Former bookseller Clara Villarosa and her two daughters--who together have more than 50 years of journalistic and book world experience--have founded Villarosa Media, a boutique publishing company of high-quality fiction and nonfiction books primarily by and about African Americans and the African diaspora.
Clara Villarosa (center in photo), is the founder of the Hue-Man Experience bookstore in Denver, Colo., and the Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem in New York City and a former American Booksellers Association board member. With her daughter Alicia (r.), she is also the author of Down to Business: The First 10 Steps to Entrepreneurship for Women, published by Avery in 2009. Linda Villarosa (l.) is a former executive editor of Essence Magazine and award-winning New York Times health editor, a journalism professor at the City College of New York and author. Alicia Villarosa is a freelance writer and blogger.
Villarosa Media will publish new books from established authors as well as classic books reissued in digital formats with POD capability. The trio will also "support emerging authors and publish new voices with an eye on stories from non-traditional genres," they said. And they will work with individuals and organizations with established platforms and a large social media presence but may need a book to better establish their brands.
Clara Villarosa commented: "I've experienced first hand the ups and downs of publishing, including the Black Book Renaissance, a time when black authors were a hot commodity. Everybody on the subway had their nose buried in a Terry McMillan book. Then a tsunami hit the industry, and mainstream publishers fled the black book market. Now the tide has turned and there's an opportunity. We're here to help fill the void and bridge the gap between readers and writers by providing readers access to excellent literature and an outlet and marketplace for authors to publish their works."
Villarosa Media's first book is The Wind Is Spirit: The Life, Love and Legacy of Audre Lorde, edited by Dr. Gloria Joseph, Lorde's partner in the latter years of her life. Told griot style (an African oral tradition of storytelling to maintain historical ties to the past), this combination anthology and biography brings together a range of prominent authors and activists, who submitted essays, reflections, stories, poems, memoirs and photos that illuminate how Lorde's literary vision and her turbulent and triumphant life inspired so many. The book, a kind of call-and-response biography, also contains conversations with Lorde, Joseph's personal photos and travelogues, and remembrances from her three memorials, in New York City, Berlin and St. Croix.
Linda Villarosa called The Wind Is Spirit close to her heart, saying, "Audre Lorde's fearlessness has always been an inspiration, so working on this book is like being a part of literary history as well as my own. Even now I feel her presence, literally. While shooting video in St. Croix sometimes there would be a sudden gust of wind. Gloria would simply say, 'There's Audre again letting us know she's here.' "
The book will launch on February 18, 6:30-10 p.m., at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York City. Other events include a discussion and book signing with the author, moderated by Sonia Sanchez on February 17, 2-4 p.m., at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture; and readings and book signings February 23 at Westchester Community College and on February 29 in Syracuse, N.Y.