African American Fiction at the Airport -- ep. by Howard Rambsy II

A brief take on the limited presence of Black-authored novels in a Chicago airport bookstore.

Script by Howard Rambsy II
Read by Kassandra Timm

Transcript

If you go online, you can easily find hundreds of novels by Black writers. They appear on the sites of online booksellers and in countless lists. And hey, hint, you can find 1,000 titles on our site, the Novel Generator Machine. 

But what happens if you find yourself on a layover in an airport in, say, Chicago? If you stop by one of the airport bookstores and you look for novels by Black writers, whose works will you find?

You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions — a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American novels, artistic productions, and more.

A bookstore in the O’Hare airport in Chicago has a large collection of books, and if you’re interested, you’ll likely notice that the back wall of the store contains fiction titles. It’s a fairly large collection, for an airport bookstore at least.

In all, there are approximately 2,000 main fiction titles. Of those titles, which ones are by African American authors, and how many total books are available?

As you start at the beginning and work through the 8 shelves of books, alphabetized by author last name, the first name of an African American novelist you’ll encounter will be Lakeshia Carr and her novel The Autobiography of Skin.

Next up, novels by DéLana R. A. Dameron, Edward P. Jones, and Gayl Jones are there. There are novels by James McBride, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Zadie Smith, Sister Souljah, and Tara M. Stringfellow. You see novels by Jesmyn Ward, Colson Whitehead, and Zane.

 You might notice a few international Black writers: Nigerian novelist Abi Daré and Zadie Smith from England. 

 So among the 2,000 titles, there are 18 titles by 13 writers. In other words, just under 1% of the novels are by Black writers. 8 women and 5 men. All the novels were published in the 21st century.

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This episode was written by Howard Rambsy. The episode was edited by Elizabeth Cali.

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This podcast, Remarkable Receptions, is part of the Black Literature Network, a joint project from African American literary studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas. The project was made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation.  For more information, visit blacklitnetwork.org.