You can’t begin unless you return to the beginning…

We’ll go back to a cold day (well, I don’t know if it’s cold, but that sounds nice) in 1980 or so when Vivian Stephens, editor for Dell Candlelight edited journalist Elsie B. Washington’s “Entwined Destinies.” [1] It’s a slim volume written in the florid, yet distant style of the romances published during the late 70s and very early 80s, a book no more remarkable than others published under the Candlelight imprint. Being a romance novel it was required to have a happily ever after, which Entwined Destinies did. Yet, something was different about this book. Or was there? This book, published by Washington under the name Rosalind Welles happened to be the first-known romance novel written with African-American characters. Five years later, Harlequin Romance published Sandra Kitt’s Adam and Eva, their first romance novel with African-American characters. [2]

There’s no documentation about sales figures from that time, but I guess they weren’t great enough for Harlequin to assume there was a black audience for romance novels which led to the widespread opinion within the publishing industry that “black people don’t read.” Have zero clue how they came to that conclusion–I beg their pardon if I say those folks pulled that “fact” out of a hat, but I digress. Somehow Kensington Books realized that black women did read romance and that they were growing tired of reading only about mousy secretaries, adventurous blondes and busty red-heads finding love with tall, dark-haired, handsome millionaires, cowboys, dukes and sheiks. So they created the Arabesque line in 1994. The line was sold to BET four years later and in conjunction with this sale, for a short time BET produced original made-for-TV movies based on a few of the books the BET/Arabesque line published. [3]In the meantime, authors like Sandra Kitt, Brenda Jackson, Beverly Jenkins, and a whole host of other talented ladies began to hammer at the glass ceiling formed in the romance genre and despite the existence of this glass ceiling, they’ve succeeded. In fact, Jackson became the first African-American writer to write for Silhouette Desire with her 2002 release (VERY expensive, thank goodness it’s being reissued later this year), Delaney and Her Desert Sheikh, which formed a part of her very popular Westmoreland novels. Jackson also hit the New York Times best-seller list last year–a  first for a black romance author. [4]

In 2005, Harlequin bought the Arabesque, Sepia and New Spirit lines from BET to form KIMANI PRESS. According to the press release: “Kimani Press was formed by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. in December 2005, with the purchase of the Arabesque, Sepia and New Spirit imprints from BET Books. Arabesque remains the first line of original African-American romance novels from a major publishing house, and will publish two single-titles each month. The Sepia imprint features commercial women’s fiction, and New Spirit captures the growing African-American inspirational marketplace with both compelling fiction and non-fiction releases.” [5] KIMANI TRU, added in 2006, became Harlequin’s first YA line, which Kimani’s general manager Linda Gill described as existing “to make sure the book, the stories, the packaging and the voice of the authors is true and authentic to African-American teens across a variety of spectrums. Whether a suburban girl or an urban teen, we want these stories to resonate the breadth and depth of their lives.” [6]

And so, give or take a few years (and correct me if I missed vital pieces of the history of modern black romance), the African-American romance has come a long way, and has yet more to come.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HST/is_1_4/ai_82511066
http://www.romanceincolor.com/authormthjacksonB.htm
http://aalbc.com/writers/kimani_press.htm
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6380978.html

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