|
Tina McElroy Ansa is a novelist, filmmaker, teacher and journalist. But above all, she is a storyteller.
Ms. Ansa calls herself part of a writing tradition, one of those little Southern girls who always knew she wanted to tell stories. She grew up in Middle Georgia in the 1950's hearing her grandfather's stories on the porch of her family home and strangers' stories downtown in her father's juke joint, which have inspired Mulberry, Georgia, the mythical world which is the setting of her four novels, BABY OF THE FAMILY, UGLY WAYS, THE HAND I FAND WITH and YOU KNOW BETTER.
Currently, she and her filmmaker husband Jonee’ Ansa are adapting BABY OF THE FAMILY for a feature film.
In 2005, Ms. Ansa was awarded the 2005 Stanley W. Lindberg Award for her body and work and for contributions to the literary arts community of Georgia. Her first novel BABY OF THE FAMILY was selected for the 2002 list 25 Books Every Georgian Should Read. In 2005, her second novel UGLY WAYS was included in that year’s list of 25 Books Every Georgian Should Read. The lists are compiled and issued by the Georgia Center for the Book. In 2002, Ms Ansa was inducted into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent at the Gwendolyn Brooks Center of Chicago State University.
Ms. Ansa writes magazine and newspaper articles, Op-Ed page pieces and book reviews for the Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, The Atlanta Constitution, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Charlotte Observer, and the Florida Times-Union. Her articles have also appeared in Essence magazine, The Crisis magazine, Ms. Magazine, America magazine, Student Traveler and Atlanta magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in Callaloo, Shooting Star and Catalyst literary magazines.
In addition to lecturing and reading at universities, colleges, libraries and bookstores in Georgia, California, Florida, New York, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, North and South Carolina, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Colorado, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Maryland, the author has lectured at the Smithsonian’s African-American Center’s Author’s Series, the Richard Wright/Zora Neale Hurston Foundation, the PEN/Faulkner Reading Series, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Schomburg Center and the PEN American Center in New York City.
|
