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InPrint
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - 03:41 pm: | 
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Okay, of living black writers, who is you top 3, and bottom three? My list below.
Top:
John Edgar Wideman
Toni Morrison
Percival Everret
Worst:
Omar Tyree
Benilda Little
Michael Baisden |
Kola
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - 05:08 pm: |
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I took "the top" to mean--the most important (such as in the way that Ellison, Toomer and Hurston were important) rather than the top sellers or the stylistic bests?
So I chose the ones that I think will...100 years from now...be considered the most literary and most important (Ellison-wise) in terms of the Black literary cannon, by which then, will be more global.
My top:
Toni Morrison
Ousmane Sembene (Senegal)
Nuruddin Farah (Somalia)
Worst:
Connie Briscoe
John Edgar Wideman
Ishmael Reed
**Keep in mind, this a womanist-minded list.
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Kola
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - 05:12 pm: |
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I wish I had room for Walter Mosely. I'm not really a huge fan, but I do like the vibe I've gotten from the 3 books of his I read.
Octavia Butler is another underrated genius. And it killed me to leave Alice Walker off my list...but I think that Ousmane Sembene's political work (along with his powerful films) speak BEST for black people no matter where they are in the world. He is a true son of Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin with a pinch of Marcus Garvey thrown in. LOVE THE MAN.
Hope he doesn't die soon. Guess he's about 88 now?
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InPrint
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - 05:36 pm: |
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Ah, I see where we differ. I don't care about politics, I mostly care about prose. I care more about the artistry than the supposed importance. I, for instance, don't really care for Wright, because although he can be engaging, artistically I find him lacking, although he is extremely important in that he was the divirgent point for much of AA writing since. Every school since can be link to either him, Hurston or Ellison, with Wright having the most impact (the Black Arts Movement) even though I think he also inspired the worst writing.
I agree on Farah. Classic.
Wideman is not a great storyteller, but I think his prose is on genius level, a plane walked by maybe two other writers, ever.
Being on the opposite end of the spectrum, Ishmeal Reed just missed my best list for his originality, humor.
I love Octavia Butler's ideas, but her prose is so clunky and unoriginal that I really have to force myself through it. |
Red
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - 06:26 pm: |
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Top:
Lolita Files
Eric J Dickey
E. Lynn Harris
Bottom:
Omar Tyree
Omar Tyree
Omar Tyree |
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - 08:34 pm: |
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Top 3:
Toni Morrison: hands down, a literary genius.
Stephen Carter: an arguable choice, yes, but, all things considered, as good as any living black male author out there today.
Alice Walker: her best selling point is that her body of work will stand the test of time.
Bottom 3:
I like your choices just fine, "InPrint"
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Soul Sister
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 07:47 am: |
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You know I gots to chime in. Finally, people willing to criticize what is not literature but inane ramblings.
3 best living
Tananarive Due
Sandra Jackson Opoku
Frankie Bailey
3 Worst living
Omar Tyree
Eric Jerome Dickie
& the rest of the trash-talking, sex rompin' ghetto school "writers"**
Peace
** we all know that sex aint bad - - and you know I love erotica but whats up with all those people trying to strip and screw their way to healthy human relationships and self-actualization. Puhleeze. |
NeeCee
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 09:34 am: |
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The 3 worst writers are probably people no one has ever heard of before (maybe that's a good thing)...
Very difficult to say the 3 best -- especially if you don't read a variety of writers. My personal list would be based on the 3 best of all writers I've read, which wouldn't amount to a whole lot.
One person I might add to the 'best' list is Alexs Pate. I love his writing voice. |
sisgal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 11:10 am: |
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3 best:
Bernice McFadden
Walter Mosley
Guy Johnson
new favorites: Nichelle Tramble, Solomon Jones
Bottom list:
Omar Tyree
Kimberly Lawson Roby
The other McMillan sister
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Fool on the Hill
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 08:18 pm: |
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My list of top and bottom 3 follow this note, but I do find it interesting to see that four of the people have posted Omar Tyree as their one of their worst living writers and yet he is, of course, one of our best selling. Now, sad as this fact may be, it's still certainly a fact. Among black male authors he rises even higher not only in sales, but in prominence. I mean, the guy is in the top 20 of the aalbc "great authors" list, but then so is Sheneska Jackson.
I guess that what I'm wondering about are the lamentations of people like myself and others that black people, in general, support so much stupid writing. (White people do too, but that's no justification, I mean should we step up our number of serial killers per capita in order to catch up too?) What I mean is that the history of true literature seems to be a timeline of missed opportunities on the part of the public.
NO ONE was checking for Toni Morrison when she first published Bluest Eye or Sula (let's not discuss Tar Baby), especially not black folks, but now you can't walk ten feet without one of us talking about how Bluest Eye changed her life. Edgar Allen Poe died poor and insane. Gayl Jones got teaching jobs at white universities, but sure didn't sell many copies of Corregidora or Eva's Man.
So maybe the point of this whole post is that the public almost never gets it right. For every Alice Walker or Charles Dickens there's Herman Melville and Harriette Mullen (who gets some attention, but certainly not what she dersevres when half-wits like Maya Angelou and Jessica Care Moore are being labeled "poets"). Whew. It's a struggle isn't it? Maybe more like a craphshoot. Walt Whitman had to write fake reviews of Leaves of Grass under psuedonyms because no one else cared at all.
And yet, I'm optimistic every time I read a great piece of literature. One of the only authors to win the Pulizter Prize twice and enjoy enormous popular sales/attention was none other than Mr. Booth Tarkington.
Who?
Exactly.
Another author published in 1922, when Tarkington was recieving his 2nd Pulitzer, was a guy named Claude McKay, his book of poems called Harlem Shadows. These days one is forgotten, the other is legendary. It's nice to see the scales balance eventually.
Top 3
Gayl Jones
Lucille Clifton
Ishmael Reed
Bottom 3
Maya Angelou
Walter Mosely
Kevin Powell |
sisgal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 08:25 pm: |
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I'm curious about your bottom 3, why Maya Angelou, is it you don't like her writing, subject matter or you think she can't write at all..and Walter Mosley, why? Why Kevin Powell? Explain..
Is it really the genre, subject or the writer themselves that you disdain? |
InPrint
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 08:32 pm: |
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Fool on the Hill-
I think you bring up an excellent points, several actually, the greatest being that Maya Angelou is a dim-wit.
Little known fact, Kevin Powell types with his toes. True story.
I'm glad we can all agree that Omar sucks. Feel the love!
Thumper! Where are you? Where's your Brian Egerston jokes???
Brian, break it down with love!
However, anyone say one more bad thing about Booth Tarkington and I'll kill you.
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Kola
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 09:02 pm: |
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I have to STRONGLY disagree with anyone claiming to be a "real writer"....and dismiss MAYA ANGELOU as little more than a dim-wit.
That's like saying that just because Whitney Houston is pop-oriented, crossover artist...she's less important as a singer than say Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone or Billie Holiday.
I wholeheartedly stand by the public's assertion that Maya Angelou is a gifted writer...and not only that...a political one and one who wasn't afraid to be sentimental, folksy and "maternal".
I listed John Edgar Wideman as one of my least favorite writers....however, the man, technically, is a superb wordsmith, a truly solid writer.
I just don't appreciate his art. I can certainly see how some would be put off by Maya's art.
But to claim that she's nothing more than a dim-wit (the author of Even the Stars Look Lonesome...I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings...and poems such as Phenomenal Woman and AND Still I RISE...On the Pulse of Morning).
A nit-wit?
That's a stretch.
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Fool on the Hill
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 09:27 pm: |
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Sis,
I put Walter Mosely on the list because he's gotten worse from first book to most recent. His early work was astounding. I mean truly revolutionary, but at this point he's just churning out work that reads like a first draft. Did you read that sci-fi stuff? All the Socrates Fortlow books are lousy, simplistic and have none of the nuance of his first three books (Gone Fishin' his first novel, published only after he'd become famous, is probably the best thing he ever did, in my humble opinion). So I still read him, because I know how good he can be, but I'm constantly disappointed. While he's still, even at his worst, much better than many of the writers working today, I can't help but get angry when it seems like he's just phoning each performance in. After all, he knows that if he published a list of errands it would sell a million copies, so why work so hard? Everyone gets lazy, Stephen King has too, but because I know what they can do I'm more disappointed than when some no-talent writer puts out another no talent book.
I have to admit that the only book I like by Maya was the great, ...Caged Bird Sings. Her poetry isn't poetry to me. It's mostly just aphorisms. Passages full of uplifting messages, but that not what poetry is meant to be (to me, I understand how subjective all this is). To me, a poet is the rarest artist because she or he must look at the world and find magic in talking about life and do it with brevity. Novelists, essayists, have entire books to explain a moment of loneliness or beauty, but a poet often only has one page. Because of this, a poet should use language with the same skill that a heart surgeon uses a scalpel. Now I don't mean that the language needs to be flowery or pretentious, but that poetry is a chance to inspect the great complexity of life and yet at the end of most of Maya's work I'm left with these terribly simplistic ideas: be nice to people, I'm as good a woman as those "prettier" ones, abuse is bad. The world seems so much more complicated than this. While none of her lessons are bad ones, I always feel like I'm reading her diary rather than a book of poems.
There are any number of poets who are both straightforward and complex and in the end this may simply fall into a question of taste. People like Lucille Clifton, Harryette Mullen, Wanda Coleman, all write poetry that affrims the chaos of life. By reading about their confusion and conflict I get to reflect on my own. Maya's work is full of answers and declarations, but I read poetry to learn new questions since it's the answers in life that always change.
Lastly, Kevin Powell just doesn't have anything new to say. His nationalist rhetoric about how to uplift the community seems stuck in the sixties. Now before someone bites my head off, I mean that his solutions to our problems often seem like solutions we've all agreed upon already! Men shouldn't mistreat women. Agreed. Black people need to be wary of the ways that white supremacy still affects our lives. Check. But what else? What new? These are all still problems in our community, but people like Franz Fanon, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Malcolm X and Dr. King already brought them up. I guess some people might say that we need young voices to keep these issues fresh, but I tend to think the young voices need to come up with new issues of our own. Like the fact that we don't vote, at all, and then wonder why politicians won't listen to us (just look at how much power Latinos have accrued simply by going to the polls).
I hope this all makes sense. I knew those names on my bottom three would make some people question me. I love to be entertained by writing as much as I love to be educated, but what I always demand of the writers I admire is effort and excellence. In my opinion, the three people here are lacking in the former at the very least. |
Fool on the Hill
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 09:29 pm: |
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Also, I'll be happy to take the heat from those who love Maya. Fair enough. But to be exact, I called her a half-wit, not a nit wit. |
Sharon
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 09:51 pm: |
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I unsually just read the comments and move on, but this one I couldn't refuse. Though many of our authors seem to get worse as time passes along. Case in point Fly Girl by Omar Tyree was a page turning novel. But ever since every last one of his books have bombed and I don't think it will be too long before he's gonna have to find a new job.
I can only wonder how authors continue to get published and produce work that is repetitive with no godly meaning at all.
There have been a few writers though who for what ever reason haven't churned books out every six months (hopefully because they are working on their craft and getting better).
Colin Channer for one. I love his writing style and he moves you into a story nice and slow while at the same time making you feel as though your apart of what is going on.
Franklin White's first novel Fed Up with the Fanny was a hit, and I could go on a limb and say it was a black mans Coldest Winter even before Sister Souljah penned her novel. Also Franklin White's Cup of Love to me was so good that it was damn near literary. The focus on such writers as Langston Hughes, Chester Himes and others throughout the storyline was brillant- but maybe too brilliant in a time when everyone wanted the sister girl novel -even though he incorporated a literary sense into a book that was about relationships.
I find Sister Souljah's work to be enthralling as well. Her first book No Disrespect was very impressive and gave us all a look into her writing skills. The Coldest Winter is going to go down as a classic and hopefully it gives Souljah the confidence I think she needs to pull off another book full of street prose that makes a point.
So my top three are.
Colin Channer
Franklin White
Sister Souljah
Bottom
Omar Tyree
Travis Hunter
Shannon Holmes |
Kola
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 10:01 pm: |
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I have often said that Wanda Coleman is my favorite poet.
Thanks for mentioning her Fool On the Hill.
You really should read "Even the Stars Look Lonesome" by Maya Angelou. One of the greatest wisdom tablets I've ever read.
I keep that book and read it whenever I think that I'm overwhelmed...or whenever I look in the mirror and want to cry...because my body is AGING.
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InPrint
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 11:11 pm: |
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Kola-
That's interesting about Wanda because she's been catipulted to a far greater notoriety recently for her public bashing of May Angelou:
http://www.nathanielturner.com/wandacolemanslam.htm
I also thought it was interesting that you praised her for the bravery to be sentimental. I don't think I've ever heard that described as a good thing. I, personally, see at as the anti-thesis of honesty, which I feel is the goal of great writing, particularly poetry.
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Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 11:44 pm: |
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Hey, Fool on the hill, I'm familiar with Booth Tarkington, albeit from his Penrod books! But, seriously, choosing a top 3 and bottom 3 when it comes to contemporary fiction boils down to personal taste; what's the bomb for one reader is a dud for another. The whole endeavor can also be like comparing apples and oranges. And, at some point it should be noted that there is a difference between a good writer and a good story teller. |
Kola
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 11:47 pm: |
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I'm well aware of Wanda Coleman's bad review of Maya's interview.
Like Wanda Coleman...I have was also "disinvited" to conservative black bookstores in L.A.
As if either of us gave a Shot.
But yes, Wanda Coleman is my favorite poet. That still doesn't rule out the fact that Angelou is a GIFTED writer and yes--she's "sentimental" about the black experience....but so are African griots sentimental people...and yet everyone respects them as we respect Priests.
Sentimentality is NOT the anti-thesis of honesty. I think that's absurd and sort of pretentious. What I do think is that our society allows female to have a greater "emotional range" than it allows men...and male writers, because they're forced to operate artistically from that much smaller emotional range...tend to trivialize and dismiss women writers who embrace, BRAVELY, the sentimental value of moments gone before.
Again. I say that "Even the Stars Look Lonesome"--one of Angelous late, late books--is one of the best I've ever read by a woman author. It's astonishingly simple and compact, but the wisdom in it can't be denied and is priceless. She writes as well in that book...as Hemingway EVER wrote.
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yukio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 25, 2003 - 10:39 am: |
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1.Toni Morrison
2.Dambudzo Marechera
3.wideman, achebe, ngugi
sorry......actually, i really don't have a top three....but these are my favorite writers.....
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sisgal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 28, 2003 - 01:56 pm: |
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Thank you Fool on the Hill for brilliantly explaining your position. In the case of Walter Mosley, you are right about the sci-fi stuff. I haven't read enuf of Kevin Powell to agree or disagree, but I do find him to be a positive reinforcement in young black kids lives, and he does listen to the youth and tries to do something about it. Maya is and will always be a great poet to me, but maybe because I'm not critical, I simply enjoy. I found her autobiographies very interesting, her life was interesting. I have no reason to criticize where her creativity comes from or her subject matter, it's all worthy and relative. You said: I always feel like I'm reading her diary rather than a book of poems. Probably because you are.
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Cyberscribe
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 28, 2003 - 05:46 pm: |
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Top 3
Toni Morrison
Gloria Naylor
Octavia Butler
Bottom 3
Omar Tyree
Eric Jerome Dickie
& the rest of the trash-talking, sex rompin' ghetto school "writers"*
*I hope you don't mind Soul Sister. Had to use yours because I soooo agree. Has literature (notice I didn't refer the act of writing but the art) become a faded memory? But I did give you a footnote so no plagiarism. |
Yukio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 28, 2003 - 07:29 pm: |
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Cyberscribe:
"But I did give you a footnote so no plagiarism."
Thats funny....and sincere! |
Avid Reader
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 28, 2003 - 07:33 pm: |
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I can't seem to narrow my list of top authors down to 3. So I'll keep working at it. But at the bottom of my list are:
Brenda Thomas - almost didn't list her since she's written only one book but her book was lacking in so many areas, i.e., character development, plot, writing, ...
Eric Jerome Dickey - read 2.5 of his books and that's enough to last me a lifetime since they're all so similar
Zane - never could see what the hype is/was all about |
Thumper
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 11:32 pm: |
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Hello All,
I've been thinking on my list for a minute and have finally narrowed it down...somewhat.
Top 3 Living Black authors
1.) John A. Williams
2.) Steven Barnes
3.) Percival Everett
The Top 3 was a hard list to come up with. There are so many that I would have to tack on to it, but these three are creme, pure creme.
Bottom 3
Well I've been on their back long enough. I'll pass this time, since I named them earlier this year in a post a few months ago. |
reppskearn
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 10:35 pm: |
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Top Three: Toni Morrison, Chinua Achebe, RM Johnson
Bottom Three: Benilde Little- Good Hair (Bad Book); Terry Mc Millan (Could have stopped writing after completing the last sentence in Disappearing Acts); I'll have to get back to you with my third choice. |
Brian Egeston
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2003 - 01:22 am: |
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Best Three
1. Mat Johnson
2. Chris Chambers
3. Brian Keith Jackson
Worst Three
1. Never Met A Writer I Didn't Like.
2. Writing Is Subjective.
3. Ask me offline and I'll tell ya.
If I don't make Thumper's bottom three, I'll write a book so repugnant, so hideous that he'll have no choice but to damn it all to hell and proclaim it as sole motivation for Brian Egeston book burning day.
Written With Warmth,
Brian Egeston |
Thumper
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2003 - 05:50 pm: |
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Hello Brian,
Ain't no need in putting yourself out there like that. You didn't make my bottom three, but you are just a whisker hair away from it though. I think I place you at number 5 or 6. But after reading a couple of other books lately, you might move up to number 7 or 8. |
Brian Egeston
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 09, 2003 - 01:22 pm: |
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Thump,
In hopes of keeping my Thumper status consistent, I've just released two more books simultaneously. Hopefully that'll get me up to at least 3.5 on your list. Please oh please, Thumper beat me harder.
Written With Warmth,
Brian Egeston |
Thumper
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 05:54 pm: |
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Hello Brian,
Uh...sorry dawg, but I don't do the pain game. Pick something else. Who knows, you might come up with something to peek my interest. Stranger things have happen. *smile* |
bkwteam
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 03:58 pm: |
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Man, after reading some of these posts, I'm almost AFRAID to throw my list into the hat but, here goes:
My Favorites (I'm going to give my top 5 since I cannot figure out who to leave off of the list):
1) Gloria Naylor
2) Brian Keith Jackson
3) Bernice L. McFadden
4) RM Johnson
5) Tananarive Due
My Least Favorites:
1) Kimberla Lawson Roby
2) Teri Woods
3) D. E. Rogers |
Tee C. Royal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2003 - 09:25 pm: |
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Hey bkwteam...good to see your list. You MUST pick up RM Johnson's upcoming book, Dating Games. It's the first I've read by him, but I will definitely be going back reading his others.
And yep, I'm STILL dodging this post.
-Tee |
bkwteam
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2003 - 09:14 am: |
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Tee, I read ALL RM's books! Same with all of the others on my top authors list, so, I'm looking forward to reading Dating Games. Same with Tananarive Due's book that's coming out soon. |
Tee C. Royal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 - 01:28 pm: |
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Cool Brian, I plan to read The Good House also, even though it's a BAB. I've heard good things about it from folks who usually enjoy the same books I do.
I've never heard of D.E. Rogers. What genre does he/she write? And what are the book title(s)? Yeah, I could look, but thought I'd ask you instead. <grin>
-Tee |
bkwteam
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 - 03:09 pm: |
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Tee, I was trying to avoid being too specific but since you're asking, I guess I'll tell you. D.E. Rogers wrote the AWFUL Just Like Your Daddy which was a book that was horrible with an even MORE HORRIBLE ending! His book was on the same line as True To The Game (another one I hated). And, since I've already mentioned two of the three books on my "worst author" list, I despised It's A Thin Line by Kimberla Lawson Roby but I LOVED Thumper's review of it!  |
Tee C. Royal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 - 05:20 pm: |
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OUCH! Sorry to hear this Brian, ummmm wanna send it my way? ROFL. I haven't read True to the Game or It's a Thin Line, so I don't have an opinion either way, but I hope to get to them one day.
Which books have you read that you enjoyed? No need to list any McFadden or R.M. Johnson ones...I know how you feel about them.
-Tee |
bkwteam
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2003 - 05:33 am: |
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Tee, this year, I enjoyed The Fall Of Rome (my favorite book so far this year) and Leaving Atlanta. Some of my all-time favorites are books by people in my top 5 list (Mama Day by Gloria Naylor, My Soul To Keep by Tananarive Due, and Walking Through Mirrors by Brian Keith Jackson, to name a few). Books that I also loved were Child Of God by Lolita Files, Disappearing Acts by Terry McMillan, and Blessings by Sheneska Jackson. There are lots of others but you get the idea... |
solomonjones
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 02:48 pm: |
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Sisgal -
Thanks for putting me on your "new favorites" list.
- Solomon |
idrissa
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 06:13 pm: |
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Top (Really need to list more than three)
1.Pearl Cleage
2.Toni Morrison
3.Bernice McFadden
Bottom
1.Omar Tyree
2.Most of the Arabesque authors
3.Pat GeOrge-Walker (those imitation books....) |
DominiqueC
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 09:51 pm: |
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SOME MIGHT SAY BECAUSE OF MY AGE THEY UNDERSTAND MY REASONING FOR MY TOP 3 CHOICES AND SOME MAY NOT BUT I HONESTLY FEEL THIS WAY.
TOP 3 (NOT IN ORDER)
R.M JOHNSON
ERIC JEROME DICKEY
ZANE
BOTTOM 3
ALL THE MCMILLIAN SISTERS
COLIN CHANNER
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lurkerette
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 08:20 am: |
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Awww - how can you say that? I just read Satisfy my soul and loved his writing. His use of language is beautiful!! I didn't like the ending of the book, it felt a bit contrived, but I totally disagree with him being a bad writer.
My top 3
Naylor
Verdelle (of course)
Walker
Bottom
Tyree
Sister Souljah
Nora de Loach |
Radiah
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 08:49 am: |
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My top 3 no order:
EJD
E. Lynn Harris
Kim Roby
Bottom 3
C. F. Hawthorne
Omar Tyree
Terri Woods
By the way, I like R.M. Johnson and Zane too, Dominique C. |
Anonymous
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 03:01 am: |
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Lurkerette
I am surprised at your pick of Sister Souljah. I am sure you could find others below her????
BTW, have you seen Diana lately |
lurkerette
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 08:08 am: |
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Hi Anon
I tend not to read the pulp fiction much, I try and stick to those authors that fit my middle-class uppity, pseudo-intellectual profile
Seriously, I try not to read bad books, so I haven't got that much to compare her against. I decided to stick out The coldest Winter ever because I wanted to find out what the fuss was about so maybe I am being a little harsh. Omar Tyree beats her by several miles in the badness stakes, I must admit.
Diana?? Are you mistaking me for Mary Wells? Sorry, you've lost me there. |
ABM
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 01:32 pm: |
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lurkerette,
"...middle-class uppity..." HAHAHA!!!
Touché, Madamaseille. Touché. |
Anonymous
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2004 - 06:24 am: |
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Sorry lurkerette, not Mary Wells, I was thinking more in the line of D.D. 58 Yahoo |
Anonymous
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2004 - 06:29 am: |
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Ms. Lurkerette.......Gotcha **** pointing a finger in your direction with a smug smile **** |
Anonymous
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2004 - 01:13 pm: |
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How very wrong you are Anonymous...and I'm not even Lurkerette. So, how you like me now?? |
lurkerette
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 07:25 am: |
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ABM, an honour coming from you, Monsieur Silver Tongue ;)
Oh you Anonymi (?) I am confused. I guess it's a private matter between the two of you? Or are you one with a dual personality? There is something to be said for "proper" poster names. |
Litman
First Time Poster
Username: Litman
Post Number: 1
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 03:41 pm: |
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I'm new to fiction writing. I'm reading all the books on the craft, writers' groups, writing everyday, reading. I have always read the classic and contemporary authors: African, American, European, Asian, etc.
And with much respect to every writer begining and established, why is it that in a good majority of the books by Black authors the main premise is erotica (carelessly disguised as romance) crime, money, drugs, and the material?
Many of these are VERY well written, flows well. But is this a sign that we find these things more interesting than say literary fiction or any of the other genre fewer Black authors have excelled in?
Any story worth its salt has conflict. But a steady stream of hittin' it, trickin', Baby's Mamas, he ain't s--t but I love his sorry ass, etc. is almost comedic. I understand this is 'reality' but so much else is too.
But this stuff sells. Big time.
It would be truly great to see MORE of us branch out into different genres.
Litman |
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