For the month of February, All the Blog’s a Page (AtBaP) is taking it to the streets – urban and street fiction, that is. This week, I feature Terra Little, author of Where There’s Smoke, and trust me, she has some things to say about this genre!

For February, I asked the following set of questions:

**What does urban/street fiction mean to you? Is there a distinction between urban and street?
**Of all the genres present, what drew you to write urban/street fiction?
**What has been – if any – some of the positive and negative comments you have received from readers?
**In the branch of Black literature, what do you think urban/street fiction brings to the table?

In answering the question, In the branch of Black literature, what do you think urban/street fiction brings to the table, Little began her response by stating, “As a combined genre, which I don’t happen to think is always the case, Urban/Street Fiction brings confusion and, in some cases, anger to the table. There are truly urban, working class people who take offense at being perceived as having anything to do with street life by society’s standards, myself included. And there are those who are confused about what it means to be urban and what it means to be street; those who think one is unequivocally the same as the other. Along this vein, I think Urban/Street Fiction can bring stereotypical fuel to the table. We can all eat at the same table, but let’s not confuse corn with mashed potatoes, even if mashed potatoes is capable of covering up corn when we want them to.”

To read the rest of Terra Little’s thoughts on street/urban fiction and to read an excerpt from Where There’s Smoke, head to All the Blog’s a Page!

ALL THE BLOG’S A PAGE (AtBaP) – Where everything relates to writing

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2 comments

  1. Hi ChickLit Gurrl,

    I like your feature of Author Terra Little. You pose a very interesting question about urban/street novels and it’s place in black literature. I look forward to reading more of your articles.

    Take care

  2. Thanks for responding. 🙂 I think it’s important for us to see urban/street novels’ important in black literature and to see that we need an eclectic mix of genres within black lit, too.

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