Exclusive Interview
Stacey Abrams Uplifts Romance Novels Amid Political Turmoil: ‘We Can’t Let the Darkest Story Control the Narrative’
Romance may be the future to uniting women from all walks of life for good causes, as was exhibited this Galentine’s Day at the Brooklyn-based, women-owned bookshop The Ripped Bodice during an event helmed by perennial Georgia Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams. However, the romance community may know her by a different name: her nom de plume Selena Montgomery, under which she penned eight romantic thrillers between the time she was in law school and her early years serving in the Georgia state legislature.
“I actually got to know the Ripped Bodice when I ran for governor in 2018,” Abrams told Swooon. “I worked with romance novelists during the work I was doing in voter suppression.”
The romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn, New York, has long been known for its engagement with its readers, hosting several community events each month with reservations required or tickets for purchase that often sell out. These nighttime gatherings feature famous authors, local artists, and even politicians. In this case, for a special Galentine’s Day event on February 13, they managed to find the intersection of not only where romance meets politics but where publishing meets non-profits.
“In a moment that feels so dark for so many given the attacks on women, the attacks on communities of color, the attack on difference, romance is one of the few genres that is built on the idea of telling everyone’s story,” Abrams noted. “That no matter who you are, there is someone who loves you, and there’s someone for you to love.”
Partnering with VOW for Girls, a non-profit founded in 2018 with a mission to partner with local leaders worldwide to eradicate the causes of child marriage, The Ripped Bodice brought in dozens of readers to meet and write with romance authors including Bella Matthews, Emily Ryland, Tanvier Peart, Emily Hyland, and Rebecca Fishbein.
The campaign Every Girl Deserves a Happily Ever After paired romance fiction with political and female empowerment. Per the description: “At the heart of this campaign is a simple belief: every girl deserves to become the protagonist in her own story, empowered with the freedom to choose her path, free from the pressures of forced marriage.”
For Abrams, it was an obvious connection that the romance community would be an effective partner in this mission to support disempowered girls around the world, as she herself presented the idea of this collaboration to VOW for Girls founder Mabel van Oranje.
“This is an engaged community that understands how the marginalized deserves to have a voice, and whether that’s a voice told through their stories or voice told through their actions,” said Abrams. “I was so proud to be part of connecting Mabel van Oranje and VOW for Girls to the romance industry because I knew it was an industry that would understand the mission and would get the message and do the work.”
An enthusiastic crowd filled the quaint Brooklyn bookshop, as readers gathered around tables of bookmark-making materials, writing prompts, and book signings each hosted by the featured authors of the event. Tickets for the event were $35, with one hundred percent of the proceeds being donated to VOW for Girls—a cause politically-minded romance authors such as Peart, author of kink-positive romance novels with happily ever afters, could get behind.
“So, my nine-to-five is in public policy. When I wrote Ella Gets the D, I was getting a bill signed into New York state law,” shared Peart in a conversation with Swooon. “The Ripped Bodice is a special place and a second home. I had my first debut book event here. I had another book event here, so I was very grateful when we felt they reached out… I’m just happy that we have found different ways to uplift happily ever afters and to also talk about some very important topics that affect so many millions of people that have been hiding in plain sight.”
Hyland, the author who led an activity for ticket holders to anonymously write their worst breakup stories, recounts navigating her divorce and and then sustaining a business partnership with her ex in her latest poetry collection, Divorced Business Partners.
“I felt a lot of shame when I got divorced because I was the one who was left or that’s the story I told myself, at least at that time. But it was more complicated than that,” Hyland told Swooon. “We all go through this, which is the reason why I wanted to do this exercise tonight.”
Community, therapy, and healing were at the heart of the evening. Between the campaign, the holiday, and buzz in the empowering atmosphere, readers and authors alike balanced escapism with purpose and fiction storytelling with present real-world horrors.
“I’ve written about romance. I’ve written about politics. I’ve written about romance and politics. What I believe is that we have to remember that all these are our stories,” said Abrams. “And we can’t let the darkest story control the narrative.”
Additional reporting by Lauren Dehollogne.
