Reading List

What to read after Gone With the Wind

- by Bonnie - 1 Comment
Covers of The Wind Done Gone, Indigo, An Extraordinary Union, The Preacher’s Promise, Kindred

As I discussed in my first post on Gone With the Wind, Mitchell’s epic is not aging well (though here’s an astute piece on the Washington Post on why it’s still valuable to read the book). The mythic antebellum South is much more obviously fictional these days and more of us white folks are remembering/realizing that the splendid plantation life of the O’Haras and their neighbors was built on the slave labor of people whose descendants are now our neighbors, coworkers, and friends. With that awareness, here’s a few suggestions on what to read after Gone With the Wind — or instead of Gone With the Wind.

 

1. The Wind Done Gone, Alice Randall

The Margaret Mitchell estate did not want you to read this story, claiming that it was copyright infringement.  The Supreme Court disagreed. Legally labeled as “unauthorized parody,”The Wind Done Gone  is told from the point of view of Scarlett’s half-sister Cynara. What, you thought Gerald O’Hara was taking care of himself during his wife’s six pregnancies?

2. Beverly Jenkins

Beverly Jenkins is the most well known African-American romance author, writing both historical and contemporary. Indigo is the title I chose for my syllabus, but I don’t think you can go wrong with any of her books. However, she’s just one African-American woman out of 25 million in the United States, so don’t stop there.

3. An Extraordinary Union, Alyssa Cole

A Civil War romance featuring a former slave who returns to the South to act as a spy, based on the true story of Mary Bowser. First in a series, the second book is out and the third is scheduled for late fall 2018.

4. The Preacher’s Promise, Piper Huguley

A romance between a college educated woman from the free North, and a former slave, now mayor of a town in reconstruction era Georgia. This is also a series, with two additional books and Huguley has written an additional series, Migrations of the Heart,  following African-American characters in the WWI era.

5. Kindred, Octavia Butler

Not a romance, but a time-travel tale of a African-American woman in 1970s California pulled back in time to 1815, to save a white slaveholder who will become her own ancestor.

 

That’s a start, and here’s a few more places to look for further reading and to raise up authors of color.

 

As I write this post, I’m aware of my own hypocrisy: I haven’t read any of these books. The romance canon that I selected for the Romance MFA reading syllabus is blindingly white. In recent weeks — with the release of the Ripped Bodice’s 2017 diversity in romance report and the notable lack of diversity in this (and all previous) year’s RITA awards — representation of African-American voices and authors of color in Romancelandia has been an increasingly loud conversation. You can read some summary on Dr. Laura Vivanco’s blog. As a white woman, I’ve been trying to listen, retweet rather than butt in, and reflect on my own reading and writing.  In recent years I have been consciously reading more books by authors of color, but addressing my own racism is — and always will be — a work in progress. My challenge to myself right now is to take it seriously when authors of color point speak out about racism in Romancelandia and, taking my own advice, to read the five recommendations above before 2018 ends.

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