Bernice L. McFadden's Blog, page 29

An Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey (From Virginia DeBerry)

Dear Oprah:

We don't sing karaoke or dance with the stars. We have been contributing to the cultural landscape long before Jon & Kate, Britney,Rhianna and Chris or Stephanie Meyer and most of America, including you have probably never even heard of us.

We have railed against Kanye's proud pronouncement upon the publication of his 52 page book: Thank You and You're Welcome, that "I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph." Huh?

We are writers and we are in trouble. Big tro...

Ain't I A Woman Author?

Isabella Van Wagenen aka Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in Hurley, New York in 1797. She was released following the New York Anti Slavery Law of 1827, however slavery was not abolished nationwide for 35 years. She lived for a time with a Quaker family who gave her the only education she ever received. She became an outspoken advocate of women's rights as well as blacks' rights. In 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner Truth gave her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at...

I AM PRECIOUS

I went to see Precious on Sunday. I read the book during the summer and so was completely prepared for the violence, the tears, the love and the ultimate message.

Director Lee Daniels did a wonderful job of transferring the story onto the big screen. I appreciated the "light-heartedness" Daniel's interjected here and there. Those moments allowed me a moment to unclench my jaw and unball my fists..it allowed me to come up for air.

I loved Mo' Nique in Shadow Boxer and so knew that she would hav...

SUGAR Campaign *UPDATE*

So here is the new cover. Do you like it? drop me a line and let me know.

I've been working very hard to get the message out to the world about Sugar's 10th anniversary and thanks to all of you, I've been making some headway!

I've been able to monitor some of the activity on amazon.com and so Saturday morning was an extremely happy day for me when I woke to find that SUGAR had a ranking of 3605!!! Which says a lot for a book that is nearly 10 years old.

I'm still a ways off from reaching the 10...

Glorious: The Story Behind the Story

My novel GLORIOUS was six years in the making and now it's just six months away from publication. The story first came to me in 2004 as I sat in my kitchen sipping tea when I became suddenly was aware of the presence of two women, who I will contend until the day I die, were the spirits of Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen. I listened to what they had to say and then went to my office and typed out the first twenty-pages of what would become Glorious.

It was no easy journey. The road from th...

Rooted Against The Wind

Author and educator Gloria Wades-Gayle published a book of essays entitled: Rooted Against the Wind. In it she writes about cultural memory being the "root" and the "polarization of class and race," the fierce winds.

I write to breath life back into memory to remind African-Americans of our rich and textured history. I also see myself as a "root" and for me the "fierce winds" are the marginalization of African American writers.

Whether I am unwilling or unable to conform to the requirements of ...

Sunday Notices

Next month is National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give to Somebody Not Black Month.


Author, Ravi Howard and I, both have our eyes on this author. You should too!

I talk a lot about racisim in publishing so I found Amy Bowllan's blog Writers Against Racisim. very interesting.

Over the summer Author, Terri Woods booked The Green House to celebrate the launch of her new book Alibi. Allegdly the majority of 175 guests were denied entrance to the club because they were African-American.

Karen...

Poor Epilogue..I knew it Well...

I have eight different drafts of my novel Glorious. With each draft I cut sentences, paragraphs and entire chapters. When it was finally acquired by Akashic Books - the editors had at it and after some soul-searching we all agreed that the ending needed to be re-worked. And now I have a ending that links perfectly with the opening. Funny, how these things work themselves out. In any case, I wanted to share what would have been the closing chapter of Glorious.

Epilogue

The house she grew up in w...

What White Publisher's Won't Print - Zora Neale Hurston - 1950

Thanks to the blog Color Online which profiled Speak So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Lucy Anne Hurston. thus reminding me that I owned this wonderful piece of work. Yesterday, I posted about the more things change in publishing the more they stay the same and even though many times I blog from a place of pure frustration when it comes to the subject of Seg-Book-gation - it is also a place of stark truth. Fifty-nine years ago Zora Neale Hurston wrote and essay about ...

One year ago today, CHANGE came to America, but did publishing miss the memo?

The Help, authored by Kathryn Stockett – is a runaway, NYT bestseller. The story centers on AA maids and their white employers.

First off, if you're reading this Kathryn, a big congratulations to you! As a writer, I applaud you and your novel. In this very tough fiction market, it does a heart good to know that unknown authors are being recognized.

Now having said that, let me say this: Kathryn is a white woman. I already gave the description of the book. So I guess my question is - is The Help...