April-June 2003

Panache
by Nathasha Brooks-Harris

What do we look for in our authors? Should they adhere to certain literary standards that we’d want to see in every African-American author? I will answer these questions and introduce to you an author that I feel you’d enjoy. I want my author to write with passion, fervor, and amuse me to no end with good stories. My standards are my own, and may become generic when I mention that good characterization, outstanding storylines, and points of views that color the canvas are prerequisites for perfect literary landscapes. My feature author of the month fits this description.

Nathasha Brooks-Harris is a native New Yorker and seems to fit and follow in the footsteps of other writers from that geographical location, writing metaphorically and with a flair for telling urban stories that you can relate to. She’s presently a contributing editor and columnist at several national magazines.

When it comes to writing, Nathasha seems to emanate and radiate as the written word take on different meanings to express her imaginable spirit and penchant for producing romantic scenes worth imagining. With this in mind, the romance genre has claimed another who espouses to give it to us the way it should be told, and it’s no more evident in the stories that have the ‘Brooksonian Stamp of Approval on it. Those that grew up reading girly magazines such as Bronze Thrills, Jive, Black Romance, and Black Confession can identify and know how romance should be depicted.

Her latest award-winning contemporary romance novel, Panache is already on the shelves. Nathasha may be proudest of the fact that she developed an acclaimed writing program for 51 gifted bilingual students at a New York area school, and that her teaching skills have allowed several other students the opportunity to win writing awards thereof, but my proudest moment was gaining an audience with this gifted writer while covering the recent Romance Slamjam Conference. She is the winner of the 2002 Emma Award for Best New Author, hard at work on her second novel, In Perfect Harmony, a romance how-to book and two anthologies. She is also a freelance writer for several magazines, including a book reviewer for Romance In Color and QBR Magazine. I caught up with Nathasha with this one-on-one conversation we shared. Meet Nahasha Brooks-Harris.