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Biography of Terry McMillanName: Terry McMillanBirth Date: October 18, 1951 Death Date: N/A Place of Birth: Port Huron, Michigan, United States Nationality: American Gender: Female Occupations: writer Terry McMillan Terry McMillan (born 1951), an African American novelist and short story writer, profiled in her works the urban experiences of African American women and men.The oldest of five children, Terry McMillan was born on October 18, 1951, in Port Huron, Michigan, a predominately white, working-class, factory city. Her father, who suffered from tuberculosis and was confined to a sanitarium during most of McMillan's childhood, was a blue-collar worker. He also suffered from alcoholism and was physically abusive to his wife. They divorced when McMillan was 13. Her mother, in order to support the family, held various jobs as a domestic, an auto worker, and a pickle factory employee.To assist her mother with family finances, McMillan, at age 16, got a job as a page reshelving books in a local library. There, she discovered the world of the imagination. She became an avid reader, and enjoyed the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…appeared in the Village Voice, there are many similarities between the novel and its author, including a young Jamaican boyfriend she met on the island. Some critics regarded Stella as largely autobiographical light weight fluff without McMillan's customary satirical bite. Others warned against letting real-life similarities blur the novel's larger message about exercising personal freedom in the way one chooses to live.There was no question in the late 1990s that the former writing professor at Stanford and the University of Wyoming had established herself as a major novelist and pioneer in a new genre of fiction--the African American urban romance novel. Associated Works Disappearing Acts, Mama (Book) Further Reading Critical commentary of McMillan's works is provided in Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 50 (1988) and Volume 61 (1990). Also worth reading are articles in Callaloo (Summer 1988); Esquire (July 1988); Village Voice (May 8, 1990 and May 21, 1996); Essence (February 1990, October 1992, and June 1996); Time (May 6, 1996); and Ebony (July 1996). |