 | |
| Categories | Book review |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Bimonthly |
| Circulation | 75,000 (2004) |
| Founder | William E. Cox, Adrienne Ingrum, and Susan McHenry |
| First issue | January–February 1999 |
| Final issue | September–October 2007 |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City |
| ISSN | 1522-0524 |
Black Issues Book Review was a bimonthly magazine published in New York City, U.S., [1] in which books of interest to African-American readers were reviewed. It was published from 1999 until 2007.
Black Issues Book Review was founded in late 1998 [2] by William E. Cox, Adrienne Ingrum, and Susan McHenry. Cox had been the publisher of Black Issues in Higher Education, which ran a single book review in each issue. He wanted to expand its coverage of books, but after considering the large number of books aimed at Black readers, he came to the conclusion that a new magazine would be more appropriate. Ingrum was a book industry veteran, with nearly 20 years of experience in publishing and book-selling. McHenry had served in editorial positions at several magazines, including Black Enterprise , Essence , and Ms. [3] [4]
Library Journal named Black Issues Book Review one of the 10 best new magazines of 1998. [5] The New York Times reported that the magazine sold 40,000 copies of each issue in 2000. [6] By 2004, according to Publishers Weekly , Black Issues Book Review had circulation of 75,000. [4]
In 2005, Black Issues Book Review entered into a partnership with QBR: The Black Book Review, a quarterly book review founded in 1992 by Max Rodriguez, whose publishers also managed an annual book fair in Harlem. [7] [8] QBR was merged into Black Issues Book Review. [9] [10] [11]
Target Market News purchased Black Issues Book Review in March 2006. [12] Later that year, Target Market News announced that it would begin publishing Blacks & Books, a monthly supplement for newspapers such as the New York Amsterdam News and the Philadelphia Tribune that serve African-American readers. Blacks & Books was to be produced by members of the Black Issues Book Review staff. [13]
The September–October 2007 issue of Black Issues Book Review was its final issue. [14]
The Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, William Stanley Braithwaite, and Mary Dunlop Maclean. The Crisis has been in continuous print since 1910, and it is the oldest Black-oriented magazine in the world. Today, The Crisis is "a quarterly journal of civil rights, history, politics and culture and seeks to educate and challenge its readers about issues that continue to plague African Americans and other communities of color."
Jessie Redmon Fauset was an editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator. Her literary work helped sculpt African-American literature in the 1920s as she focused on portraying a true image of African-American life and history. Her black fictional characters were working professionals which was an inconceivable concept to American society during this time. Her story lines related to themes of racial discrimination, "passing", and feminism.
African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of enslaved people narratives, African American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives. The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a great period of flowering in literature and the arts, influenced both by writers who came North in the Great Migration and those who were immigrants from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. African American writers have been recognized by the highest awards, including the Nobel Prize given to Toni Morrison in 1993. Among the themes and issues explored in this literature are the role of African Americans within the larger American society, African American culture, racism, slavery, and social equality. African-American writing has tended to incorporate oral forms, such as spirituals, sermons, gospel music, blues, or rap.
Essence is an American monthly lifestyle magazine covering fashion, beauty, entertainment, and culture. First published in 1970, the magazine is written for African-American women.
Urban fiction, also known as street lit or street fiction, is a literary genre set in a city landscape; however, the genre is as much defined by the socio-economic realities and culture of its characters as the urban setting. The tone for urban fiction is usually dark, focusing on the underside of city living. Profanity, sex, and violence are usually explicit, with the writer not shying away from or watering-down the material. Most authors of this genre draw upon their past experiences to depict their storylines.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard between West 135th and 136th Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it has, almost from its inception, been an integral part of the Harlem community. It is named for Afro-Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.
Sheree Renée Thomas is an American writer, book editor and publisher. In 2020, Thomas was named editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
The Penn State University Press, also known as The Pennsylvania State University Press, is a non-profit publisher of scholarly books and journals. Established in 1956, it is the independent publishing branch of the Pennsylvania State University and is a division of the Penn State University Library system.
AALBC.com, the African American Literature Book Club, is a website dedicated to books and film by and about African Americans and people of African descent, with content also aimed at African-American bookstores. AALBC.com publishes book and film reviews, author profiles, resources for writers and related articles. Launched in 1998, AALBC was founded by Troy Johnson. It targets primarily a middle-aged African-American female demographic. AALBC previously sold books through the Amazon.com affiliate program, and then started to operate its own warehousing and distribution program.
Ilyasah Shabazz is an American author, community organizer, social activist, and motivational speaker. She is the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, and wrote a memoir titled Growing Up X.
Fire!! was an African-American literary magazine published in New York City in 1926 during the Harlem Renaissance. The publication was started by Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, John P. Davis, Richard Bruce Nugent, Gwendolyn Bennett, Lewis Grandison Alexander, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. The magazine's title referred to burning up old ideas, and Fire!! challenged the norms of the older Black generation while featuring younger authors. The publishers promoted a realistic style, with vernacular language and controversial topics such as homosexuality and prostitution. Many readers were offended, and some Black leaders denounced the magazine. The endeavor was plagued by debt, and its quarters burned down, ending the magazine after just one issue.
Dark Matter is an anthology series of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories and essays produced by people of African descent. The editor of the series is Sheree Thomas. The first book in the series, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2000), won the 2001 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. The second book in the Dark Matter series, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (2004), won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology in 2005. A forthcoming third book in the series is tentatively named Dark Matter: Africa Rising. This was finally published at the end of 2022 under the title Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, from Tor Books.
Herb Boyd is an American journalist, teacher, author, and activist. His articles appear regularly in the New York Amsterdam News. He teaches black studies at the City College of New York and the College of New Rochelle.
Louise Meriwether was an American novelist, essayist, journalist and activist, as well as a writer of biographies of historically important African Americans for children. She is best known for her first novel, Daddy Was a Number Runner (1970), which draws on autobiographical elements about growing up in Harlem, New York City, during the Depression and in the era after the Harlem Renaissance.
Emerge was a monthly news magazine that was published from 1989 to 2000. Its primary focus was on issues of interest to African Americans. In 2000, Time said Emerge was "the nation's best black newsmagazine for the past seven years" the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described it as "the premier source for intellectual discussion on issues affecting African-Americans", and the New York Amsterdam News wrote that "it had no rival for cutting edge news for and about the black community". The magazine was headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The Harlem Book Fair is the United States' largest African-American book fair and the nation’s flagship Black literary event. Held annually in Harlem, New York, the Harlem Book Fair features exhibition booths, panel discussions, book sales, and workshops. Notable authors participating have included Cornel West, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Walter Mosley, Terry McMillan, Touré, Farai Chideya, Stanley Crouch, Nelson George, Mark Anthony Neal.
The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advice I Ever Received is a business book compiled by Donald Trump.
QBR: The Black Book Review was founded by Max Rodriguez in 1992 to serve as a national source of reviews for books about the African-American and African experience.
The People's Voice, also known as Voice, was a newspaper based in Harlem, New York City to serve the African American community. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a New York politician and pastor, founded the newspaper in 1942. Voice mainly focused on racial issues, local events and investigative news, but it also covered entertainment and sports. Many activists and writers contributed to Voice, including Ann Petry, Fredi Washington, and Marvel Cooke. The paper stopped publication in 1948 partly due to accusations that Voice was circulating Communist propaganda.
Wendy's Got the Heat is a 2003 autobiography by American broadcaster and media personality Wendy Williams, co-written with journalist Karen Hunter.