Tina McElroy Ansa

Who is Tina McElroy Ansa?

Tina McElroy Ansa is an African American novelist, filmmaker, teacher, and journalist. Born Tina McElroy to Walter J. and Nellie McElroy in Macon, Georgia, where she grew up in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood. After graduating from Spelman College and working for several years in a variety of positions at the Atlanta Constitution, she has written several novels and has been a frequent contributor to numerous periodicals, including the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She has also been featured on the television segment "Postcards from Georgia" on NICK@NITE News Sunday Morning. She instructs writing workshops at Spelman College, Emory University, and Coastal Georgia Community College. She lives with her filmmaker husband Jonée Ansa on St. Simons Island, Georgia where they collaborate on making movies and are active in community events to promote the arts.

Ansa's fiction portrays a variety of Black women in the recent and modern American South, with a blend of the supernatural and traditional superstition. Her first novel, Baby of the Family, 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 selected for the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults in 1990, and won the 1989 Georgia Authors Series Award.