About OpeningChapters.com

 

OpeningChapters.com was created to celebrate and promote the highest quality of African American fiction, both classic and contemporary.

With the recent rise of popular and genre fiction in the industry (i.e., urban, erotic, hip-hop, and so-called ‘chic-lit’), we have found that African American literature championing language, craft, strong narrative and well-defined characters (as well as stringent editing) is becoming harder and harder for readers to find. Increasingly, African American novels and short story collections with strong literary merit are relegated to the depths of publishers’ ‘mid-lists,’ suffer from dismal marketing, and are overwhelmingly overshadowed in the marketplace by books designed to appeal to the least common denominator in the reading public.

 

In recent years, the decrease in the number of African-American owned bookstores, once helpful in promoting the works of talented African American writers across the country, has also contributed to the challenge facing African American literary writers and the readers who love their work.

 

At openingchapters.com, we offer a literary crossroads where lovers of high quality African American storytelling can can find books that not only entertain, but also challenge the mind. While we strongly believe in the existence of a variety of literary forms, openingchapters.com is our effort to provide exposure for books that honor our long literary tradition of great craft, imagination, and the desire to reach beyond the mundane.

 

Check back with us every month to read sample chapters and extended excerpts from the newest selections of classic, current and upcoming fiction.