You know that moment when you finish a great book and think to yourself ‘I’d love to ask the author xyz’? Well now you can! The Black Romance Book Club is a brand new subscription-based program that includes monthly book club meetings with the book authors.

Tanya Lee, founder of the Black Romance Book Club is a book club aficionado. She founded “A Room of Your Own Book Club” for high risk teen girls, a national program spanning across Canada. This book club included meetings with Michelle Obama, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Human Rights Activist Nadia Murad, top Canadian criminal defense attorney Marie Henein, and Canadian icon Lawrence Hill. 

After finding success with the A Room of Your Own Book Club, Lee is turning to a genre which she believes lacks representation. “Black romance is not supported and Black love is not supported,” she says.

The Black Romance Book Club costs $80/month and includes monthly meetings with book authors as well as writing workshops for anyone interested in becoming a romance author themselves. Monthly subscription fees will go towards author fees for hotel, transportation and food for in person events. This will also support hosting fees, venue space, and technology fees.

Lee has also set the subscription fees to ensure that the authors get paid their due “There’s so many Black authors out there getting no love,” she says. “I’m trying to pay Black authors their value.”

Subscription fees will also go towards a donation to a domestic violence shelter. Lee hopes to support domestic violence shelters through the book club as she recognizes the devastating overlap between romance and violence. “Everybody wants a great romance and sometimes it doesn’t happen,” Lee says. “Sometimes tragedy happens.” 

Turning readers into authors

Members of the Black Romance Book Club will be able to attend four romance writing workshops. The workshops begin in January 2023 and are each 6 weeks long. Each workshop will cover one of the following themes: contemporary romance, historical romance, romantic comedy, and a mystery/thriller romance. 

During these workshops, attendees will write their own romance novels that take place in Canada as Lee hopes to see more Black Canadian perspectives within the romance genre. “The Black Canadian experience in romance is different than the American experience,” says Lee. 

 When fostering a space for new writers, Lee is especially interested in stories centering a protagonist in their 40s or older. There’s no doubt that the romance genre is over-saturated with angsty teens and folks in their early twenties; let’s also not forget the career-obsessed go-getters in their early thirties who get swept off their feet by love when they least expect it. These stories are cute and all, but Tanya wants to see more representation of older folks within romance, and frankly, so do we. “Older women's needs have been silenced for too long,” Lee says. “They should be able to read about themselves.” 

Workshops will be run by experienced Black editors and participants will have the opportunity to get their work published. Lee is currently in the process of opening her own publishing house and will accept 12 manuscripts from the workshops for publication.

The first Black Romance Book Club will take place on September 18th at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in Ontario. The first book on the docket is Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen and Happily Ever Afters by Jessica P. Pryde, who will be in attendance on September 18th. Book Club members will be able to attend in person or remotely from anywhere across Canada. Future book clubs will be held in various cities across the country, including Calgary (pending registration numbers). 

For more information about the Black Romance Book Club, email programming@artgalleryofhamilton.com