McDaniel College hosts “Romancing the Novel,” a major exhibition exploring romance novels and their cultural impact.
Featuring original cover art, including paintings by James Griffin, Frank Kalan, and Gregg Gulbronson, manuscripts, publicity materials, genre history, and fan artwork, “Romancing the Novel” is curated by Robert Lemieux, associate professor of communication and cinema at McDaniel. The exhibition is in association with McDaniel’s Nora Roberts American Romance Collection, Bowling Green State University’s Browne Popular Culture Library, renowned romance publisher, Harlequin, and Yale University Art Gallery (Roy Lichtenstein’s “Crying Girl” is on loan courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery.)
Free and open to the public, “Romancing the Novel” runs Monday, Jan. 6-Friday, March 7, in McDaniel’s Esther Prangley Rice Gallery, Peterson Hall, at 2 College Hill, Westminster, Maryland. A public reception takes place Thursday, Feb. 6, 5:30-7:30 p.m., with a gallery talk at 6 p.m., and a “Romancing the Novel” speaker series is planned in collaboration with Carroll County Public Library to further highlight the romance genre during the month of February. As part of this series, historian Nicole Jackson, a professor at Bowling Green State University and co-host of the “Black Romance Has A History” podcast, presents "Love in Liberty: Black Historical Romances and the Joy of Freedom,” on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m., in Coley Rice Lounge, McDaniel Hall, at McDaniel College (2 College Hill, Westminster, Maryland) with details about additional events forthcoming.
Friday, December 13, 2024
Upcoming Exhibition on Romance
Monday, October 04, 2021
Videos: Black Romance and (in Spanish) an Introduction to Romance
As mentioned in the JPRS newsletter [you can sign up to it here], there are now videos available on YouTube of both
a roundtable discussion, Black Romance: Past, Present, Future, that
was held on September 17, 2021. Moderated by Dr. Margo Hendricks,
panelists included Dr. Piper Huguley, Dr. Katrina (Nicole) Jackson,
Tatianna Richardson, and Dr. Yakini Etheridge. This roundtable can now be viewed here.
and
Black Romance Masterclass, was held on September 18, 2021, and was led by author and scholar, Dr. Margo Hendricks on the creative process of writing a romance novel. It also looked at black romance and pedagogy, as well as black romance and scholarship. This masterclass can now be viewed here.
An introductory lecture on romance, given in Spanish by Dr. Nattie Golubov, can be found below. The slides start at around 5 minutes into the video.
Friday, August 27, 2021
Forthcoming Events (Black Romance and Concepts in Popular Genre Fiction) and some Articles/Posts
On 17 September the Center for Black Diaspora at DePaul University is hosting
Black Romance: Past, Present, and Future
Moderator: Dr. Margo Hendricks
Four panelists:
- Dr. Piper Huguley,
- Dr. Katrina (Nicole) Jackson,
- Tatianna Richardson,
- Dr. Yakini Etheridge,
This round-table brings together romance writers, scholars, editors, readers, and podcasters to discuss their views on the past, present, and future of Black Romance in the United States.
Sponsoring Institutions:
Center for Black Diaspora, DePaul University
Center for Contemporary Literature and Culture, University of Birmingham
International Association for the Study of Popular Romance.
You can sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-romance-past-present-and-future-tickets-167463563025
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Call for Papers: Concepts in Popular Genre Fiction
Deakin University, 6-8 December 2021
Convenors: Dr Jodi McAlister and Dr Helen Young
This virtual symposium, to be held 6-8 December through Deakin University as part of the Literature and its Readers research network, seeks to open up different sorts of questions, in order to consider other ways of examining, analysing, and utilising popular genre fiction. Specifically, we seek papers exploring concepts, ideas, and motifs, and the role that they play in popular genre/s.
Submissions close on 31 August.
On Twitter it's been announced that:
The first of our keynote speakers will be Farah Mendlesohn (@effjayem). Farah is the author of several acclaimed books on popular genre fiction, including Rhetorics of Fantasy and Children’s Fantasy Literature: An Introduction. Our second keynote speaker will be Jayashree Kamble (@prof_romance). Jayashree is currently the vice-president of @IASPR and the author of Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction: An Epistemology. And finally, we will host a keynote panel by the research team from the Genre Worlds project, Lisa Fletcher (@lmfletcher72), Beth Driscoll (@Beth_driscoll) and Kim Wilkins. This fascinating project explores genre in 21st century Australian popular fiction.
More details here.
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Steve Ammidown's written an article titled “Romance Writers of America Rescind Award for LakotaGenocide Redemption Narrative” for Library Journal.
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Mary Lynne Nielsen interviewed veteran romance cover artist James Griffin about his work and changes in the industry. The interview can be found here and also at AAR.
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Charlotte wrote a series of posts about "paratexts." This one is about the different ways that authors market the selling points of their novels on Twitter, as compared to what appears on the books themselves: https://closereadingromance.com/2021/06/22/paratexts-part-three-the-art-of-the-one-click/
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KJ Charles wrote a post about obstacles in romance, illustrated with references to Alexis Hall's For Real:
But there’s a lot more obstacles than the obvious headliners.
Power imbalance is a big one. Where there’s any sort of difference between the characters there’s probably some sort of power imbalance, which can lead to uncertainty, insecurity, misunderstanding, resentment. Obvious areas for power imbalance are gender-related (including in queer relationships), and disparities in wealth, health, professional status, class, sexual experience, age, perceived attractiveness, perceived value as a person. It’s always worth thinking about these.
(For an entire book about power imbalance–across age, wealth, education, status, sexual experience, and class–Alexis Hall’s For Real traces a relationship between an older, authoritative, wealthy sub and a young, less secure, broke dom. It’s a masterclass in power imbalances going both ways, and the complexities of how they shift and seesaw.)