African American romance

Islam

Muslim romance

Abdullah-Poulos, Layla

(2018) The Stable Muslim Love Triangle - Triangular Desire in African American Muslim Romance Fiction Journal of Popular Romance Studies 7:

Topic

Islam

marriage

Muslim romance

Abdullah-Poulos, Layla

(2023) "Sisters, Skanks, and Jezebels: American Muslim Fiction and the Other Woman " The Bloomsbury Handbook of Muslims and Popular Culture 205-214

Topic

Islam

Alexander, Camille S.

(2022) "“The Realness” in Jasmine Guillory’s Sista Lit Rom Com Novels " New Frontiers in Popular Romance: Essays on the Genre in the 21st Century 121-135

Topic

Jasmine Guillory

(2021) "Inspirational Romance " The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction 191-211 DOI:10.4324/9781315613468-8

Topic

Christian romance

Grace Livingston Hill

Janette Oke

Francine Rivers

(2022) Save Our Love Creative Writing Masters Thesis, Liberty University

Topic

Christian romance

happy ending

Bell, Carole V.

(2022) "I'm Rooting for Everybody Black: Black Solidarity, Black World-Building, and Black Love " Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever After 29-64

Topic

fat, fatness

Bennett-Kapusniak, Renee

McCleer, Adriana

(2015) Love in the Digital Library: A Search for Racial Heterogeneity in E-Books Journal of Popular Romance Studies 5.1:

Topic

libraries/librarians

Blanding, Cristen

(2005) Interracial romance novels and the resolution of racial difference MA thesis, Bowling Green State University

Topic

Brown, Fahamisha Patricia

(2008) Anita Richmond Bunkley Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice 2.2/3:1-5

Topic

Brown, Fahamisha Patricia

(2008) Beverly Jenkins Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice 2.2/3:1-6

Topic

(2022) Comic Book Women: Characters, Creators, and Culture in the Golden Age Austin: University of Texas Press

Topic

comics/manga

Burley, Stephanie Carol

(2003) Hearts of Darkness: The Racial Politics of Popular Romance PhD, University of Maryland, College Park

Topic

B. J. James

Native American romance

Dara Joy

science fiction/futuristic romance

(2000) Anita Richmond Bunkley Voices from the Gaps :

Topic

Dandridge, Rita B.

(2003) "African American Women's Historical Romances: Race and Gender Revisited " The 2000-2003 Proceedings of the SW/Texas PCA/ACA Conference 42-56

Topic

(2003) "The Race, Gender, Romance Connection: A Black Feminist Reading of African American Women's Historical Romances " Doubled Plots: Romance and History 185-201

Topic

Dandridge, Rita B.

(2004) Black Women's Activism: Reading African American Women's Historical Romances New York: Peter Lang

Topic

(2010) The African American Historical Romance: An Interview with Beverly Jenkins Journal of Popular Romance Studies 1.1:

Topic

Vivian Stephens (also wrote as Angela Vivian with co-author Angela Dew)

Dandridge, Rita B.

(2022) Vivian Lorraine Stephens: Romance Pioneer Journal of Popular Romance Studies 11: DOI: 10.70138/ZFKI9916

Topic

Rosalind Welles - pen name of Elsie B. Washington

Amii Lorin

Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle

disability

(2022) Comic Book Women: Characters, Creators, and Culture in the Golden Age Austin: University of Texas Press

Topic

comics/manga

Barrett-Fox, Rebecca

Donnelly, Kristen

(2021) "Inspirational Romance " The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction 191-211 DOI:10.4324/9781315613468-8

Topic

Christian romance

Grace Livingston Hill

Janette Oke

Francine Rivers

(2007) 100 Most Popular African American Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited

Edmondson, Belinda

(2007) The Black Romance Women's Studies Quarterly 35.1/2:191-211

Topic

Older and/or precursor texts (may not be "romance" as now defined)

Frances Watkins Harper

Caribbean

film/movies

fascism/right-wing authoritarianism

national identity

Ficke, Sarah H.

(2021) "The historical romance " The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction 118-140 DOI:10.4324/9781315613468-5

Topic

history

Foster, Guy Mark

(2007) "How Dare a Black Woman Make Love to a White Man! Black Women Romance Novelists and the Taboo of Interracial Desire " Empowerment versus Oppression: Twenty-First Century Views of Popular Romance Novels 103-128

Topic

rape and/or intimate partner violence/abuse

(2013) “How Much Can You Read about Interracial Love and Sex without Getting Sore?”: Readers’ Debate over Interracial Relationships in the Baltimore Afro-American Journalism History 39.2:104-114 DOI: 10.1080/00947679.2013.12062906

Topic

(2000) Anita Richmond Bunkley Voices from the Gaps :

Topic

(2000) Anita Richmond Bunkley Voices from the Gaps :

Topic

Hefner, Brooks E.

(2021) Black Pulp: Genre Fiction in the Shadow of Jim Crow Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Topic

Gertrude Schalk

Henderson, Aneeka Ayanna

(2020) Veil and Vow: Marriage Matters in Contemporary African American Culture : University of North Carolina Press

Topic

marriage

Henderson, Aneeka Ayanna

(2024) "Popular Romance and Literary Undergrounds " The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary African American Literature 164-178 DOI:10.1017/9781009159708.013

Topic

Hendricks, Margo

(2022) Against Odds: Beverly Jenkins’ Indigo and Black Historical Romance Journal of Popular Romance Studies 11: DOI: 10.70138/DZPL7751

Topic

Margo Hendricks/Elysabeth Grace

history

Hendricks, Margo

(2022) "How a Black Author Found Her Romance History " Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever After 95-120

Topic

Older and/or precursor texts (may not be "romance" as now defined)

teaching romance

(2022) Journal of Popular Romance Studies: Special Issue: Black Romance : International Association for the Study of Popular Romance

Topic

Brenda Jackson

Vivian Stephens (also wrote as Angela Vivian with co-author Angela Dew)

Alyssa Cole

Gwyneth Bolton/Gwendolyn Pough

Rochelle Alers

Margo Hendricks/Elysabeth Grace

Huguley, Piper

(2022) Her Bodyguard: Sandra Kitt’s The Color of Love as a foundational text for BWWM romance Journal of Popular Romance Studies 11: DOI: 10.70138/HNVC8362

Topic

police officers/police forces

Jackson, Nicole M.

(2022) "Finding Queer Black Women in Romance. Finding Bits and Pieces of Me. " Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever After 65-77

Topic

Nicole M. Jackson/Katrina Jackson/Brandy Bush

(2022) Freedom’s Epilogue: Love as Freedom in Alyssa Cole’s Historical Novellas Journal of Popular Romance Studies 11: DOI: 10.70138/ZYOB2141

Topic

Older and/or precursor texts (may not be "romance" as now defined)

happy ending

Jenkins, Beverly

(2022) "A Short History of African American Romance " Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever After 1-15

Topic

Frances Watkins Harper

Johnson, Jacqueline Elizabeth

(2024) Labors of Love: Black Women, Cultural Production, and the Romance Genre PhD, University of Southern California

Topic

Nicole M. Jackson/Katrina Jackson/Brandy Bush

Nicole M. Jackson/Katrina Jackson/Brandy Bush

(2023) Romancing the University: BIPOC Scholars in Romance Novels in the 1980s and Now Esferas Literarias 6:39-55 DOI: 10.21071/elrl.vi6.16287

Topic

Talia Hibbert

work

Markert, John

(2016) Publishing Romance: The History of an Industry, 1940s to the Present Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company

Topic

paranormal/fantasy/time-travel romance

Avon

Ellora's Cave

BDSM

paratext

Bennett-Kapusniak, Renee

McCleer, Adriana

(2015) Love in the Digital Library: A Search for Racial Heterogeneity in E-Books Journal of Popular Romance Studies 5.1:

Topic

libraries/librarians

(2000) Anita Richmond Bunkley Voices from the Gaps :

Topic

McDade, Monique

(2023) California Dreams and American Contradictions: Women Writers and the Western Ideal Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press

Topic

Eva Rutland

Michelson, Anna

(2022) Redefining the Romance: Classification and Community in a Popular Fiction Genre PhD thesis, Northwestern University

Topic

genre definitions

sociology

authors

Native American romance

Modleski, Tania

(1997) My Life as a Romance Reader Para.doxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 3.1-2:15-28

Topic

rape and/or intimate partner violence/abuse

Brenda Joyce

(2016) "Scripting Black Love in the 1990s: Pleasure, Respectability, and Responsibility in an Era of HIV/AIDS " Romance Fiction and American Culture: Love as the Practice of Freedom? 111-127

Topic

health/medical

Brenda Jackson

history

(2021) "African American romance " The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction 229-251 DOI:10.4324/9781315613468-10

Topic

Older and/or precursor texts (may not be "romance" as now defined)

Rosalind Welles - pen name of Elsie B. Washington

Lia Sanders - pen name of Angela Jackson and Sandra Jackson-Opoku

Alyssa Cole

Hendricks, Margo

(2022) Journal of Popular Romance Studies: Special Issue: Black Romance : International Association for the Study of Popular Romance

Topic

Brenda Jackson

Vivian Stephens (also wrote as Angela Vivian with co-author Angela Dew)

Alyssa Cole

Gwyneth Bolton/Gwendolyn Pough

Rochelle Alers

Margo Hendricks/Elysabeth Grace

Gwyneth Bolton/Gwendolyn Pough

(2022) Romance, Hip-Hop Feminism, and Black Love: From Theory to Praxis Journal of Popular Romance Studies 11: DOI: 10.70138/MCKL2088

Topic

Moore, Jeania Ree V.

(2025) The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance Journal of Popular Romance Studies 14: DOI: 10.70138/KBQG2589

Topic

Osborne, Gwendolyn E.

(2003) "In Search of Women Who Look Like Me: A Brief History of the African-American Romance " The 2000-2003 Proceedings of the SW/Texas PCA/ACA Conference 2020-2044

Topic

Older and/or precursor texts (may not be "romance" as now defined)

Osborne, Gwendolyn E.

(2004) ""Women Who Look Like Me": Cultural Identity and Reader Responses to African American Romance Novels " Race/Gender/Media: Considering Diversity Across Audiences, Content, and Producers 61-68

Topic

love

paratext

Parnell, Claire

(2021) Independent Authors’ Dependence on Big Tech: Categorization and Governance of Authors Of Color on Amazon AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research : DOI: 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12005

Topic

authors

Pritchard, Jamee N.

(2022) Reading the Black Romance: Exploring Black Sexual Politics in the Romance Fiction of Rebekah Weatherspoon Journal of Popular Romance Studies 11: DOI: 10.70138/YQAY5668

Topic

Ann Allen Shockley

Pritchard, Jamee Nicole

(2021) That 90's Kind of Love: the Rise of African American Romance Novels in Traditional Romance Publishing Master of Arts, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

Topic

Pryde, Jessica P.

(2022) Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever After New York: Berkley

Topic

(2021) The Romance Novel in English: A Survey in Rare Books, 1769-1999 : Type Punch Matrix

Topic

Older and/or precursor texts (may not be "romance" as now defined)

work

paranormal/fantasy/time-travel romance

YA/teenage romance

Onoto Watanna/Winnifred Eaton

Judaism

Pauline Hopkins

Kathleen Thompson Norris

Lilian Warren as Kathryn Blair/Rosalind Brett/Celine Conway

Elizabeth Carfrae

Frances Shelley Wees

Jean S. MacLeod/Catherine Airlie

Alice Lent Covert

Joyce Dingwell/Kate Starr

Mary Burchell, pen name of Ida Cook

Juliet Shore/Anne Vinton

Della Field, pseudonym of Fanny Howe

Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle

science fiction/futuristic romance

Nora Roberts/J. D. Robb

Marisa de Zavala/Ana Lisa de Leon/Rachel Scott/Celina Rios Mullan

Victoria Holt/Jean Plaidy/Eleanor Burford Hibbert

Tracy West/Joyce McGill/Chassie West

(2013) “What’s Love But a Second Hand Emotion?”: Man-on-Man Passion in the Contemporary Black Gay Romance Novel Callaloo 36.3:669-687 DOI: 10.1353/cal.2013.0159

Topic

(2016) Happily Ever After for Whom? Blackness and Disability in Romance Narratives Journal of Popular Culture 49.6:1241–1260 DOI: 10.1111/jpcu.12491

Topic

disability