Beverly Jenkins

Beverly Jenkins is an American author of historical and contemporary romance novels with a particular focus on 19th-century African American life. She was a 2013 NAACP Image Award nominee and, in 1999, was voted one of the Top 50 Favorite African American writers of the 20th century by the African American Literature Book Club. Jenkins's historical romances are set during a period of African American history that she believes is often overlooked. This made it difficult to break into publishing, because publishers weren't sure what to do with stories that involved African Americans but not slavery.