Black Women in Genre Fiction

Feminist Book Club: The Podcast

Here at FBC, we wanna diversify your bookshelf in all sorts of ways and we’re here to remind you that reading Black stories doesn’t just mean reading literary fiction about pain or suffering. Genre fiction, or popular fiction that falls into certain predictable categories, is full of incredible Black women writing at the tops of their games. In this episode, we recommend two in particular, one romance author and one thriller author.

Renee’s Reading Corner: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde (1:47)

The hill Renee will die on is that fans of Emily Henry need to be reading Tia Williams’ books. In this segment, she compares Henry and Williams to make a case for more white women to read Tia Williams’ romances, specifically her newest book A Love Song for Ricki Wilde.

While We Were Burning and Messy Black Women (8:48)

Tayler has a chat with Sara Koffi, author of the novel While We Were Burning, a domestic thriller. Tayler and Sara chat about unlikeable Black women, how that shows up in Sara’s book, some of their favorite unlikeable Black women in pop culture, and who gets to tell those stories.

Books/Resources Mentioned:

Funny Story by Emily Henry

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

While We Were Burning by Sara Koffi

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Tayler: X // Instagram // TikTok

Follow Sara Koffi: Instagram // X // Website

Today’s episode is sponsored by Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannan and Moral Code by Lois and Russ Melbourne. Thank you to our sponsors for supporting independent feminist media.

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This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

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