Edwards, the author of seven books, was the director of the Harlem Writers Guild, which was where I met her. In 2010, the year of her death, Sisters in Crime honored her by creating the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, which they grant annually. She was a prolific writer who wrote 14 mysteries. Bland’s police procedurals defied stereotypical depictions of Black women in mystery fiction and opened up a new way of writing about law enforcement. She had a no-nonsense attitude that also marked her character Marti MacAlister, one of the first Black female police detectives. Once I begin reading, I can’t put it down.Įleanor Taylor Bland’s lovely spirit and soothing Mid-western voice always put this nervous new kid on the crime-writing block at her ease. Whenever I need to remember the necessity of wit and social consciousness in my writing, I pick up one of her Blanche books. In 2020, the year she died, she was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Neely, a celebrated author, had won the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards with her first novel Blanche on the Lam. It was a kind gesture, a thoughtful show of support for an unknown writer her first time out. I met Barbara Neely when she dropped into my first reading at a book store in Boston.
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