Terry McMillan

Author

• Born: October 18, 1951
• Birthplace: Port Huron, Michigan

Novelist

McMillan is known for her realistic depictions of Black American women’s personal relationships with family, friends, and men. Her first novel, Mama (1987), was self-promoted, which paved the way for her second novel, Disappearing Acts(1989), and the critically acclaimed Waiting to Exhale(1992), which spawned a film adaptation and became a cultural phenomenon.

Area of achievement: Literature

Early Life

Terry Lynn McMillan was born on October 18, 1951, in Port Huron, Michigan, to Madeline Washington and Edward McMillan. Her parents were a working-class couple. McMillan is the oldest of five siblings. After her parents divorced when she was thirteen, she assisted her mother with raising her brother and three sisters. A year later, her father died.

When McMillan was a teenager, she began working at a library in her hometown. Her love for literature flourished at this time. She discovered authors such as Louisa May Alcott and James Baldwin. After graduating from Port Huron High School in 1969, McMillan moved to California and attended Los Angeles Community College for two years before going on to earn her bachelor of arts degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley. One of her professors, Ishmael Reed, had a major influence on McMillan’s work.

McMillan moved to New York after graduation and attended Columbia University, where she studied screenwriting. While working on her master’s degree, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she worked on her short story “Mama,” which she later developed into her first novel. She had a son, Solomon, with Leonard Welch in 1984. After a one-year teaching position at the University of Wyoming, she accepted the position of associate professor in 1988 at the University of Arizona. In 1992, she moved to Danville, California.

When her mother and best friend died within two years of each other in 1993 and 1994, McMillan decided to take a hiatus and go to Jamaica. While she was there, she met Jonathan Plummer, a Jamaican, whom she married in 1998. Questions about his sexuality led to their divorce in 2005.

Life’s Work

McMillan’s writings address Black American women’s relationships. Her first novel, Mama, published in 1987, depicts a strong mother who fights to maintain family unity under difficult circumstances. Although the novel is not autobiographical, McMillan’s mother inspired her writing.

McMillan next published the anthology Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction (1990), which featured the work of well-known authors such as Amiri Baraka and Alice Walker as well as less established writers. With this collection, McMillan hoped to reach readers who had little or no exposure to Black American literature.

McMillan’s second novel, Waiting to Exhale (1992), became a best seller and was made into a film in 1995. The tale of women’s friendships with each other and fraught relationships with men became a cultural phenomenon, and the film attracted high-profile actors such asWhitney Houston,Angela Bassett, and Loretta Devine. McMillan wrote the screenplay and Forest Whitaker directed the film. The film won a number of Image Awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

McMillan’s next novel also was made into a film.How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1996) was adapted as a 1998 film starring Bassett, Taye Diggs, and Whoopi Goldberg. McMillan cowrote the screenplay with Ron Bass. In 1999, Bassett won the Black Film Award for Best Actress, and Bassett and Goldberg won NAACP Image Awards. In 2000, HBO made a television film based on an earlier McMillan novel, Disappearing Acts (1989).

A Day Late and a Dollar Short (2001) and The Interruption of Everything (2005) were also successes for McMillan. Her nonfiction book It’s Ok If You’re Clueless: And Twenty-three More Tips for the College Bound, published in 2006, was inspired by her son.

Eighteen years after the publication of Waiting to Exhale, McMillan revisited its four main characters in Getting to Happy (2010). The novel became an instant best seller. In 2013, she published Who Asked You?, a new novel. A departure from her previous works, this book deals with a middle-aged woman who must confront a plethora of issues, including a husband suffering from Alzheimer's, a daughter addicted to drugs, and an imprisoned son. In interviews, McMillan stressed the desire to explore, through this novel, the concept of people telling others how to live their lives despite failing to take their own advice. The following year, A Day Late and a Dollar Short was adapted as a made-for-television movie for the Lifetime network, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Ving Rhames, and Mekhi Phifer. She closed out the 2010s with her next novel, I Almost Forgot about You (2016), about a woman who shakes up her life to address her feelings of restlessness.

McMillan continued to write into the third decade of the twenty-first century. The year 2020 saw the publication of It's Not All Downhill from Here, which follows a woman in her late sixties coping with aging and loss.

McMillan’s accolades include an award from the Before Columbus Foundation for Mama and fellowships from various foundations, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Doubleday/Columbia University. She was honored by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1994 for her achievements in literature, and in 2008, she received Essence magazine’s lifetime achievement award.

Significance

McMillan’s novels reflect the lives of Black American women of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries who inspire others through their ability to triumph over difficult circumstances. Even though McMillan’s characters are Black American women, her themes are universal. Her writings and their film adaptations speak to diverse audiences about human flaws, overcoming tragedies, life, and love.

Bibliography

Ellerby, Janet M. “Deposing the Man of the House: Terry McMillan Rewrites the Family.” MELUS 22.2 (1997): 105–17. Print.

Harris, Tina M., and Patricia S. Hill. “’Waiting to Exhale’ or ’Breath(ing) Again’: A Search for Identity, Empowerment, and Love in the 1990’s.” Women and Language 21.2 (1998): 9–20. Print.

McMillan, Terry. "Book World: Terry McMillan Talks about Her New Novel, Who Asked You?" Interview by Carole Burns. Washington Post. Washington Post, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Patrick, Diane. Terry McMillan: The Unauthorized Biography. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999. Print.

Rhule, Patty. "Terry McMillan's Characters Wrestle with Middle-Age Dilemmas in Who Asked You?" Rev. of Who Asked You?, by Terry McMillan. USA Today. USA Today, 15 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Wheeler, André. "Novelist Terry McMillan on Love, Death and 'Dirty Secrets.'" The Guardian, 31 Mar. 2020, www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/31/novelist-terry-mcmillan-interview-its-not-all-downhill-from-here. Accessed 20 July 2021.