Gift idea for male teacher

A new group of Black male authors, armed with style, confidence, and sex appeal, has exploded onto the publishing scene, creating a wave of excitement in the book community and an allegiance of loyal followers. With book-signings that rival those of rock stars and touting schedules that are as hectic and as fan-packed as some hip-hop concerts, these writers, who are as charismatic as they are talented, are changing the dimensions of African-American literature.

"Women have been saturated with the female perspective," says author Michael Baisden. "Ladies want to understand men better so this is a wily for them to be a fly on the wall and find out what men are saying, thinking and really telling."

Among the leaders of the Black male wave are Eric Jerome Dickey, E. Lynn Harris, Walter Mosley and Omar Tyree. Before making it to the best-seller list, Harris was a successful computer salesman and Mosley was a computer programmer. Dickey, on the other hand, was a screenwriter and substitute teacher, and Tyree wits a pharmacy student. Yet all abandoned their old lives and pursued a creative calling that reflected their personal convictions, their individual personalities and cultural responsibilities.

One of the reasons why these best-selling authors are attracting so much attention is the ever-increasing Black book-buying audience. Faith Childs, of Faith Childs Literary Agency; agrees. "Black readers have long been there, and so have Black writers. It's just that now book publishers are getting around to recognizing them."

Another reason behind the rise of Black male authors is the trailblazing path of Black female authors such as Terry McMillan, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, who paved the way, for a new generation of male and female authors. "As in any business, the confirmation of their success caused publishers to open up and become more favorable toward other projects by African-American authors," says Juanita T. James, former senior vice president of club management at the Book-of-the-Month Club.

According to the American Booksellers Association, women represent 75 percent of African-Americans who regularly buy books, and 90 percent of the fiction buyers. "African-American women developed an appetite for stories that represent them in society," says Clara Villarosa, owner of Harlem's Hue-Man Bookstore. "Once fed, they craved for more." It's no wonder, then, that these handsomely packaged authors, complete with talent, charm and the ability to sell themselves, have become the hottest thing on the market.

Black-owned bookstores, forever the champion of African American authors, heavily support Brothers in literature through on-site media campaigns, book-signings, and author-readings, bringing more Black readers into the stores and putting more Black male authors on the shelves. Mainstream outlets, eager to cash in on the Black male invasion, are also making their shelves, and in some cases, entire sections, available to the work of fiction's newest elite.

E. Lynn Harris, author of eight novels, including his most recent A Love Of My Own, has brought Black gay fiction out of the closet and into the limelight. Despite his less-than-traditional themes, the two-time Blackboard Novel of the Year winner and three-time NAACP Image Award nominee has had three novels optioned for film and continues to attract readers. "I think people appreciate a good story and don't really get themselves involved in what other people consider controversial to keep them away," says Harris, an openly gay author who has been in a committed relationship for several years and who is currently working on a series of young adult novels. "I think we live in a climate where everyone needs to make a decision for themselves in terms of sharing what is very personal to them. But if I can be an example of someone who is successful, without lying about who he is, then I'm pleased about that."

Through careful attention to the development of his characters, Eric Jerome Dickey, like Harris, creates fiction that is addictive. "People turn the pages more because they love the characters, rather than the actual plot," says Dickey, the single author of seven novels, including his latest, Thieves Paradise. Dickey who has received critical acclaim for his ability to navigate readers through the murky depths of relationships and the issues that bind them or break them, is driven by the joy of writing, rather than any celebrity status. "As a writer, you want to write because you want to make your novel the best it can be. Each character represents a different idea, and as the writer, you get to play every role in the book," says Dickey, whose second novel, Friends and Lovers, has been optioned for film to be produced by Whitney Houston. In Got To Be Real (New American Library Trade), Dickey and Harris join forces, along with authors Marcus Major and Colin Channer, in a collection of four original love stories, showcasing the power and purpose of maintaining Black love.

Walter Mosley, author of 13 books, including Bad Boy Brawly Brown, featuring the memorable Black hero, Easy Rawlins, dispels the myth that Black men don't read. "Black men don't read The Scarlet Letter, or Vanity Fail, or books that they feel ignore them or characterize them to a point where they are not real," says Mosley. Regarding his books, he says, "You can learn a lot about the history of Black people, about how Black men think, how Black men try to deal with their lives, their women, each other and their children. I find it necessary to write about Black male heroes," says Mosley, whose screenplay, Dark Angel, was originally considered by Tupac Shakur and is now in the hands of Mos Def. Recently re-released were six of Mosley's classic novels, each containing a story from his new collection of short stories, Six Easy Pieces. Mosley's African-American response to the "war on terrorism" titled What Next? is also slated for release. "Everybody seems to think that addressing the human condition is such an unusual thing, but at one time, if you weren't addressing the human condition, it wasn't literature."

Omar Tyree, author of nine books and 2001 NAACP Image Award winner for Outstanding Literary Work of Fiction for his novel, For the Love of Money, is also addressing the African-American condition, tackling timely political and social issues. "The NAACP saw that I was trying to do something different. I was in alignment with the advancement of colored people by trying to advance the mentalities on the stuff we read," says Tyree, who refuses to deviate from pertinent issues. "I have to write passionately about what I feel, not about what the crowd wants at that moment." The married father of two sons is currently working on a 16-book children's series, while promoting his spoken word album, Rising Up, produced through his companies, Hot Lava Records and Hot Lava Entertainment. Under his pen name The Urban Griot, Tyree performs on The Power of the Spoken Word Tour, showcasing his poetry works and more hard-core fiction.

The success of front-runners like Harris, Mosley, Dickey and Tyree has opened new roads for male writers across the country. Stephen L. Carter, Yale professor and author of nine nonfiction books that tackle everything from religion to politics, recently debuted his first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park. Chris Benson, author of Special Interest, is creating a name for himself in the competitive field of mystery and suspense writing. Michael Baisden, author of God's Gift to Women, has penned four novels, carving a niche fin, himself as an outspoken expert on relationships, and Gary Hardwick recently released his fourth novel, Color of Justice. "The word about a good book will get around fast," says Baisden. "The word about a bad book will get around twice as fast. So, you have to write well and you have to grow as a person in order to grow in your writing."

Despite their overwhelming popularity, some critics argue that the new generation of authors is primarily entertainment-oriented, unlike the James Baldwin generation and the Richard Wright generation. But the new literary leaders say such comments are unfair and that they are crafting a new aesthetic for a new generation of men and women. It should be noted that a number of male writers, including Haki Madhubuti (Tough Notes: A Healing Call for Creating Exceptional Black Men), Lerone Bennett Jr. (Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream), Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (The Bondwoman's Narrative), Tavis Smiley (Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Healing and Hope from Black America) and Cornel West (The Cornel West Reader), continue to produce timeless essays and popular books on history, politics and social analysis.