Eric Jerome Dickey, a Memphis-based author who garnered nationwide fame for his novels on Black life in America, died in Los Angeles on Sunday, according to a statement from his publisher. He was 59. Over his career, Dickey penned 29 novels, centering around romance and relationships. In 2004, The New York Times dubbed him the “Chick-Lit King.” “Mr. Dickey has established himself as one of the few kings of popular African-American fiction for women,” the Times wrote. “He was one of the first male African American fiction writers to penetrate that sister-friendly fiction market that was so popular in the 90s,” Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati, the founder of the African-American Children’s Book Project, told TheGrio. He is survived by four daughters.