By Emanuel Carpenter

Since the advent of the Internet, online book clubs seem to be popping up everywhere. Many of the fly-by-night book clubs offer book reviews, online discussions, and free writers’ and readers’ events listing. Marlive Harris, owner of the Black online book club The G.R.I.T.S., has plans on breaking the mold.

The G.R.I.T.S., an acronym for Guys/Girls Raised in the South, is an online book club for men and women who love reading and discussing classic and contemporary Black Literature. Harris, a former librarian and educator living in Texas, began the club in the year 2000. Now, five years later, the club is celebrating their five-year anniversary, still going strong and now offering literary services for authors in the form of online promotions and advertising.

When we sat down with Marlive Harris and asked her what drew her to this profession, she stated, "My years as an educator and school librarian are the reasons I feel drawn to books and the people who write and publish them. Then when I add the years I’ve spent managing reading communities for adults and kids online and organizing literary events offline, I feel that online book promoting is the perfect profession for me."

Lovers of Black books can peruse Thegrits.com and find chats, author interviews, and the essential book reviews that give them the opportunity to learn more about books before they drop their hard-earned cash on the bookstore counter. The website also provides a link to Harris’s other creation, G.R.I.T.S. Kidz Book Club, an award-winning website devoted to young readers.

So whether you’re an author, adult reader, or a youngster ready to dive into your first book, you may want to remember to stop by TheGrits.com and find out what’s cookin’ in the Black literary world.

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