Who among us hasn't started a project and then realized that you've inadvertently wandered into a longstanding and contentious debate? I enlist the help of two experts to unravel why I started the Shelf Love Modern Romance Canon project. First, Katrina Jackson helps me unravel some of the ways my professional and educational background made me think this was a logical thing to do. Then, Eric Selinger gives some backstory into the academic and institutional reasons canons exist, and why those who study, read, and write the popular romance genre have been circling this question for decades and will continue into the future.

It's a story of nostalgia, red tape, gatekeeping, search engine optimization, and my unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Show Notes:

Shelf Love:

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• 58 Romance Novellas For A Quick Hit of Hope
• Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
• Low-Cost Mental Health Resources & Alternatives recommended by Hannah Hearts Romance - link to blog post

Guest: Katrina Jackson

Twitter | Instagram | Kat’s Email newsletter | Beautiful & Dirty

Kat's other episodes: An Unconditional Freedom | Polyamory/Financial Conversations | Kink | Angst | Religion | History | Blind Date With A Book Boyfriend by Lucy Eden

Guest: Eric Selinger

Twitter | JPRStudies.org | The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction

The Current (and growing) Shelf Love Modern Romance Canon Nomination List (Whoa, watch out controversy)

Notes:

Notes from Katrina's section

• Beverly Jenkins on The Turn On Pod
• EH Carr's What is History - a commonly-used text to introduce students to history
• Alisha Rai's Serving Pleasure
• Kit Rocha's Beyond Series
• Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
• Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina

Notes from Eric's Section:

• EM Hull's The Sheik
• The Rosary by Florence L. Barclay
• affective reasoning - I looked it up
• "How can you talk about contemporary fantasy if you don't know The Silmarillion?
• Noah Berlatsky - There is no Romance Canon (Well that's just your opinion, man.)
• Jodi McAlister - down (under) in Australia (it's a tired joke, but sorry, I'm tired.)
• Len Barot, the publisher of Bold Strokes Books, who publishes lesbian romance as Radclyffe.

Shelf Love:

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• Email: [email protected]