Jessica P. Pryde
Author Interview - Jessica P. Pryde
Author of Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters
Black Love Matters is a collection of essays from readers, authors, and social commentators about their experiences with consuming Black love and Black relationships in media, primarily focused on genre romance. The essays span the history of romance itself, and focus on both personal experience and cultural commentary. The core idea is that while we all, as Black folks, have had different experiences with how we've seen Black love presented and represented, there is still work to be done, and people are doing it.
Author Interview - Jessica P. Pryde
Author I draw inspiration from: Oh goodness gracious, so many. But I think as a nonfiction writer, I have to point to Roxane Gay. She taught me how to be honest in my reflection as I write both personally and critically, and also that hard topics didn't have to be hard to read.
Author Interview - Jessica P. Pryde | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: I have an armchair that I can't damage in any way because it's not sold anymore, and I love curling up there with a mug of tea and my soft Beauty and the Beast blanket with the blinds open on the sliding glass doors the chair buts against. (I never use said doors, so they're basically a wall-sized window.) I get northern light almost all day anytime of year, and it's where most of my books live. Also, it's nice to feel like I'm outside in the summer without having to be outdoors in Tucson.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Dani Brown from Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert. I already know what she'd be like stuck in an elevator (because it happens in the book), but I would just want to experience her presence and be her friend. Maybe some of that confidence and brilliance would rub off on me, and we could talk about misogynoir and stuff.
Author Interview - Jessica P. Pryde | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: There wasn't much an eight-year-old could do with an old DOS computer besides open Word Perfect, and I found myself writing movie and RPF fanfiction a decade before I would ever discover that word. I loved writing stories, no matter how terrible they were, and I've dipped my toes into every kind of writing ever since, from unfinished Jane Austen fanfiction to my 60-page honors thesis on Early Modern travel writing to articles on Book Riot to Black Love Matters. The written word is amazing and I love to explore what I can do with it.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: All of the above. Sometimes alongside each other.
The last book I read: Boys Run the Riot volume 1 by Keito Gaku. It's an adorable manga about a trans boy who loves fashion, makes an unexpected friend, and starts a fashion line. I've put the next three on hold at my library and am anxious to get my hands on them.
Author Interview - Jessica P. Pryde | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: I love using pen and paper to get things going and ideas flowing, but do almost all of my drafting on a computer.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: There are a lot of characters I *want* to be friends with, even though I feel like they're so cool it would mostly just be me following them around, hanging on their every word and action and feeling like I was basking in their brilliance. I think I might actually be able to pull a friendship off with Reggie from Alyssa Cole's novella Can't Escape Love, because we're similarly awkward and nerdy, but she's blunt where I'm cautious, and more reserved when I would be a little more outgoing. We'd complement each other well, I think.
Author Interview - Jessica P. Pryde | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Librarian, which I am!
Favorite decade in fashion history: To look at? either the 1940s or 1950s. It's the beginning of that A-Line look that's given way to the Rockabilly look that I adore and would aspire to if I weren't so lazy. The lines of everything is just fabulous and even pants made you look elegant. The sailor cut, the poodle skirts! But so much structure underneath! I'm happier with the soft knits of today's faction.
Place I’d most like to travel: Anywhere right now! But I'm torn between two or three places: Yosemite National Park, where I've never been but seen plenty of films (my husband is a climbing fanatic); Cozumel and the connecting ancient sites of pre-Columbian civilizations; and England and Scotland, to see all that cool architecture and visit all the old libraries that I've only seen photos of. Okay, and so I can go to Chatsworth. As The True Janeite Must.
My signature drink: Diet RC. When I can find it.
Favorite artist: Artist can mean very many things, but I'll go with the first person to come to mind: Beyoncé.
Number one on my bucket list: Meet Beverly Jenkins in person. She is a true matriarch, pillar, paragon, whatever you want to call it, of Black romance, and while I've worked with her and communicated with her in numerous ways, I can die happy having shaken her hand (maybe gotten a hug?) and shared words of any kind.
Find more from the author:
twitter.com/jessisreading
instagram.com/jess_is_reading
facebook.com/jessica.p.pryde
Author Bio: Jessica Pryde is a Contributing Editor for Book Riot, where she is the co-host of the When In Romance podcast and writes about bookish things of all kinds. Having earned an AB in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis and her MLIS at San Jose State University, she is now a librarian for a public library system in Southern Arizona, where she lives with her husband and an ever-growing collection of Funko!Pops. Black Love Matters is her first book.
