Stacey Abrams Has Been Pivotal for Voter Turnout—But She's Also a Romance Novelist

From Oprah Magazine

• Stacey Abrams is a politician, voting writes activist, lawyer, and a successful romance novelist.

• Under the pen name Selena Montgomery, Abrams has written eight novels.

• We have her full list of books below.

Following a long Election Day—that has turned into a nail-biting Election Week—former Georgia candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, is now earning much-earned recognition for her work to help turn the state "purple" in 2020. Georgia has gone Republican in presidential elections since 1992, but record voter turnout has seen over 2.4 million votes for presidential candidate Joe Biden, giving him an extremely narrow lead over President Donald Trump. In the past two years, Abrams has worked tirelessly to recruit voters of color in Georgia, helping to register an estimated 800,000 since 2018, according to Newsweek.

Another humble fact about the voting rights activist? She's a successful romance novelist, having written her first book, Rules of Engagement, during her third year as a student at Yale University. Under the pseudonym Selena Montgomery, the politician penned eight books, with the last (Deception) published in 2009. She also wrote a memoir in 2018 and is gearing up to release the political thriller, While Justice Sleeps, in May 2021.

"The act of writing is integral to who I am," she told the Washington Post in 2018. "I’m a writer, a politician, a tax attorney, a civic leader and an entrepreneur. I am proud of what I’ve accomplished."

Her romantic suspense novels include the love stories of a lawyer and sheriff, two undercover agents, and a sexy ethnobotanist—all with the goal of illustrating that Black women can be “as adventurous and attractive as any white woman” in fiction, as she told The Washington Post.

"Telling a well-crafted story is hard. Full stop," she said. "Regardless of genre, good writing is good writing. Romance is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, and I’m honored to be in the company of extraordinary writers."

So if you're as interested in her imagination as you are her politics, you can find a full list of Abrams'—sorry, Selena Montgomery's—books below.

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