On Writing--Professional Spotlight

Photo Credit: Jonee' Ansa

We are very pleased to have here today at The Editing Life, bestselling and critically acclaimed author Tina McElroy Ansa; her novels include You Know Better, Taking After Mudear, Ugly Ways and The Hand I Fan With. Tina's novels are absolute treasures and her fans are many, including EditingGenius. It's a real treat to have her and she offers some really wonderful, thoughtful and concrete advice to writers, and an inspiring perspective on publishing. So without further ado...

Provide a snapshot of your writing career.

I've been a writer and editor my entire career. I always knew

I wanted to write fiction. (Southern black girl listening to middle Georgia tales growing up.) My first job was as copy editor on universal desk of the morning newspaper The Atlanta Constitution (now The AJC). First African-American woman in the newsroom!! Did feature writing, news reporting, editing, and layout. Left in 1979 to free-lance and write fiction. Found my "home" on St. Simons Island, Georgia, part of the history/culture-rich stretch of sea islands off the Southeast coast of the U.S. So far, have lived on St. Simons 30 years. My first novel BABY OF THE FAMILY published in 1989. Four other novels have followed: UGLY WAYS, THE HAND I FAN WITH, YOU KNOW BETTER, and TAKING AFTER MUDEAR. Working on sixth novel and with filmmaker husband Jonee`Ansa on movie adaptation of BABY OF THE FAMILY.

In 2004, established The Sea Island Writers Retreats on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Have since held these writers workshops on St. Simons Island, in Atlanta, Maryland, Florida and at high school and colleges around the country. In 2007, founded independent publishing company, DownSouth Press.

How has your perspective on writing and publishing changed over the years?

My perspective has, necessarily, changed along with the business over the decades. In the early years of my publishing life in the late 1980s and through the 1990s, there was not nearly the competition from so many other writers looking to get published. And I think writers have to be more flexible, ingenious, savvy and willing to do the work, which sometimes involves skills other than writing and editing, such as marketing, public speaking, kissing babies. : )

Many veteran authors have turned to self-publishing rather than re-sign with traditional publishers. You're one of them. Why was self-publishing an attractive option to you?

A number of reasons.
 

I am not alone in feeling that there is so much being published in the last 10 or so years under the banner of African-American literature that does not truly reflect our culture, our lives and our ethos. And when it does, it reflects a very narrow portion of who we are and how we live, feel and dream.

That's why I launched DownSouth Press. I'm not trying to compete with the big companies, but to my part to offer an alternative to the current wave of urban fiction, quasi-"erotic" works, badly written, constructed and edited works that have left so many of our readers insulted and hungry for a real rich reading experience.

Although it is not easy for anyone to do the work to be published, African-American writers of solidly and beautifully crafted works have been finding it more and more difficult to be published by mainstream companies. Writers are told there is no market for these kinds of works, but readers continue to clamor for writing that is worth their attention and reading time.

Established writers are finding is near impossible to get an new book contract. Yet, they continue to write.

I want DownSouth Press to be a haven that values authors, great storytelling and beautiful writing by publishing and nurturing quality work that elevates the reader and writer. We plan to publish the books not just for the moment, but books that will be classics in years to come. Books of substance and exploration and fearlessness that qualify as literature.

Our 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.
 

Would you ever return to the traditional publishing model?
 

Of course, I would accept a contract from a larger publisher if they respected and supported my work in a true way: meaning publicity, interaction, taking advantage of social media and all innovative ways to get me and my work to readers and thinkers.

There are certainly advantaged to having a large company behind your work: wider resources (money!), contacts, perceived respectability. The deal would just have to balance out and make sense for me and my work. The publisher would certainly have to be as smart as the CEO of DownSouth Press!

What are your present goals for your writing career?

 
As a publisher and writer, that's what I want to continue doing: writing and publishing.
I look forward to continuing to write fiction. I am working on my sixth novel now. The idea of exploring more of the mythical world of Mulberry, Georgia and its residents, alive and dead, excites me and my readers as well.

I am working two small non-fiction books. One is a writer's guide and journey.
 

What new writers are you most impressed with? Why?

Oh! Don't want to leave anyone out, but some of the ones who come to mind:

Attica Locke

Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Tayari Jones

Lori Tharps

Ernessa Carter

Some established writers worth the mention:

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

Edwidge Danticat

Pearl Cleage

Their work is fresh, thoughtful, well-written, carefully edited. Their styles, genres and subjects vary, but they stay on point with keeping the writing, good strong writing, at the forefront.


What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

--READ! READ! Read widely as part of your daily routine. Read writers whose styles you admire. Read who those writers have read and currently read. Read classics. Read book reviews. Read the texts. Make up your own mind. Ask librarians for recommendations.

-- Read the news. Newspapers, blogs, magazines. Don't just watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and think you are current and qualified to share and shape opinions. Know what's going on in your world. Investigate, research, think. Writers and editors are blessed to have professions that nourish and encourage curiosity. Take advantage.

--Write consistently. Every day if you call yourself a writer. Journals, notes, post-its, transcriptions all count.

--"Thinking time is working time." If you want your writing to evoke thought, memories and emotions in your readers, you as the writer have to bring those things to the work.

--Follow your favorite writers and editors on Twitter and FB. You will get a mini-writers workshop from their advice and comments.

--Re-writing is as important as your first draft. With each reading of your work (aloud at some point), you should look to make it sharper, deeper, clearer.

Tina McElroy Ansa
Author, Publisher, Teacher, Filmmaker, Journalist

Tina McElroy Ansa is a novelist, publisher, filmmaker, teacher and journalist. But above all, she is a storyteller and cultural icon.

She is at work on her sixth novel, FROM NOW ON, to be published by DownSouth Press, the independent publishing company Ms Ansa established nearly a decade ago.

Ms. Ansa received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from her alma mater Spelman College in April of 2011. The next month, First Lady Michelle Obama quoted passages from Ms. Ansa’s first novel BABY OF THE FAMILY in her 2011 remarks at Spelman College’s commencement.

Later that summer, the writer was the recipient of the 2011 Bebe Moore Campbell Memorial Award from the National Book Club Conference. She has been awarded the Stanley W. Lindberg Award for her body and work and for contributions to the literary arts community of Georgia.

In the fall of 2004, Ms. Ansa established the Annual 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 traveling retreat is held in Atlanta, Georgia on Spelman College’s campus annually in April. Ms. Ansa also private Sea Island Writers Retreats for colleges, writers conferences and smaller motivated groups.

Since 2007, Ms. Ansa has shared a partnership with the international fashion design company TIBI. She is proud to wear the label’s fashions on her book tours, speaking engagements and performances with the international storytelling organization The MOTH.

With the Peabody Award-winning organization The Moth, she has told some of her own stories before audiences of more than 1,500 at Moth shows at Town Hall in Times Square and at Cooper Union Hall in New York City. Her stories can be heard on “The Moth Radio Hour” on hundreds of Public Radio Exchange stations around the country.

Tina McElroy Ansa has been a regular contributor to the award-winning television series CBS Sunday Morning with her essays, “Postcards from Georgia” which were filmed on location on her beautiful Georgia Sea Island home of St. Simons Island.

Her first novel BABY OF THE FAMILY, a “New York Times Notable Book of the Year,” 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 and remained on the Blackboard Bestsellers List for four (4) years running, was included in that year’s list of 25 Books Every Georgian Should Read, as was TAKING AFTER MUDEAR on the 2008 list. The lists are compiled and issued by the Georgia Center for the Book. Ms Ansa has been inducted into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent at the Gwendolyn Brooks Center of Chicago State University

Her fifth novel, TAKING AFTER MUDEAR, a sequel to her bestselling second novel UGLY WAYS and the lead title on DownSouth Press’s first list, was published in Spring 2008. As with all her novels, the late nationally acclaimed artist and Spelman Sister Varnette P. Honeywood has created an original artwork for the new book’s jacket cover.

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 earlier novels, BABY OF THE FAMILY, UGLY WAYS, THE HAND I FAN WITH and YOU KNOW BETTER.

In March 2007, Ms. Ansa launched the independent publishing company, DownSouth Press, with its focus on African-American literature -- fiction and nonfiction. DownSouth will publish established as well as emerging literary voices.

Currently, Ms. Ansa and her filmmaker husband Jonee’ Ansa (AFI) who live on St. Simons Island, GA, also are adapting BABY OF THE FAMILY as a feature film.

As part of her new incarnation as a raconteur, in February of 2011, Ms. Ansa traveled to New York City to perform on the main stage of the MOTH monthly event. She shared a story to an audience of 900 at the Cooper Union Great Hall on the same stage where Sojourner Truth gave her historic “Ain’t I a Woman Speech.”

As a raconteur, she was also part of the premier October 2010 Unchained Tour of storytellers traveling to 12 cities and towns in Georgia to share stories and support independent book stores.

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 traveling retreat is held in Atlanta, Georgia on Spelman College’s campus annually in April.

Together with Spelman Sister 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.

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.

In addition to lecturing and reading at universities, colleges, libraries, conferences, book festivals 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.

She has been a writer-in-residence, teacher and workshop leader numerous times at her alma mater Spelman College.

Ms. Ansa is an avid gardener, birder and naturalist. She always has collard greens and moonflowers growing in her garden.

For more information and to reach Ms. Ansa, go to the websites: www.tinamcelroyansa.com or www.downsouthpress.com.