Survey Comments: Dee Stewart

Today, on the last day of 2007, I'm featuring Dee Stewart's survey comments. The last for in my series on race in mainline Christian publishing. It's been an interesting month with this quasi-controversial series. But I'll get into that later.

Dee is the owner of Christian Fiction Blog. Her blog posts regular Christian publishing news, movie previews, updates, author interviews, call to writers, contests, gospel play fixes and everything about African-American christian novels. She also blogs at The Master's Artist.

This is what Dee shared on the survey:

Linda, I am glad that you are doing this [survey on race in Christian publishing]. Christian Fiction Blog has touched on this topic since 2005. Two years...three years later it seems that the problem has increased, which is ironic since there are more African-American (AA) author than there were five years ago when I first began reviewing AA Christian fiction.

For those of us authors who are members of American Christian Fiction Writers I think we should pool together to start an extension or group inside the organization. There are quite a few authors who aren't getting any publicity for their books. As I read them and I read them often they aren't any different than the piles of books written by non-authors of color that I review.

Unfortunately we have been unjustly pigeonholed. As our mothers and fathers did before us we have to unbox ourselves. I believe 2008 is that year.

Linda, your discussion is the catalyst to get things going.*

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Thanks, Dee, for your comments and for your voice in AA Christian fiction.

*edited for clarity