TERRY MCMILLAN

One of today's most celebrated African-American authors, New York Times bestseller Terry McMillan first started writing by penning editorials for the college paper at UC Berkeley, and counts the legendary Ishmael Reed-her creative writing professor at the time-as one of her earliest mentors. She exploded onto the scene with Waiting to Exhale, a sassy and heartfelt novel about four black women that not only changed the literary landscape for African-American authors, but hit a cultural nerve in the nation at large. And that was just the beginning. Terry McMillan's books have an unerring, irreverent and exuberant way of capturing the flavors and dilemmas of modern life, and novels like How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Disappearing Acts and Getting to Happy often make you sit up and say “Yes, that's me! That's exactly how I feel!” Aside from becoming major New York Times bestsellers and blockbuster movies, many of Terry McMillan's books have also earned critical accolades, including the prestigious National Book Award for her first novel, Mama. Also the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in literature, she remains one of the most important African-American authors writing today.