Today, we have the audio from our second virtual Mind the Gap panel, focusing on the politics of diversity in writing, reading, and publishing romance with Nisha Sharma, Nana Malone, Kennedy Ryan, and Adriana Herrera. This conversation was recorded in July 2023.

They discuss the way that talking about “diversity” broadly masks anti-Blackness specifically, what the subtext is when people say they don’t want “anything political” in a book, the politics of “relatability,” the ways culture, and the culture of publishing, is messaging that books by and about people of color can’t be fun, taking ownership over your own reading choices, and much more. Then they close out with recs for their own backlist and some books they’ve loved recently.

If you'd like to pick up copies of these authors' books – and you absolutely should -- you can do that in our shop or on our website, meetcutebookshop.com.