But they loved the book and they loved him. The experience planted a seed in Bunn, who went on to speak to more book clubs, and in 2003 he wrote a novel about them.

Credit: Michael Blackshire

Credit: Michael Blackshire

That was the same year he launched his National Book Club Conference, an organization comprised mostly of Black women in book clubs who meet annually in Atlanta to mingle with their favorite authors, attend seminars and explore their love of the written word.

“I left each of those book club meetings feeling uplifted and spirited,” Bunn said. “Black people are consumed with reading our stories, told by us, in books. We were able to leverage that with the National Book Club Conference and bring readers and authors together in a way that’s beneficial for everyone.”

This year’s conference, the 19th, kicks off on July 27 at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead and will feature authors ReShonda Tate Billingsley, John Blake, Kevin Powell, Ilyasah Shabazz and Eriq La Salle.

Bunn estimates that about 99% of the people who attend the annual conference, whom he calls “readers,” are Black women. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, women read more books than men, and college-educated Black women read more than all groups.

For authors, book clubs have become an essential part of their marketing and sales strategies, as well as a font for criticism, feedback and ideas.

In 1996, Oprah Winfrey debuted Oprah’s Book Club on her show, which launched emerging authors and brought new eyes and revenue to veterans. In the 15 years that the Book Club was on the show, a marketing professor at Fordham University estimated that the 70 books Winfrey picked sold more than 55 million copies combined.

The African American Literature Book Club, a clearinghouse for the clubs, reports that there are more than 100 Black clubs in Georgia, from the Imani Literary Group to the Paul Robeson Reading Group.

Credit: Katrina Williams

Credit: Katrina Williams

Katrina Williams is the president of the Mind and Soul Alliance Book Club, which is celebrating 25 years of reading books that “feed the mind,” like June’s selection, Attica Locke’s “The Cutting Season.”

She started reading James Baldwin and Claude McKay when she was five years old and it has carried her through adulthood.

“I was able to escape and make my world bigger by reading,” said Williams, 61, a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and Atlanta University. “Books can take you away to other worlds. That is what I attribute to the longevity of our club — we’ve always kept the book the main thing. When we get together, we are talking about the book.”

From newspaper writing to writing 13 books

Bunn, a graduate of Norfolk State University and native of Washington, D.C., started his journalism career in 1983 and covered sports for New York Newsday, the New York Daily News and finally The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In 1992, on a beach in Hawaii, he read Terry McMillan’s “Waiting to Exhale,” and thought he could separate what he was covering as a sportswriter and tell stories about relationships and Black love from a male perspective.

Credit: National Book Club Conference

Credit: National Book Club Conference

“It was never a dream or an intention to be an author,” Bunn said. “But in the process of writing it, I really enjoyed it. It frees you up as a writer and it’s very liberating.”

Bunn left journalism for good in 2008, as part of a large group of AJC veterans who took a buyout. By then, he had already written five books and the conference was growing annually.

“It actually wasn’t a difficult decision at all because journalism had changed so much,” said Bunn, who has written 13 books, including 10 novels.

Credit: Michael Blackshire

Credit: Michael Blackshire

Walter Mosley, Alice Walker have attended

Bunn’s first conference in 2003 attracted 200 people. On a whim, he invited one of his idols, crime novelist Walter Mosley, to come to that conference. Mosley said yes.

“Walter Mosley really validated the conference,” said Bunn, who would go on to name the conference’s annual dinner and top author prize after Mosley. “The concern when we started was who were we going to get to come. Now, the problem is, every author wants to come.”

In the past, Alice Walker, Iyanla Vanzant, Susan Taylor, Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Andrew Young, Tananarive Due, Zane, Ntozake Shange, Pearl Cleage and Tina McElroy Ansa have appeared to talk about books. As well as a host of lesser-known writers.

“When I started out in my career, I was not as popular as many of the other authors,” said New York Times best-selling author Kimberla Lawson Roby, who has attended every conference. “But once you were able to start connecting with book clubs, you are connecting with so many more readers.”

Credit: National Book Club Conference

Credit: National Book Club Conference

About 400 attendees expected this year

Women travel from all over the country to attend the Atlanta-based conference. They drive, fly and make girls’ trips out of the event. They have unofficially dubbed it, “Literary Bliss.”

Before she attended her first conference, Williams was a “book nerd” who chased authors down at bookstore signings, where she might catch a J. California Cooper at the old Oxford Books or a pre-famous E. Lynn Harris when he was still selling books out of the trunk of his car.

She has been to about a half dozen conferences, where all of her favorite authors are under one roof.

“Once I attended the first one, I knew I would never miss another one,” she said. “I love how well-organized it is and the diversity and variety of the authors and the vendors.”

Credit: National Book Club Conference

Credit: National Book Club Conference

While numbers have peaked at around 800 people in the past, Bunn and conference veterans say they prefer smaller numbers to maintain a level of intimacy.

About 400 people are expected this year.

“It is more of an experience than an event,” said Roby, who has gone on to write 29 books and sell more than 3 million of them. “I remember the first year that I attended. I said to Curtis, ‘You are really on to something.’ It went on to do exactly what I expected it to many times over.”