The Billion-Dollar Romance Fiction Industry Has A Diversity Problem
No black author has ever won its top prize. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks about the issue with Alisha Rai, author of the Forbidden Hearts series.
The romance genre is a juggernaut that continues unabated.
It's a billion-dollar industry that outperforms all other book genres, and it's remarkably innovative, with a strong tradition of independent and self-publishing.
It's also an industry that's been grappling with a diversity problem. The , the top honor for romance writers awarded by the Romance Writers of America, was awarded this week, and the organization acknowledged that in its 36-year history, no black author has ever won the prize.
