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Brian_egeston
Regular Poster
Username: Brian_egeston
Post Number: 33
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 05:28 pm: | 
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I know she's been reviewed and discussed here briefly, but has anyone examined what Olympia Vernon is and what she's doing? Is she the next Alice Walker? The next Maya Angelou?
But further, are there so many black books, that a genuius(if that's what she is) might be overlooked?
Think of how many black books were out when Color Purple dropped and Caged Bird Sings.
It was easy back then to pick the brilliance out in such a small crowd. If you read her bio, it sounds like a spooky birth of Alice Angelou. Spooky.
What do you think? Is Olympia the greatest young(under 40) black female writer today.(U.S. born)
Brian |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 326
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 26, 2004 - 10:32 am: |
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Brian:
They were picking out great white books when thousands of them were being printed. There are many reasons that genius might be overlooked--one is that if it is true genius, it is so different that it will take time for it to be realized.
As Sammy Davis Jr used to say, "Some times you are ready for your break and it don't come along, and sometimes it comes along and you ain't ready for it."
There is plenty of room out there for black books--what 30,000 of them being published every year? But there ain't that many good ones.
One day, Angelou and WAlker will be dead and gone. Somebody will have to be here to write more books. What, after they are dead we just forget about it and read Color Purple and CAged Bird over and over again?
I don't think so. After all, what if Langston and James Baldwin and Chester Himes and others had decided to try to strangle Walker and Angelou in the crib, so to speak. |
Emanuel
Regular Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 42
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 26, 2004 - 11:14 am: |
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Pardon the cliche, but cream always rises to the top.
I believe those great works will be discovered. But it does take a significant amount of public relations and marketing to make the public aware of their existence. If the book is backed with advertising dollars and some good word-of-mouth publicity, I think it can be discovered. |
Tee
Regular Poster
Username: Tee
Post Number: 36
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 26, 2004 - 04:17 pm: |
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Emanuel, I agree with you in regards to this. This is one reason why I am always so ready to check out the work of a self-published author. I truly believe that behind the smoke screen of books filled with typographical and grammatical errors, there are some really great books waiting to be read and shared with the literary community.
Brian, I haven't read Olympia Vernon, but I'll have to check her out. If I think of female writers that really stand out to me, Bernice McFadden, Tracy Price-Thompson, Mary Monroe, and Tanya Marie Lewis are at the top of my list. Sorry, I don't know their ages though...
Let me think of some more.
(Oh, I loved Elyse Singleton's writing as well as Darnella Ford's)
-Tee |
Cocowriter
Newbie Poster
Username: Cocowriter
Post Number: 2
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 27, 2004 - 12:16 am: |
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I would agree that Olympia Vernon is the next Alice Walker or Toni Morrison in that she writes in a convoluted, literary style. However, the writers Tee mentions along with J.D. Mason (I don't think she is 40) and most definitely Edwidege Danticat. |
Akaivyleaf
Veteran Poster
Username: Akaivyleaf
Post Number: 73
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 28, 2004 - 02:47 pm: |
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If so many of you are placing Olympia Vernon with Alice Walker and Toni Morrison I must put her on my radar screen. I haven't read her works yet... which seems to be the story of my life but I plan on it.
I would also have to agree with Tee, I like discovering diamonds in the rough and writers such as Darnella Ford, Tracy Price-Thompson and Gloria Mallette stick out to me.
Sharon |
Thumper
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 181
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 28, 2004 - 10:28 pm: |
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Hello All,
This is a good question. To Brian's original question. I believe that Olympia Vernon is certainly one of the most promising author, female or not, on the scene today. I've read both of her books and loved them both. I would put her in the same category as Alice Walker or Toni Morrison sho nuff. I think her masterpiece is yet to come. She is one author to watch for.
While Tee named some wonderful authors as well, I would not put them in the same category as Olympia Vernon, mainly because Olympia Vernon's novel, to me, are consider literary fiction. The other authors are commercial fiction, with the exception of McFadden who books are more literary to me than commercial. So on one hand it's mixing apples and oranges. On the other, the authors Mallette, Price-Thompson, Mason, Monroe are a few of the best commercial fiction writers we have today. These authors are the ones to be followed for sure. There are several others to name as well, but I'm sleepy and ready to hit the bed. |
Bimsha
Newbie Poster
Username: Bimsha
Post Number: 24
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - 05:06 pm: |
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Shawne Johnson - who is I believe in her early thirties.
Bernice McFadden is close to forty. |
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