Taking After Mudear
Tina McElroy Ansa  is a novelist, publisher, filmmaker, teacher and journalist. But above all, she is a storyteller.She calls herself part of a long and honored writing tradition, one of those little Southern girls who always knew she wanted to be a writer.   She grew up in Middle Georgia in the 1950s 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 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 spring of 2008. DownSouth Press will publish established as well as emerging literary voices.Ms. Ansa s first novel, Baby of the Family, was published in 1989 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times.  Baby of the Family was also on the African-America Best-seller List for Paperback Fiction. In October 2001, Baby of the Family was chosen by the Georgia Center for the Book as one of the Top 25 books Every Georgian Should Read.   The book was also awarded The American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 1990, and won the 1989 Georgia Authors Series Award.She and her husband, AFI (American Film Institute) Fellow filmmaker JoneÃ© Ansa are currently adapting Baby of the Family for the screen in a feature film starring Alfre Woodard, Loretta Devine, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Vanessa Williams, Todd Bridges, Pam Grier, and Tonea Stewart.  The author is collaborating with her husband on the screenplay for Baby of the Family, which he will direct and shoot in her hometown of Macon, Georgia. Ms. Ansa is executive producer.Harcourt Brace published Ms. Ansa s second novel, Ugly Ways, in July 1993.  The African-America Blackboard List named the novel Best Fiction in 1994.  Ms. Ansa was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 1994 for Ugly Ways and the novel was on the African-American Best-sellers/Blackboard List for more than two years. In 2005, the novel was included in the current list of the Top 25 Books Every Georgian Should Read by the Georgia Center for the Book. Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard has entered into a partnership with Ms. Ansa to bring Ugly Ways to the screen. Photo credit: Jonee AnsaThe Hand I Fan With, her third novel, was published in October of 1996. This is the beautifully erotic love story of Lena McPherson and the 100-year old ghost Herman she calls up to love and cherish her. The novel was awarded the Georgia Authors Series Award for 1996.  Ms. Ansa also won this same award for her debut novel, Baby of the Family, and is the only two-time winner of the award.Tina McElroy Ansa s fourth novel, You Know Better, was published in Spring 2002 by William Morrow Publishers. The novel, told in the voices of three generations of the Pines  women, is the story of LaShawndra Pines, a 19-year-old aspiring hoochie mama who aspires to dance in the background of a music video. It addresses the contemporary issues and ethos of young people and received a Best Fiction award by the American Library Association.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.