Move over, Terry McMillan: When it comes to writing sexy, sensitive novels for today's hot African-American publishing market, it ain't nothing but a guy thang. In addition to E. Lynn Harris, young writers like Eric Jerome Dickey, Colin Channer, Omar Tyree, and Marcus Major are churning out books. Says Nelson George, whose novel One Woman Short was released in June, ''Black male fiction writers have tended, historically, to be more political. This generation has been able to take some of the themes of black male songwriting — falling in love, falling out of love, being cheated on — and apply them to literature. You're seeing the literary equivalent of the great R&B love songs.'' Here's a cheat sheet to the current crop of crooners.
ERIC JEROME DICKEY, 39
Latest book: Liar's Game
Sample line: ''[She had] rapturous midnight skin in a golden business suit ... A womanly
shape that should be engraved in stone from the heart of the
motherland.''
On writing for the ladies: ''Tell the truth as far as
the characters are concerned — get into his mind, his job, his
heart, his bedroom — and people will feel the honesty.''
OMAR TYREE, 31
Latest book: For the Love of Money
Sample line: ''He was dressed in all cream like his car, looking one
hundred percent like a fine-ass model ... However, it still had
to be on my terms.''
On writing for the ladies: ''We don't call them
romances because we have this image of romance being this
floating across Fantasy Island stuff. We're dealing mainly with
real relationships between couples.''
COLIN CHANNER, 36
Latest book: Waiting in Vain
Sample line: ''He
understood her jokes ... and shadowed her subtlest shifts in
mood ... Which is why the tenderness he showed her was so
erotic — it had transcended the needs of the flesh.''
On writing for the ladies: ''Women make love with words, and my language is very
grounded in the rhythms of poetry and wordplay and metaphor.''
MARCUS MAJOR, 30
Latest book: Good Peoples
Sample line: ''She kept
warning him that he was spoiling her and creating a monster, but
he really didn't care.''
On writing for the ladies: ''I think women
like to get a man's take on a relationship. And if more
sensitivity is a by-product of the genre we're writing, it's only
going to make the relationships between African-American men and
women stronger.''
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