By Tom Tolan of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 1, 2010
In 2005, Charles Burgess, a used-car salesman on the north side, self-published his first novel, “Homies,” a story of three guys who all have trouble staying in monogamous relationships, and thus entered the burgeoning world of urban fiction.
Today, he’s got two novels in print, one on the way to publication and several others in the works – including a trilogy of gangster novels called “Ghetto Sopranos.” And in just the last six months, he’s become a book publisher, signing six other authors, four of them from Milwaukee, to his Underground Publications imprint.
In October, he staged a Milwaukee Urban Book Festival for Underground Publications and other authors at Club 502, a bar and restaurant at N. 5th St. and W. Garfield Ave.
Burgess is providing much of the local pop in the nationwide explosion of a literary genre known for its gritty, often violent and even raunchy novels describing the hard life of America’s central cities.
Urban fiction has been described by some as the print version of gangster rap. It’s generally traced back to a 1969 novel called “Pimp” by ex-pimp Iceberg Slim, and to a series of novels written in the 1970s by a heroin addict and sometime convict named Donald Goines. Read more…
Source: www.jsonline.com
