Reading Books in Black and White

December is National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give It to Somebody Not Black Month. That's right, I established it last year. After all, it's hard for anyone—of any color—to make it as a novelist without the support of a wide audience, which, for black authors, means the support of white folks. That's why I, a black author, started the blog White Readers Meet Black Authors and launched this annual awareness campaign. Whether it's because of a lack of media exposure or the absence of word of mouth, I don't think white readers hear much about black novelists, except for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Colson Whitehead, and a few others, so they don't know which of our books they may like. Below are a few suggestions. Others can be found at welcomewhitefolks.blogspot.com. 

Carleen Brice is the author of the novels Children of the Waters (One World Books, 2009) and Orange Mint and Honey (One World Books, 2008), for which she won the 2009 First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She lives in Denver.