choc-lit

Chick-lit we know.  Bridget Jones’ Diary, published in 1996, was one of the first.  Australian Indigenous author, Anita Heiss, decided to make use of the popular genre to introduce mainstream Australia to Indigenous culture and history and to weave in some of the issues that confront Indigenous people.  It was to be chick-lit with a purpose.  Her first novel in this style was Not Meeting Mr Right, published in 2007. As she did publicity for the book she encountered a broadcaster who jokingly referred to it as choc-lit — chick-lit with Indigenous characters.  Heiss decided to adopt the term.

Many other Indigenous women have followed in the footsteps of Heiss, so that blak romance is now flourishing in a book publishing scene where romance and romantasy are propping up sales.

2026 promises a surge in choc-lit.