Award-Winning Novelist, Filmmaker Tina McElroy Ansa Dies At 74

The novelist founded the Sea Island Writers Retreats and the DownSouth Press to support emerging and established writers.

Tina McElroy Ansa has died at age 74. A friend of the novelist and filmmaker shared the news on behalf of the author’s family.

Wanda Lloyd posted a message on Facebook on Sept. 11 with a snapshot of McElroy Ansa at a Savannah rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, a moment she said may have been the last photo taken of the journalist before her death. A cause of death wasn’t specified, as Lloyd expressed that the family is still “digesting this loss” of the Georgia native and her former Spelman College roommate.

McElroy Ansa, who described herself in her bio as a “Southern girl” from Middle Georgia, grew up in the 1950s and was inspired by the stories of her grandfather and strangers who visited her father’s jukejoint. Wrapped in her passion, she became a notable storyteller and award-winning novelist in the writing community, establishing several initiatives and organizations to support and mentor emerging and established writers.

The cultural icon is the founder and publisher of DownSouth Press, an independent publishing company she launched in 2007 to promote African American fiction and non-fiction literature and ensure its “beloved and important writers have a loving home for their work.” Dedicated to helping writers sharpen their storytelling skills, McElroy Ansa established the annual Sea Island Writers Retreats on Sapelo Island, Georgia, offering mentorship from professional authors and editors. Within two years of its launch, the retreat expanded throughout the country, in addition to the annual private retreats she held at Spelman College.

The Spelman alum has been a writer-in-residence at her alma mater and a lecturer 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. Her work extended to writing for magazines and newspapers, which included The Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, The Atlanta Constitution, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Charlotte Observer, and the Florida Times-Union. McElroy Ansa stood before large audiences to share some of her stories with the Peabody Award-winning organization The Moth.

The novelist has published several works, which include Baby of the Family, which former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama quoted from during her 2011 commencement remarks at Spelman; Ugly Ways, her Blackboard Bestseller and lead title on DownSouth Press’ first list which gained her a nomination for an NAACP Image Award; fiction novels The Hand I Fan With and You Know Better; and Taking After Mudear, which was listed as one of the “25 Books Every Georgian Should Read” in 2008. McElroy Ansa adapted Baby of the Family as a feature film with her late husband, Joneé Ansa, an award-winning filmmaker who died in 2020.

According to Lloyd’s Facebook post, the family will share more details and plans to commemorate McElroy Ansa’s life.