Tina McElroy Ansa
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"Founder of DownSouth Press and New York Times Notable Book of the Year Author Tina McElroy Ansa "
Female
100 years old
SAINT SIMONS ISLAND, Georgia
United States
Last Login:7/17/2008
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| General | BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LAUNCHES PUBLISHING COMPANY AT ROSA PARKS MUSEUM
Novelist and writing teacher Tina McElroy Ansa announced March 9 at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery that she has launched an independent publishing company, DownSouth Press. Ansa was in Montgomery to lead a session at the regional conference of the National Association of Black Journalists. Her company will focus on African-American literature, fiction and nonfiction. DownSouth Press will be home to thoughtful work -- by established and new authors -- that is often under-marketed or even excluded from the current publishing landscape's focus on "niche," "urban" or "street" fiction.
"The Rosa Parks Museum is such a meaningful and appropriate place for me, a Southern black woman who came of age during the Civil Rights Movement, to announce the founding of an African-American publishing company," Ansa said. "In the same way that Mrs. Parks took a stand for freedom and justice, I hope that we at DownSouth Press can take a stand for meaningful and rich African-American literature."
Ansa, author of four highly acclaimed and best-selling novels, including "Baby of the Family" and "The Hand I Fan With," has a proven 14-year track record in the publishing industry as an author and mentor and more than 30 years experience as a journalist, teacher and editor. In 2004, she founded the Sea Island Writers Retreats on Sapelo Island, Georgia, to assist emerging writers in honing their skills and work.
"The writing, editing and teaching of American literature has been more than my way of making a living. It has been my calling," Ansa said. "Now, this exciting move into publishing is a natural step at a time when readers are clamoring for books that matter."
"I know that I can be a fine publisher," Ansa continued. "The kind of involved smart publisher I dreamed of and the type that every serious writer deserves for his or her work. Each of our lists will feature a new book by a well-known, established author and at least one debut work by a new voice in American literature."
DownSouth Press' first list will be released in the fall and the lead title will be Ansa's new novel, "Taking After Mudear," a sequel to the author's groundbreaking "Ugly Ways," winner of Blackboard Best-Seller Top Fiction Award
"I want DownSouth Press to be a haven that values authors, great story-telling and beautiful writing by publishing and nurturing quality work that elevates the reader and writer," Ansa said. "We plan to publish the books that will be classics in years to come."
Ansa said her press will focus on marketing authors beyond the short-term window that larger publishers allow. DownSouth Press will use innovative approaches -- both face-to-face and via the Internet with satellite interviews, web book club meetings and live chats and readings -- to market authors and books to readers hungry for meaningful stories that truly reflect the diversity of their culture, spirit and lives.
For more information on DownSouth Press and Tina McElroy Ansa, visit WWW.TINAMCELROYANSA.COM or WWW.DOWNSOUTHPRESS.COM
| | Music | Brazilian music, Flora Purim, The Emotions, TLC, Michael Franks, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Airto, Jean-Luc Ponty, Cassandra Wilson, |
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Tina McElroy Ansa's Details
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| Status: | Married | | Here for: | Networking | | Orientation: | Straight | | Hometown: | Macon, GA | | Ethnicity: | Black / African descent | | Zodiac Sign: | Scorpio | | Children: | Proud parent | | Education: | College graduate | | Occupation: | Novelist/Publisher |
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Tina McElroy Ansa's Schools
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Spelman College
Atlanta, GA
Graduated: 1971
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: English
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1967 to 1971 |
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About me:
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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