Where is E. LYNN HARRIS on this list? He outsold just about every black author in america. You seem to never give him any props.

[Troy]

Today I emailed a newsletter. In it I included a link to a section of the site described as the The Most Critically Acclaimed Books of the Last 40 Years.

 

Because the website is database driven and I have a lot of data it occurred to me that I could produce an interesting list of books like displaying all the book in the base that have meet two or more of te following criteria

 

• Won an Award that I currently track (Carter G. Woodson,Coretta Scott King,Ernest J. Gaines, Hurston/Wright Legacy, NAACP Image, National Book, Pulitzer Prize , Phillis Wheatley, All Awards, Power List Bestsellers)
• Made my bestseller's list
• Was selected for inclusion on a prominent Book Club's reading list like, Go On Girl
• Made our now defunct Power List Bestseller's list

 

There were over 300 books out of my 9,000 book database which met this criteria.  The list spanned 40 years hence the description.

 

Now I thought the list was interesting but some guy sent me the following message:

 

Where is E. LYNN HARRIS on this list? He outsold just about every black author in america. You seem to never give him any props.

 

I found the message absolutely ludicrous, and immediately fired off the following response:

 

Never?   Proteus, you may not be very familiar with the website.

 

Please visit this page: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=E.+Lynn+Harris and look at the content.  Then tell me who is currently covering and selling E. Lynn Harris’ work more prominently.  E. Lynn is a 15 time bestselling author https://aalbc.com/books/bestselling-author.php?author_name=E.+Lynn+Harris.  

 

I’ve published reviews of at least of 6 of his books.  Point to another entity that has reviewed that many?

 

Finally, if you would have looked more carefully at the list of books you would have found Harris is on the list https://aalbc.com/books/critically_acclaimed.php?year=1997

 

I hope you take this information and spread it far and wide.  Because AALBC.com is one of E. Lynn Harris biggest supporters.

Peace,
Troy       

 

I was so proud of myself I when I send the message and was looking forward to his response. But my response was rejected by his email server--darn it!  I share it with you all, just in case anyone else out there wants to twist their mouth to suggest that AALBC.com does not support E. Lynn Harris or any of our authors who have made a mark as profound as Harris'.

 

 

[Troy]

Someone on Twitter suggested:

I would have to add #HereComestheSun by @ndennis_benn but this list is pretty good @aalbc  https://t.co/P5cfQQtpzA

— L.A. West-Blackwood (@garveygirl) July 25, 2017

Now this person actually has a point, because Nicole's books Here Comes the Sun is indeed critically acclaimed. But the acclaim is not from any of the entities that I currently track.  My goal is to track all of the awards presented by Black entities, but compiling the data is virtually impossible. Try asking the NAACP for a list of their past Image Award winners--I maintain a better list than they do.

At any rate, Nicole's book was named a Best Book of 2016 by: New York Times, NPR, Buzzfeed, San Francisco Chronicle, The Root, BookRiot, Kirkus, Amazon, WBUR's "On Point," and Barnes & Noble
 

As you might image, I have ZERO interest in tracking what the NY Times and the others find noteworthy. They are largely echo chambers praising many of the same books (think Undeground Railroad or Between the World and Me).  I will look into what The Root are doing but that is about it.

 

I did notice however that Nicole won a Lambda Literary Award, if I add those books to the mix, she would make the cut "so to speak."  I also need to add a Christian book awards.  Does anyone know of such an award--particularly by Black entity?  I already have plans to add the Black winners of Hugo Awards and others.

 

The list will improve as I incorporate additional sources.  The list recognize books traditionally overlooked by the likes of the New York Times, but are just as deserving of recognition and readership.

 

[Troy]

The feedback on the list has been really great! 

 

The list of awards that I'm currently tracing may be found here: https://aalbc.com/awards/

 

I just learned about the The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature which is presented in conjunction with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad and Tobago, which I was familiar with and is on my events calendar: https://aalbc.com/events/index.php?st=Trinidad+%26+Tobago#The+Bocas+Lit+Fest I'm actually excited about getting these books and authors added to the site!  The award has only been presented since 2011 I can get this information added to the site without too much heavy lifting.

 

I started looking at the Lambda Literary Awarding books.  They have 24 categories (see below) and I'm unfamiliar with most of the writers, so it will be pretty labor intensive for me to identify the Black winners. If anyone out there wants to help me parse the authors; I can use the help.  Hopefully I'll have interns working with me in the fall..

• Lesbian Mystery
• Lesbian Fiction
• Gay Fiction
• Bisexual Fiction  
• Bisexual Nonfiction 
• Bisexual Poetry 
• Transgender Fiction
• LGBT Nonfiction
• Transgender Nonfiction
• Lesbian Poetry (TIE)
• Gay Poetry
• Transgender Poetry
• Gay Mystery
• Lesbian Memoir/Biography
• Gay Memoir/Biography
• Lesbian Romance
• Gay Romance
• LGBT Erotica
• LGBT Anthology
• LGBT Children’s/Young Adult
• LGBT Drama
• LGBT Graphic Novels
• LGBT SF/F/Horror
• LGBT Studies

[Troy]

I just added all of the books that have won the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.  The award has been present since 2011 and all of the writers like Derek Wallcott have enjoyed world wide acclaim and long careers, but other are relatively new writers whose work you'll enjoy as well.  These titles are been factored into the calculus used to deriving the most critically acclaimed books of the past 40 years.