Carrying Jane Austen's Torch

Modern Romance Authors on Writing Novels With Social Justice Narratives

- BY REBEKAH L. FRASER

With the publication of Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Jane Austen became the first female English-language romance author. Simultaneously, she established romance as the genre that provides social commentary; reflects women as we see ourselves rather than as men see us; and respects women's values, ambitions, and struggles, whether they match or rival those of men.

Authors Lyssa Kay Adams, Jayne Ann Krentz, Angelina M. Lopez, Sarah MacLean, and Nikki Payne joined me to discuss the social justice themes in their books and how the genre carries Austen's legacy.

Your romance novels cover workplace harassment, domestic violence, police corruption, indigenous rights ... Why address social justice?

JAYNE: I never thought of myself as writing a social justice book. But social justice is the heart of all popular genre fiction.

REBEKAH: I always thought of your Fogg Lake series as addressing treatment and stigmatization of people with mental illness.

JAYNE: Before, I would've said Gothic—the woman who has to find her way out of the house on her own. So, thank you!

NIKKI: It can feel baked in the bread. The heroine in Pride and Protest has two degrees, lives in D.C., and can't afford to live on her own. She also wants love. She's swimming in this sea of incredibly political experiences. Oftentimes, we don't realize how enmeshed in the political we are.

ANGELINA: As a Latina in the Midwest, I was very othered, wanting to fit in, hiding my love of romance novels. In my 20s, I realized my understanding that romances were less important than other art forms was a male point of view. The female point of view was validated in these books. I fully embraced this career, this journey as a woman. Although I didn't understand it as a Latina, how much I was missing—