thread of old and new faves by authors of color.
(If you have recommendations for other weekly lists we should be sharing, please let us know!)
Also, we had our reader discussion of KNIT ONE, GIRL TWO on Thursday. If you missed it, check out #RSJKnitOneGIrlTwo on Twitter. We will be hosting a Twitter Q&A with author Shira Glassman on August 29.
We hope you have a week filled with books and joy and all the good things! And if we have missed anything important, please let us know. You can submit anonymous feedback at http://bit.ly/RSJfeedback or DM us on Twitter at @sparkjoyromance
If you appreciate the work we do, please consider buying us a Ko-Fi to help fund our giveaways of romances by underrepresented authors.