Ivy-League Romance Writers?

[sybylla]

Had this great article sent to me by a friend. Thought I'd share this fresh look at a much maligned genre.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990708005
Hipsters lust for romance
By Todd Plitt and DEIRDRE DONAHUE
USA TODAY
• July 8, 2009

Thirty years ago, “Ivy League romance writer” was like “jumbo shrimp” - an oxymoron. Back then, nobody could have predicted that in April 2009, Princeton University would host a scholarly conference featuring romance writer Eloisa James, author of Desperate Duchesses and Potent Pleasures.

Or that a Harvard grad named Julia Quinn would drop out of Yale Medical School to scale the best-seller lists with titles like The Viscount Who Loved Me and How to Marry a Marquis.

Any regrets? “None! I’m married to a physician,” says Quinn, 39, whose historical romance, What Happens in London, went on sale last week. “I have a way better deal as a romance writer.”

Like the overflowing bosoms on their paperback jackets, romance novelists have burst out - bold and unashamed - led by writers like James. James is the pseudonym of Shakespeare scholar Mary Bly, a tenured professor at Fordham University whose resume includes Harvard, Oxford and a Yale Ph.D. cherry on top. Last month, the highbrow The New Yorker ran an admiring profile of Nora Roberts.

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