[TWWBF2023 authors Shameka Erby, Eden Appiah-Kubi & author Courtney Duke Foster, who also supported TWWBF2023 by attending; TWWBF2023 author Briana L. Smith; book baskets as raffle prizes created by Nikki Payne's mom; the edge of PGCMLS Community Outreach Facilitator's left arm, Shameka Erby, Eden Appiah-Kubi, Nikki Payne; Briana & Eden looking toward the 1st raffle winner; Eden, Nikki & Courtney]
Saturday's "Celebrating Black Women's Voices in Fiction" with authors Eden Appiah-Kubi, Courtney Duke Foster, Shameka Erby, and Nikki Payne offered an abundance of thoughtful insights, personal revelations, and laughs from these brilliant, generous, successful human beings.
As moderator, Eden Appiah-Kubi's questions about inspirational authors, pivotal reads, book recommendations, the writing craft, self-publishing versus traditional publishing pros and cons, and more invited panelists to answer beyond the superficial, which offered the audience encouragement to read others' works and to write their own.
Some memorable tidbits that stood out for me...
from Eden Appiah-Kubi: Use the Libby app, especially for plays and audiobooks. The audio version of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is narrated by Ruby Dee! (Oh, yes please and thank you.)
from Shameka Erby: Create for yourself first before worrying about the business of publishing, marketing, etc. For her, self-publishing means she doesn't have to wait for her stories to go out into the world to her readers. Plus, when she's not writing, there's no pressure of external deadlines to stress her. [The passage she read from her own "Blood Ties" immediately added it to my TBR list.]
from Courtney Duke Foster: Don't wait until you think you're "ready" to write; just start writing even if you don't know what you're doing because you can learn as you go.
from Nikki Payne: Do your best to let go of the sadness that multiple rejections can cause and focus on your joy in writing. Zora Neale Hurston's work as an ethnoanthropologist inspired Nikki's professional career path.
A few authors & books they recommended:
Zora Neale Hurston as an accessible introduction to literary fiction (note: short story collection Hitting a Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick includes African American Vernacular English -AAVE- and is worth taking the extra time to acclimate to it)
Christina C. Jones
Kennedy Ryan
Tia Williams
Britt (whose last name has completely left my brain)
The Personal Librarian
In Every Mirror She's Black by Lola Akinmade Akerstrom
Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson (Tyler Perry movie about the Six Triple Eight streaming sometime this month)
My Sister is a Serial Killer
(title & author totally gone from my memory of) a retelling of Carrie (novel by Stephen King) but featuring a young Black teen
There were many more, but I wasn't taking notes because I didn't want to miss anything any of them said while being distracted by writing.
All the authors suggested that borrowing books from the library or submitting purchase requests to the library are great ways for readers to access materials that interest them and to support authors without spending any money.
my weekly binge reads & library requests wait list
Happy reading & creating!
Had such a great time. Thank you so much for blogging about this amazing event and for shouting out my lovely mom!
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