Tina McElroy Ansa is a novelist, A new publisher (WWW.DOWNSOUTHPRESS.COM ), filmmaker, teacher and journalist. But above all, she is a storyteller. (WWW.TINAMCELROYANSA.COM)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 FAN WITH and YOU KNOW BETTER.In March 2007, Ms. Ansa launched an independent publishing company, DownSouth Press, with its focus on African-American literature, fiction and nonfiction. Her fifth novel, TAKING AFTER MUDEAR, a sequel to her bestselling UGLY WAYS, will be the lead title on DownSouth Press’s first list in the fall of 2007. DownSouth will publish established as well as emerging literary voices.Currently, she and her filmmaker husband Jonee’ Ansa also 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, which was nominated for a NAACP Image Award, 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.In the fall of 2004, Ms. Ansa established the Sea Island Writers Retreats on Sapelo Island, Georgia. The annual retreats seek to assist emerging and established writers in honing their work and skills in fiction, non-fiction, memoir and editing in sessions with professional writers and editors. In 2006, she extended the writers retreats throughout the country with Sea Island Writers Retreats…On the Road. The first traveling retreat was held in Atlanta, Georgia on Spelman College’s campus in April 2006.Together with Dazon Diallo of SisterLove Inc., in the spring of 2006, Ms. Ansa launched the South African African-American SisterLove Sisters Sharing (SAAASSS) book program that collects sizable numbers of signed books from African-American women authors that are shared with book clubs and organizations of women in South Africa. So far, the SAAASSS program has distributed more than 300 books through this on-going effort.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 around the country, 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.Ms. Ansa is an avid gardener, birder and naturalist. She always has collard greens and moonflowers growing in her garden.She can be reached through her website: www.tinamcelroyansa.com or www.downsouthpress.com.
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