Happy Birthday, Between the Covers! It’s been a whole year since we met for the first time to discuss When in Rome by Sarah Adams, and since that very first meeting we have done so much. We fell in love with a stern brunch daddy dragon via Katee Robert’s The Dragon’s Bride, rallied the absolute best heist crew with Sara Desai in To Have and To Heist, and learned all about the art of Chinese Zodiac Matchmaking with Lauren Kung Jessen in her book Lunar Love. We have had the joy of falling in love over and over again this past year, and I am so grateful to have this fantastic community to fall with.
As a bookseller and host of Between the Covers, I put an enormous amount of thought into the books I pick. From the beginning, we at Parnassus wanted to make sure that we use the small power we have as booksellers to spotlight queer and BIPOC romance authors and their stories, and we hope our selection over the past year reflects that commitment. We’ve been so inspired by the new #23for23 campaign started by authors Nisha Sharma, Adriana Herrera, and Nikki Payne in an effort to support and center queer and BIPOC romance authors. We are so grateful to be joined by all three founders to tell us more about the #23for23 campaign and to help us celebrate our one year anniversary. If you haven’t had a chance to grab their most recent books, I cannot recommend them enough!
— Katie Garaby, Parnassus bookseller and host of Between the Covers
Katie Garaby: Thanks so much for taking time to chat with us. I am a big fan of all of your work, and I am so excited to have you join us on Musing. Can you share a little bit about the #23for23 campaign with our readers?
Nisha Sharma: Sure! The mission for #23for23 is to elevate BIPOC authors writing BIPOC communities in romance. The intention is to bring race and ethnicity back into the conversation. We believe that intersectional representation in what we read is vital for equity and equality in publishing, and we hope that those in bookish communities can be more intentional about the media they consume. Statistics, science and technology have all shown us that we need to make an effort if we are going to start to diversify the publishing industry.
KG: How did you all come up with the idea for #23for23? Was this campaign something you had been ruminating on for a while or was it really a love child of Steamy Lit Con?
Adriana Herrera: The idea came up as we were planning to host a soiree for influencers during Steamy Lit Con. Nikki, Nisha and I wanted to celebrate the creators who make a point of amplifying our work. We wanted to leave them with a call to action after the event and while we brainstormed, Nisha came up with reading twenty-three books by the end of 2023.
KG: Romance as a genre is very cis/het/white. The statistics are staggering (not a single Black romance author has been on the NYT since 2021!?), which makes our shopping choices so important. Aside from making sure that we are buying books by queer and BIPOC authors, how else can we support the campaign?
Nikki Payne: I think there is a crisis of invisibility on platforms like Instagram and TikTok and YouTube for BIPOC books. And it becomes a vicious cycle of creators not posting about BIPOC books because they don’t get views, and BIPOC books not getting exposure on these platforms because creators do not post about them. So yes, buy the book, those numbers matter. But also share the book. Tell a friend. Shout about it on your account. Books get sold because someone you trust tells you that this is a good story. TikTok has been able to operationalize that. We can leverage that same phenomena.
KG: How would you like to see indie bookstores, like Parnassus, showing up for the #23for23 campaign?
Nisha: We would love if indie bookstores can make BIPOC books more accessible to readers both on social media and in stores. Indie bookstores have smaller footprints which means display real estate is very difficult to come by, but if Parnassus and others can focus on sharing BIPOC titles front and center, and encourage readers to be more intentional, then readers and authors will get the support they need to complete the challenge.
Note: We know not all of you reading this post live in Nashville, so we’ve come up with a list of 23 books (a virtual display, if you will) you can read to complete the #23for23 challenge! Click here for the list.
KG: One thing I have noticed about the romance community is that we love to gush and share with other readers the authors and stories we are crushing on. I know I love hearing who my favorite authors are reading right now. Who is an author you love and would like to see on readers’ #23for23 list?
Adriana: I absolutely love Charish Reid’s latest book, Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up. It is one of my favorite contemporary romances so far this year. Angelina Lopez is also a superstar and I wish everyone read her Freedom series. It is the perfect small-town romance series.
KG: And finally, we always like to finish up with this question: What is your favorite thing about independent bookstores?
Nikki: The community of folks. The book clubs! The reading groups. For many it can be a found family❤️ They’re committed to a store, oftentimes to a locality and to an idea of a place. I love independent bookstore communities.
Adriana: I’ve lived in a lot of different places and almost always end up finding my people at the local bookstore. There is nothing better than book folks, and independent bookstores are social hubs, safe havens, places to think, to learn, to build community.
Nisha: The booksellers! I absolutely love connecting with like-minded passionate booksellers at indie bookstores who are there because they are as passionate about books as I am. Thank you for all that you do!
Check out Nisha, Nikki, and Adriana’s books below! If you want some help picking out books for the #23for23 challenge, we’ve got you covered! Click here for Katie’s curated list.
Musing 