Interview with author and Librarian Jessica Pryde
interviewed by Jina DuVernay
Jessica Pride. Learn more about her Black Love Matters here.
While the pandemic affected everyone in a variety of ways, one thing is for sure, it meant change for us all. For many, it spurred an openness to new perspectives, new ways of doing things, and a break from the same old, same old. One thing that I changed was my reading list. I decided that I would break from a strict diet of literary fiction and indulge in other genres. I read my first romance novel and because it was such a welcomed distraction and escape from the state of the world, I continued to keep romance novels in my rotation. With romance novels on my radar, I was excited to see an anthology centered around Black romance. However, my excitement doubled when I learned that the editor of the book was none other than one of our own! Jessica Pryde, editor of Black Love Matters, is a librarian and she took time out of her very busy schedule to answer some questions that I thought other inquiring minds would want to know.
JINA
Tell us about your many jobs! You are a librarian, an author, and an editor! How do you manage it all?
JESSICA
I wish I could say I had some kind of schedule mapped out—I do have a color-coordinated dry-erase calendar—but I mostly do what I can when I can. The librarian bit is easy; I have to show up every weekday to get a paycheck. I build in the extras in my evenings and weekends, and even dedicate a few hours on Saturdays to writing, either with a friend or on my own. Sometimes that’s personal projects, sometimes that’s catching up on Book Riot work. I can find myself taking long breaks between second-shift work, but when those breaks involve reading for both jobs does it count as a break?
JINA
I read that you lead book clubs. What kind? Any tips on how to keep the book club readers participating and interested?
JESSICA
I lead three different book clubs (I know, that’s a lot). Well, technically four, now that I think about it. Two are for my library; Rainbow Reads, which focuses on books by LGBTQ+ authors, and Read Black, which focuses on books by Black authors across the diaspora. Both are in partnership with systemwide affinity teams focused on outreach to those groups. I also lead Romance Book Club for a local used bookstore, where we actually focus on a trope per month instead of a book. Finally, my When In Romance podcast co-host and I lead a quarterly book club. They’re all very fun and very different.
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As far as both participation and interest, my biggest recommendations are passion and variety. For the two non-romance book clubs that I lead, we read all different kinds of books, and as the usual facilitator of those conversations, I have to be as interested in the conversation as my readers, even if I wasn’t particularly thrilled by the books (and historically I’ve always read the book for the first time, just like the other members of the club). It’s always important to have discussion questions prepared for those gaps in conversation, but let a discussion go where it’s going to go. You never know where you might end up!
JINA
How did your book, Black Love Matters, go from idea to publication? I am really curious as to how the contributors came onboard for the book. How were they selected?
JESSICA
I was reading Well Read Black Girl, Glory Edim’s anthology of essays by Black women writing about the first time they’d seen themselves in literature, if indeed they had. It’s a spectacular book, if you haven’t read it. But I wasn’t in it. And I had thoughts about that. So I sat on the idea for a while until I couldn’t keep it in anymore, and discussed it with a friend (who would eventually end up contributing to the book). She nudged me into reaching out to an agent I was social media mutuals with to just ask if an anthology of essays focused on romance and the Black experience would be a viable book. Tara (who is now my agent) was very excited by the idea and coached me through writing a nonfiction proposal, which she started shopping around. Berkley expressed a great deal of interest and the rest was history!
I had to start thinking about contributors at the earliest point in drafting my proposal, so I started plotting out what kind of perspectives I wanted, and whose voices I wanted to uplift. I knew there were specific authors whose voices I wanted to include; old guard, new blood, traditional, indie, straight, queer. But outside of that, what kind of reader or consumer did I want to include? I ended up looking not only for experts and academics, but personal essays from people who have points of view and romance-reading experiences that are different from my own (and I will admit that a couple of the contributors are personal friends). Not everybody I asked was able to say yes, and I went through a few rounds of invitations. But every person I asked had a different story to tell, and I made it so their stories came through as authentically as possible.
JINA
In recent years, there has been an influx of Black and brown romantic comedies and holiday movies. The Hallmark channel has even started a new film franchise called Mahogany that features predominantly Black casts. As a romance novel reader, I am curious, do you also enjoy these films?
JESSICA
I have enjoyed the ones I’ve seen, though I haven’t been able to watch many—either because they’re not promoted very much or because they air and then don’t get placed on streaming platforms. I love that there are more brown and Black faces showing up in romantic stories that bring laughter and joy to people. There are times you can tell when there wasn’t a single Black person in the writers’ room, but it seems like they’re getting better at truly offering Black representation, instead of writing a script and then casting it “colorblind.”
JINA
One more question, is there a second book project on the horizon?
JESSICA
Alas, not at the moment. I have had a super busy 2022 when it comes to Book Riot—co-hosting two podcasts and writing regularly for the website—but I’m always brainstorming!