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African-American Fiction Reviewer |
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B. Nakia Garner has enjoyed reading since the tender age of
eight but it was not until her early teens that she discovered her love of
African-American fiction. A writer and poet herself, she has dreams of
publishing her novels through her company, Flying Fingers Communications.
She is a resident of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area and is the
Assistant Editor of a local newspaper.
MEET THE RT BOOKREVIEWS REVIEWER BROOKE NAKIA GARNER
(Article published in Romantic Times BOOKreviews Issue #296,
October 2008)
When African-American fiction reviewer Brooke Nakia Garner first began
working with RT BOOKreviews, the staff would occasionally get confused:
Sometimes she would sign her reviews with "B. Nakia Garner"; other times
her byline would be "Brooke N. Garner."
"I actually didn't like my first name when I was younger," Garner confides,
adding that she was named after Brooke English, a character on ABC's
long-running soap opera All My Children. Her middle name means "fragrant
flower" and was given to her by her maternal grandmother.
The D.C.-born-and-raised Garner loved reading and writing from her youth
and started writing poetry at age 8. Nowadays, she writes fiction and works
in communications of all kinds: as managing editor of the specialty
newspaper The Washington Informer, which caters to the African-American
community; as a leader of her church's young adult ministry and member of
its tutoring ministry; and as proofreader and communications specialist for
her own company, Flying Fingers Communications.
"I started it in October 2006, primarily to assist poets and local authors
I knew who were in business for themselves and didn't have time to
proofread," she says. "My clientele grew to include students, primarily
those in undergraduate, graduate and ministerial school," the Syracuse
University alumna adds.
Garner loves the many directions African-American fiction has taken. "There
is such a wide variety of black fiction, ranging from street culture to
Christian fiction," she notes. "I like the fact that black writers have not
kept themselves in a literary box."
But she does have a pet peeve: "I get tired of writers who focus so much on
setting the scene with adjectives and descriptive terms that they lose
sight of the story."
We asked Garner a few questions.
Where do you live? Washington, D.C.
Married/kids? Dating Paul exclusively, with his cousin, 17-year-old
Marcellus, as surrogate son
Pets: a Pomeranian puppy named Tango
Age: 26
Astrological sign: Scorpio
Day job: Newspaper editor
Dream job: Novelist
How did you come to RT BOOKreviews? I answered an ad on a website two years
ago; my first review ran in April 2006.
Favorite genres: Romantic fiction
Four or five all-time favorite authors: J. California Cooper, Walter
Mosley, Dianne McKinney Whetstone, Shantella Sherman
Favorite fictional hero: Easy Rawlins from Mosley's Easy Rawlins mysteries
Favorite real-life hero: Brian T. Shaw, a good friend I met in college. He
is currently serving a prison sentence of up to 21 years. A weaker man
would have given up on life, but every month when I get a letter from him I
am relieved to know he is still holding on.
Favorite real-life heroine: Phyllis Wheatley, an abolitionist and great
writer. I admire her for allowing herself the freedom of speech through
writing despite the fact that so many of her own people were not free.
Favorite book when you were a child: HONEY, I LOVE AND OTHER LOVE POEMS by
Eloise Greenfield
Book you are an evangelist for: WHITE LINES by Tracy Brown
Book that you bought for the cover: BLING by Erica Kennedy
Favorite TV shows: Animal Cops: Detroit, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,
My Boys, The Girls Next Door
Hobbies: Reading, writing, watching movies, traveling
Lifelong ambition: To get all the story ideas in my head in a book
somewhere
Where's the farthest you've traveled? Antigua
Your best feature or talent: The ability to look on the bright side
Webspace: myspace.com/ladyaquanib; Facebook: Brooke Nakia Garner.
Where do you lurk on the Internet? Google, Facebook, torrid.com
-- Compiled by Liz French |
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