5th anniversary reflections.BIBR BIBR Bay Islands Beach Resort (Roatan, Honduras) BIBR Backward Indicator Bit Received readers, it has been a delightful challenge to be your link to the world of black books for five years. Taken together, BIBR's issues during our first five years present a capsule view of African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. authors, reading tastes and publishing trends. On our Web site, www.bibookreview.com, you will find the Index of all the authors, book titles and subjects covered in BIBR from our very first issue in January, 1999, through all of our 2002 issues. The text version of the Index is more than 300 pages! We believe it will be a valuable tool for librarians, researchers and anyone interested in the developments of this incredibly fertile period fertile period n. The period in the menstrual cycle during which conception is most likely to occur, usually 10 to 18 days after the onset of menstruation. in the history of black books. Many thanks to our indexer, Barbara DeGennaro, one the many valuable and skilled African American professionals who serve our cultural institutions. She has both the amazing indexing acumen for which members of the American Society of Indexers are known, as well as the sensibilities of personal experience in and dedication to black culture and Literature. The Index brings all the information in BIBR together in one place. Until the Index, I didn't really appreciate some of the important patterns revealed in our pages. For example, although I knew we had put the high priestess high priestess n. The female head or chief proponent, as of a movement or doctrine: the high priestess of modern art. of futuristic story telling, Octavia Butler, on our first cover in 1999, the Index entry listed seven other times BIBR has covered Ms. Butler and her work. Be sure to see page 30 in this issue for our ninth Octavia Butler article, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of her extraordinary novel Kindred. Our covers have featured authors who are household names History Formation (1998-2000) Household Names have been together since 1998, with various members rotating throughout the line-up with singer, Jason Garcia, until it was solidified in the summer of 2000 with bassist/keyboardist, Chris Peters, and drummer, C. J. to booklovers--Alice Walker, Bebe Moore Campbell Bebe Moore Campbell (b. February 18 1950, Philadelphia - d. November 27 2006, Los Angeles) was the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, and What You Owe Me, which was also a , E. Lynn Harris E. Lynn Harris is an Black American author, (b. June 20, 1955). Harris writes primarily about African American men on the down low or in the closet; Harris confirmed that he is a homosexual. He lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas and Atlanta, Georgia. , Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan, Pearl Cleage, Walter Mosley and Toni Morrison, to name a few. But I am just as proud of the first-time authors and self-published writers we were able to introduce to our readers, a number of whom later became well known. Case in point: When we wrote about the work of the budding young writer Omar Tyree in our third issue, we never imagined that his subsequent work would place him in fifteen more issues, including a cover story. It has been a joy to provide continuous coverage of both established and emerging black authors. The Index is also a reminder that books have been a lens on the most important new developments in black culture these past five years. Note, for example, that the Index entry on "hip-hop" is a page long. That's because early on BIBR committed to recognizing hip-hop as an important link in the progression of black cultural and literary styles. Our second cover featured poet and actor Saul Williams of the film and book Slam! The next year our annual March/April poetry issue featured Sonia Sanchez and hip-hop spoken-word artist and actor Mos Def. Dozens of other entries reflect black literary milestones during these last five years. Then there have been been the many tribute essays we've published to gifted authors who have passed on--Toni Cade Bambara, Sterling Brown, John Henrik Clarke John Henrik Clarke (January 1, 1915 - July 16, 1998), born John Henry Clark in Union Springs, Alabama to John (a sharecropper) and Willie Ella (Mays) Clarke (a washer woman), was a Pan-Africanist, author, poet, historian, journalist, lecturer and teacher. , June Jordan, Audre Lorde and Margaret Walker among other beloved writers. The BIBR Index is offered as a record of the broad world of black books. We appreciate all of you who have allowed BIBR to share that world with you! William E. Cox William Elijah Cox (September 6, 1861 - March 11, 1942) was a U.S. Representative from Indiana. Born on a farm near Birdseye, Indiana, Cox attended the common and high schools of Huntingburg and Jasper, Indiana. President/Editor-in-Chief |
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