ROBERT
FLEMING
Interested in psychology and sociology, I came to writing as a fluke in the early 1970s when a friend, Willard Jenkins, allowed me to sub for him as a music writer at a local magazine in Cleveland. Reading had always been a favorite pastime for me, but writing was something I never imagined myself doing. While studying full-time for a degree in psychology at night at a local college, I worked fulltime during the day as a welfare case worker, squeezing time in doing interviews with people like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Minnie Riperton, Ray Charles, Bob Marley, and a host of other jazz and pop greats. Like many writers, my first love was poetry and I published two books of poems, Melons (1974) and Stars (1975).
It wasn't until I came to New York as a young writer that a
whole realm of possibilities opened for me in that area. I landed my first real
writing job at Encore Magazine, a pioneering black newsmagazine in 1977, working
as an associate editor. Despite hassles with pay, the experience at the
publication was extremely beneficial, giving me a chance to work with such
talents as Nikki Giovanni, Ivan Webster, Paula Giddins, and Henry Jackson. I
worked on hard news stories, such as the involuntary sterilization of young
black women in several southern states, political corruption on a national
level, the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, medical experiments conducted
on black patients at several East Coast medical sites, and the spate of police
brutality cases nationwide. In 1979, I did one story which would change my life:
a car tour of the Deep South, where I interviewed poor black families in rural
Alabama and Mississippi, spoke with plantation owners in Georgia and Louisiana
about their abuse of their black tenant farmers, and conducted a late night talk
with a group of hooded Klansmen outside of Anniston, Alabama. This series got me
some notice and earned me a scholarship to Columbia University's noted School of
Journalism.
After my tour of duty at the 'J School,' I worked for a time with former CBS
News president, Fred Friendly, former boss of the legendary Edward R. Morrow, as
a staff writer for the PBS TV show, Media and Society. A chance meeting at one
of the show's taping got me a job as a reporter at The New York Daily News,
where I worked throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. While there, I learned
the world of hard New York news from the street up, earning a New York Press
Club, a Revson Fellowship and several other honors. I retired at the end of 1991
to write and teach. Since that time, I've published work in Essence, Black
Enterprise, The Source, U.S. News and World Report, Omni, Black Issues Book
Review, Bookpage, Quarterly Black Review, The New York Times and Publishers
Weekly.
Currently, I teach a course at The New School, 'Media And The Black Experience,'
with another course, 'Hard and Soft News: Journalism for A New World,' to start
in the Spring of 2001. In the early 1990s, I wrote two young adult books,
Rescuing A Neighborhood: The Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps. and
The Success of Caroline Jones, Inc.: The Story of an Advertising Agency. Two
other books, The Wisdom of the Elders (1996) and The African American Writer's
Handbook (2000) followed, both of which were selected by
The Black Expression Book Club.
My poetry, essays, and short stories have appeared in such
books as UpSouth, Brotherman: The Odyssey of The Black Man in America, Sacred
Fire, In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African American Poetry,
Dark Matter, Beyond The Frontier and the groundbreaking collection of black
erotica, Brown Sugar. I'm especially proud of being a contributor in Dark
Matter, recently chosen as a New York Times notable book, because of its
emphasis on science fiction and fantasy writing. At present, I'm working
feverishly on a sequel to After Hours: A Collection of Erotic Writing By Black
Men, which was named 'Best Erotic Collection of 2002' by Black Issues Book
Review. That anthology will highlight love, lust and marriage. I have three
other projects in the works A collection of short stories will be forthcoming
next year as well and A Woman's Man, a political novel, of which the first
chapter was printed in the anthology, Gumbo. I'm deep into the research for a
non-fiction book on the art and politics of the 1960s for publication in the
following year.
Recently, I came upon a quote from the Senegalese writer Aminata Sow Fall that
sums up my goals as a writer: 'The African writer cannot and must not take pen
in hand merely to offer pretty expressions and phrases. As the product of a
society that has its problems, he must create work so that each person becomes
completely aware of them, so that people think of them, and look for their
solutions, Ft that is what it means to be a committed writer, then that is what
I am. Our literature must raise issues that summon me to devise solutions to
problems that are specifically ours, problems which, although existing in other
places, take on a special dimension in our country.'
This is what I've tried from the moment I first started submitting my work to
publishers and will continue to do until I no longer write. Which I hope is
never.
Fever in the Blood
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Amazon
ISBN: 0758212399
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 320pp
Pub. Date: May 2006
Kensington Publishing Corporation
'and he's burning mad at the world. He's mad at the family he lost'his parents and sisters viciously killed by a gang in their own home; and he's mad at the foster family that 'rescued' him'headed up by a powerful Harlem congressman who sees Eddie as a campaign ploy. Mainly, Eddie is mad at himself, for getting caught by the cops with blood on his hands. Blood he should have washed off right away. He was sloppy this time. It won't happen again. Because Eddie knows the fever that ignites his rage is wasted'unless it's put to use. And he intends to put it to use again and again'
Havoc after Dark:
Tales of Terror
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Amazon
ISBN: 0758205759
Format: Paperback, 241pp
Pub. Date: March 2004
Kensington Publishing Corporation
'the world is cloaked
in shadow and hearts pound in deafening dread. Every step is suspect, every
moment counted, every sound feared. This is the hour when panic takes hold.
Terror does not distinguish among class or race or place. See it stalk its
prey in a murky basement in Spanish Harlem'under a haunted voodoo moon on a
Caribbean isle'by ghoulish candlelight in a Mardi Gras backroom. These are
the minutes when reality fades, defenses crumble, and only the unknown
triumphs. No one is spared. Not parish priest, shape shifter, or
fortuneteller. Not homicidal boy or cunning woman. Within seconds, paid
killers roam city streets and murderers reborn emerge from fearful chambers
of the undead. Within minutes, life slips away to ungodly applause, amulets
work black magic, and satanic traditions throw blood at the stars. Now is
the instant when...
After
Hours: A Collection of Erotic Writing by Black Men
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via
Amazon
Edited by Robert Fleming
Format: Paperback, 256pp.
ISBN: 0452283329
Publisher: Dutton/Plume
Pub. Date: July 2002
Curtis Bunn is included in this anthology
"After Hours hits the ground running and maintains its level of excellence from cover to cover. It includes Charles Johnson's Cultural Relativity, which had a surprising and humorous ending; Odell by John A. Williams, one of my favorite authors of all time; Arthur Flowers' (Another Good Loving Blues) Once Upon A Time, a tale that unfolds like a whispered melody sung with the rhythm of a beating heart; Alexs D. Pate's The Rumor, a haunting and poignant tale which placed me in the middle of an organized chaotic mind; and Jervey Tervalon (Dead Above Ground) sent me over-the-top with Twisted." --Thumper, AALBC.com
The
African American Writer's Handbook: How to Get in Print and Stay in Print
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Amazon
Format: Paperback, 352pp.
ISBN: 0345423275
Publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc.
Pub. Date: March 2000
With African Americans writing and buying books in record numbers, the time is ripe for a comprehensive publishing guide tailored expressly to the needs of this vibrant, creative community. The African American Writers Handbook meets this challenge perfectly. Read More
The Wisdom of the Elders
(Edited by Fleming)
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Format: Paperback, 343pp.
ISBN: 0345409752
Publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc.
Pub. Date: January 1997
Edition Desc: 1ST TRADE
In these troubled times, wisdom often seems in short supply. But as this magnificent volume reminds us, African Americans have been blessed with a precious legacy of wisdom, gained through long, hard years of struggle by those who have gone before. Wisdom is the most hallowed gift born of experience and endurance. The life-affirming guidance in The Wisdom of the Elders has been gleaned from this bountiful harvest and includes some of the most electrifying and deeply moving writings and speeches ever produced. Here are the unedited works of such luminaries as Sojourner Truth, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Elijah Muhammad, Lorraine Hansberry, Thurgood Marshall, Zora Neale Hurston, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, Marcus Garvey, Barbara Jordan, Paul Robeson, Jean Toomer, and many others.
Proverbs For The
People: Contemporary African-American Stories
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Amazon
Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Kensington (July 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0758202873
Forward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Edited by Tracey Price Thompson and TaRessa Stoval with Pearl Cleage, Donna Hill, Parry "Ebony Satin" Brown, Omar Tyree and others
If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing."
"Don't start none, won't be none." "If you don't stand for something
you'll fall for anything." Whether it was in the church on a hard-shined
wooden pew, or around the kitchen table after, listening to the wisdom
of mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, grandparents, friends, and
leaders, the messages of the proverbs resonate in the souls of most
African-Americans'a sweet refrain heard through striving, reaching,
loving, and living. In this powerful collection of stories based on
African, African-American, and Biblical proverbs, some of today's most
exciting new African-American writers tackle the unifying themes,
delicious wit and undeniable wisdom of the proverbs, making them sing
for a whole new generation.
In the moving "Love Can Move Mountains," author Elizabeth Atkins Bowman
explores the meaning of the African-American saying, "Mountain, get out
of my way!" in a story about the miraculous, mysterious power of a
mother's stand-firm love. In Arethia Hornsby's "My Momma Said'," two
friends go out on the town and get schooled in a life lesson that proves
the truth behind the ages-old African-American proverb, "Never judge a
book by its cover." Town gossip gets the best of a loyal wife and gives
credence to C.F. Pope's saying, "Never declare war unless you mean to do
battle," in Gwynne
Forster's wry tale of comeuppance, "First Thing Monday Morning." And
in the flirty short story, "Something Special," Venise Berry shows what
the Cape Verde Islands maxim, "Every week has its Friday" really means
as one woman's weekly ritual promises seven days' worth of sensual
satisfaction.
In addition to such established writers as Pearl Cleage, Omar Tyree,
Margaret Johnson-Hodge, Timmothy McCann,
Brandon
Massey, Kambon Obayani, Earl Sewell, Maxine Thompson, and others,
here, too, are rising stars in the African-American literary world,
including fourteen-year-old Kharel Price and fifteen-year-old Tierra
French, proving that the wisdom of the past lives on in the next
generation.
From the struggle to break the chains of the past, (Pat
G'Orge-Walker's "The Consequence") to the fight to keep hope alive
in the face of injustice, (Robert
Fleming's "A Crisis of Faith"), from the joys of loving an older
woman (Parry "Ebony Satin" Brown's "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do"),
to an African man's discovery of his own America (Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie's "Women Here Drive Buses"), this triumphant, stirring
anthology is a glorious reminder of the power of proverbs to heal, to
provoke, to unify, and to inspire.
Fleming's Work is also included in:
Dark Matter: The Anthology of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction by Black Writers
http://authors.aalbc.com/excerptdarkmatter.htm
Some of Robert Flemings Reviews and Interviews on AALBC.com
List of Reviews by Robert Fleming on AALBC.com
http://aalbc.it/robertflemingbookreviewsThree Days Before the Shooting by Ralph Ellison
http://aalbc.com/reviews/three_days_before_the_shooting.htmlInterview with asha bandele
http://authors.aalbc.com/ashe_bandele_interview.htmInterview with Colin Channer
http://aalbc.com/authors/colin_channer_interview.htmBeasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/beasts_of_no_nation.htmWith Billie by Julia Blackburn
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/with_billie.htmHokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor Edited by Paul Beatty
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/hokum1.htmSomething Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story by asha bandele
http://reviews.aalbc.com/something_like_beautiful.htm
Robert Fleming Official Website
http://robertflemingauthor.com/
