Black Romance Podcast

Join Black Romance authors Katrina Jackson and Elysabeth Grace as they discuss writing Black historical romance. The authors engage the question of readerly and publishing perceptions about the place of African/African diaspora love in historical spaces. For Black romance authors, what does it entail to represent Black love within historical romance? Questions of colorism, sexuality, class, and gender affect perceptions of historical romance fiction. Is historical fiction or women’s fiction the only way to write Black love? Can a genealogy and reading practice for Black historical romance emerge? A genealogy that encourages writers and readers (including agents, publishers, reviewers) to consider different frames of reading the idea of authenticity? The conversation attempts to move beyond the Eurocentric/American focus to look at the role of Black subjectivity (not individualism) as integral to Black historical romance. Finally, the authors seek to encourage Black romance authors and readers, and the wider romance community to re-imagine their relationship to historical romance in general, and Black historical romance in particular.

Thanks to @cbddepaul for sponsoring this podcast and to Jennifer Gardner for media promotion.

Creator, producer, and host of the Black Romance Podcast: Julie E Moody-Freeman

Sound Editor: Randall Spriggs with @rsvideophoto_media. Website is www.rsvideophoto.media

Black Romance Artwork: Kyle Gabb @Marciano_arts

Best-selling and award-winning novelist Shirley Hailstock joins Julie to talk about her successful writing career, and they deep dive into her novels Whispers of Love (Under the Sheets) and Love in Logan Beach.

Shirley Hailstock is the author of over 40 novels and novellas. She writes contemporary romantic suspense, paranormal, historical romance, and mainstream women's fiction. She holds a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times Magazine, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York City Chapter of RWA, and an Emma Merritt Service Award from RWA. Her novel, Legacy is listed as one of the 100 Greatest Romance Novels of the 20th Century.

Hailstock is a past president of the Romance Writers of America, and she is active locally and nationally, having served on the National Board of Directors for seven years. She is also a past president of the New Jersey Romance Writers and a past officer of Women Writers of Color.

Creator and Producer of the Black Romance Podcast: Julie E Moody-Freeman

Sound Design: Juelle Daley; a_caju_creative

Artwork: Kyle Gabb; Marciano_arts

Website: http://www.shirleyhailstock.net/

Whispers of Love (Under the Sheets): https://www.amazon.com/Whispers-Love-Arabesque-Shirley-Hailstock/dp/0786000554

Love in Logan Beach: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Logan-Beach-House-Thorn-ebook/dp/B01M6B7V7K/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Love+in+Logan+Beach&qid=1621171793&s=books&sr=1-1

DL White joins Julie E Moody-Freeman to talk about White’s experiences writing, publishing, and marketing romance novels through her self-built online platform. DL White’s eBooks, print, and audio books can be purchased at booksbydlwhite.com/books.

Thanks to the Center for Black Diaspora for sponsoring this podcast.

Creator, producer, and host of the Black Romance Podcast: Julie E Moody-Freeman

Marketing and Promotions: Jennifer Gardner @jpgm.a

Sound Editor: Randall Spriggs with @rsvideophoto_media. Website is www.rsvideophoto.media

Black Romance Artwork: Kyle Gabb @Marciano_arts

Dr. Julie E Moody-Freeman and co-host Dr. Carole Bell interview Adriana Herrera, best-selling writer of A Caribbean Heiress in Paris.

Adriana Herrera is a USA Today Best Selling and Audie winning author of over a dozen novels. Adriana was born and raised in the Caribbean and loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her, getting unapologetic happy endings. When she’s not dreaming up love stories, planning logistically complex vacations with her family or hunting for discount Broadway tickets, she’s a trauma therapist in New York City, working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

Dr. Julie E. Moody-Freeman is the Director of the Center for Black Diaspora, Co-Director of the Social Transformation Research Collaborative, and an Associate Professor in the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul University. She is the co-editor of The Black Imagination, Science Fiction, and the Speculative and The Black Imagination: Science Fiction, Futurism, and the Speculative. Her work on African American Romance has appeared in Romance Fiction and American Culture, The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction, and the Journal of Popular Romance Studies. She is also the creator and host of the Black Romance Podcast, which is building an oral history on Black Romance writers.

Dr. Carole Bell is a Jamaican-born communication researcher, writer, and critic with two decades of experience working at the intersection of media, culture, and politics. A lover of books, TV, film and democracy, her writing has appeared in print and digital media outlets including NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the Grio, and she is a contributor to the Black Love Matters essay anthology. She earned her PhD at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism concentrating in political communication, public opinion, and public policy and communication effects. She also holds an MS in Television and Radio from Brooklyn College, and a BA in English and American Literature from Harvard College.

Thanks to the Center for Black Diaspora at DePaul University for sponsoring this podcast!

Creator, producer, and host of the Black Romance Podcast: Julie E Moody-Freeman

Co-creator, Co-producer, and Co-host of Season 4 of the Black Romance Podcast: Carole Bell @cvbell

Marketing and Promotions: Jennifer Gardner @jpgm.a and Miya Jefferson

Sound Editor: Miya Jefferson

Black Romance Artwork: Kyle Gabb @Marciano_arts

Having published over one hundred and twenty-five novels, Jackson talks about the importance of how Blackness is represented in media and popular culture and about how this led her into filmmaking.