Tina McElroy Ansa is the award-winning author of five novels, including Baby of the Family, Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With, and You Know Better. Her 5th novel, Taking After Mudear, is the sequel to her bestselling Ugly Ways, and is the first novel the author will publish under her own publishing company, DownSouth Press. A Georgian born and bred, Ansa has set all of her novels in the fictional town of Mulberry, GA. With Taking After Mudear, Ansa returns to Mulberry and the three Lovejoy sisters who live there. The book about family, hauntings, and three contemporary Black women trying to move away from the past their mother dominated, is available for sale at DownSouthPress.com.
1) Taking After Mudear is the sequel to your best-selling novel, Ugly Ways. What was it about the Lovejoy women that made you want to continue writing their story?
Over the years since UGLY WAYS was published in 1993, readers have come up to me and said quite authoritatively, “Now, what you need to do is write a sequel to this and have Annie Ruth have that baby and have Mudear messing in all the girls’ lives….” And I’d just laugh and say, “Well, since you know how is works out, maybe you ought to write that book.” But id do know and trust my readers and I know that they are an inquisitive and creative and intelligent bunch, so I was sure that they, like myself, had thought about what happened after the end of UGLY WAYS, what happened with the Lovejoy girls (I know they’re women, but I call them the girls because that’s what Mudear and Poppa call them.) and how all their lives (dead and alive) continued.
But for me, as a writer, when I finish a work, in my mind, it is finished. Of course, the lives of the characters and the action continue in our minds and in that literary netherworld where novels exist, but when I write THE END it is just that. However, the Lovejoy girls and Mudear are the types of women who stay with you and sometimes nag you with their voices and their stories, their complaints and their fears.
But more that than, these women really touched a chord in my readers. I have sold more copies of UGLY WAYS than any of my other novels which says something. And I know from personal accounts, emails and website messages, that this novel, the issues and concerns that it explores and the characters themselves truly resonate.
And that’s why I returned to continue the story.
2) While the Lovejoy sisters have lifestyles typical of most contemporary Black women, they are different from everyone else in their small-town community because of Mudear’s stubborn refusal to parent. This image of Black motherhood is strikingly different from the more archetypal Mamma. What was your inspiration for this difficult character?
Back in 1971, when I graduated from Spelman College and got my first job on the copy desk of the Atlanta Constitution, the first book I purchased with my first paycheck was the anthology “Black-Eyed Susans.” It is a compilation of short stories written by African-American women about African-American women. The first one of its kind published in the U.S., in fact. And in the introduction, scholar Mary Helen Washington states that she needs more of these stories reaching out into new and untapped territory, stories about women who break from the tradition, specifically, she wrote, stories about black women who are good mothers.
Well, that just resonated for me, back in ’71. And I have been thinking about that ever since because I realized — even as a 22-year-old — that we did indeed need stories that broke from the literary tradition of black mothers who were all-good and all-sacrificing and all-loving. Many of the mothers I knew were great mothers, but none of them were perfect. They had flaws and quirks and unfulfilled dreams. They made mistakes and missteps and sometimes real messes of their lives and their family’s lives.
But they were rich and interesting and complex and complicated women that you wanted to know more about. And that is why I created Mudear.
Some folks say I went too far 🙂 but that’s Mudear…herself. I have to be true to my characters.
3) What also renders the Lovejoys different is the supernatural presence that haunts them in Taking After Mudear. It seems this character simply refuses to go away. In some ways, Mudear becomes more involved in her daughters’ lives as a ghost than she ever did when she was while alive. As an author, have you felt haunted by Mudear?
Well, that’s a creepy question! I had a reader tell me recently when she forgot to send me something she had promised, “Oh, my goodness, I don’t want Mudear to be getting after me!” I had not thought of Mudear as an instrument of threat, but I guess she could be used that way.
Seriously, even though my characters do continue to live after I’ve finished their books, I have never felt “haunted” in that sense by any of my ghost characters. I guess because I created them, I feel quite comfortable with them all, even the more sinister ones. Many of my readers say they wish they could be “haunted” by a spirit like Lena McPherson’s wonderful 100-year-old ghost lover Herman in THE HAND I FAN WITH.
Has this character (Mudear) insisted you keep writing about her, thus keeping her alive? Mudear is quite an insistent character. I hear her voice in my head at readings telling me exactly how to express her words. And she always makes me correct anyone who doesn’t pronounce her name correctly. (It’s Mu-DEAR.) But you know, Eisa, as a writer, you must always be in charge. This is your story, your novel, your work that you’re creating, and you can’t hand over those reins to anyone else, not even the characters who are sometimes telling the story.
And although Mudear might have insisted that I keep her alive, keep writing about her, ultimately, it was my decision. Do you think Mudear will be “getting after me” for saying that? 🙂
4) Mudear is an avid gardener, as are you. I think, for you, gardening is an expression of creativity and beauty. Is Mudear’s nocturnal gardening a metaphor for a key aspect of her personality?
Mudear’s daughters tell her when they finally confront her in the funeral home in UGLY WAYS and in TAKING AFTER MUDEAR that she always cared more about that garden than she did about them. And that may be the truth. For wounded folks, like Mudear, it is sometimes easier and psychologically safer to care for an inanimate object or an animal who is unlikely to hurt or disappoint or betray you than it is to trust a human being, with all our flaws and quirks. Mudear’s love for her garden, because that is what it is: love, is indeed a metaphor for her displacement of her emotions, for her fear of trusting her heart, her spirit to another person or set of circumstances.
Mudear feels betrayed by her husband Ernest, by her marriage, by her existence in a small Southern town, even by her time in history. And that kind of wounded person unfortunately frequently inflicts that same kind of pain on the folks around her — her family and friends and co-workers or the driver moving too slowly in front of her on the freeway.
5) In addition to gardening and writing, you’re also now running your own publishing company, DownSouth Press. How do you balance the work of publishing, the time required to write, and the holistic task of cultivating life from the soil? How have you been able to do it all?
Well, first and foremost, I don’t think any of us is able to “do it all.” At least, not all at the same time. If nothing else, the last 30, 40 years has taught us women that doing it all, having it all will kick our natural asses! 🙂 But that certainly does not mean we should not continue to reach for that goal because the growth and the joy and experience and the sharing of the journey comes in reaching.
My garden, my husband/soul mate Jonee’, my writing, my teaching, my mentoring, my home, my publishing company all feed my soul and life in a real true way. But some have to take turns.
Some of those soul feeders are constants: Jonee’ ….well, now that I think about it, I guess, just Jonee’. The others take front and center from time to time and then back seats at other times.
The publishing company DownSouth Press — don’t you love that name? — has been at the forefront for the last three or four years. Thinking about it, planning it, getting it up and running, babying it, nurturing it, running it, financing it, acquiring a staff of lil’ school girls who have been loyal and diligent and hard-working and genial seems to have been my life 24/7. But I’ve found out that’s what it takes with a small independent press without a lot of money and with the publisher wearing lot of hats.
I had to take off about 6-7 straight months when I did nothing else but write to actually edit and finish the novel TAKING AFTER MUDEAR. It was a real investment in time, however, right now “Tina McElroy Ansa” and her novel are DownSouth Press’s biggest assets!
Then, we spent a good few months on publicity and press releases and getting to book festivals and fairs and in media outlets that gave us the widest exposure.
And now I’ve been on the road — off and on — for about two months and am about to go back out again for the fall.
All of that takes up your life and your energy and your focus. So, my house is even messier than it usually is. And although the last of the tomatoes and squash and cucumbers and eggplants are still growing in the garden along with my favorite herbs: basil, parsley, thyme, lemon grass, my front and back yards are not bursting with color and annuals and well-cared for babies the way I’d love for it to be. However, it is still my own special and valued retreat.
But, you know, som’um’s gotta’ give!
6) Why did you launch DownSouth Press?
I am not alone in feeling that there is so much being published in the last five or so years under the banner of African-American literature that does not truly reflect our culture, our lives and our ethos. And when it does, it reflects a very narrow portion of who some of us are and how we live, feel and dream.
That’s why I launched DownSouth Press. I’m not trying to compete with the big companies, but to do my part to offer an alternative to the wave of (currently) urban fiction, quasi-“erotic” works, badly written, constructed, edited works that have left so many of our readers insulted and hungry for a real rich reading experience.
I want DownSouth Press to be a haven that values authors, great storytelling and beautiful writing by publishing and nurturing quality work that elevates the reader and writer. We plan to publish the books not just for the moment, but books that will be classics. Books of substance and exploration and fearlessness that qualify as literature and stand the test of time.
Our press will focus on marketing authors beyond the short-term window that larger publishers allow. DownSouth Press will use innovative approaches — both face-to-face and via the Internet with satellite interviews, web book club meetings and live chats and readings — to market authors and books to readers hungry for meaningful stories that truly reflect the diversity of their culture, spirit and lives.
So many authors are truly saavy about their readers and market and audience, and unfortunately, I know from experience that most publishers discourage that kind of input and participation. We certainly welcome that wisdom from our writers and our DownSouth Press team that includes some of the brightest publicity and marketing and consulting women I know.
7) Will your company consider publishing the work of other authors? If so, what kind of work are you interested in publishing?
Yes. And we have specific submission guidelines on our website www.downsouthpress.com . I do look forward to being primarily a publisher on some projects and giving my authors the kind of loving, respectful attention that I’ve given my own novel TAKING AFTER MUDEAR and that I wished I had always received from the major publishing houses that published my earlier novels. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that most large publishing houses are even set up to offer that kind of treatment for their authors. There is now about a two-week (or less) window of opportunity for new works to find their audience and make an impression in sales, in reviews and in attention before their mainstream publishers move on to the next book. That’s asking a great deal, especially from emerging authors who had yet to acquire an audience or name. And many of those titles just sink before they are given a chance to soar. It’s the way of the publishing world now.
At the moment, we at DownSouth Press are looking for literary fiction and substantial nonfiction (memoirs, biography, life guides).
And I have become interested lately in a YA (young adult) novel that came to my attention. So, I guess we are open to anything that is truly good. However, we will not be publishing poetry, Christian fiction, how-tos or genres such as mysteries, westerns, cookbooks, etc.
8) What is your take on the current state of Black literature in the US? What do you think of the increased visibility of Black writers from Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean?
Well, one of the reasons I founded DownSouth Press is my concern for the current state of Black literature in this country. I think we have all noticed in the last five or so years a real change in the literary landscape for black writers and readers. There seems to be a great divide between high and low literature and a real scarcity in the high range and a real absence in the middle ground of just plain good solid well-crafted fiction and nonfiction.
A quick trip to any large book chain store or any small independent book store will uncover a plethora of baby mama drama, “girlz” spelled with a z, formulaic fiction all catalogued and sold under the banner African-American Literature. My problem with the glut of this type of work is that most of them appear poorly written and edited, quickly turned out with no respect for structure, craft, or the word. To me, this is not a true reflection of our history and legacy of revering good storytelling and honoring the written word.
Now, of course, there are certainly good well-written and edited books being published, but not in the numbers and the range of genres that were published just 10 year ago.
I hear this same complaint from established black writers who can’t get worthy book contracts anymore or contracts at all and from readers who are puzzled by and angry about not having “books to read or to recommend to our book clubs.” Many are reading authors other than black folks or rereading what some call “classics” from the ’70s-’90s.
And my further concern is how this situation affects how black folks are reflected and seen in the world culture and for the future. This is important stuff.
As far as the increased visibility of Black writers from Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean, I feel it is a positive and right thing for all of us. We people of Africa and the African Diaspora can certainly not be shoved into a small one-dimensional compartment called black lit. It’s an exciting situation to have writers of color from Great Britain and the Caribbean and Africa receiving major national and international awards and attention for their work. Long overdue and well-deserved.
That said, I must voice my own concern that the one-through-the-turnstile-at-a-time mentality of some white critics and opinion shapers has precluded that same consideration being given a wide range of black U.S. writers. I take nothing away from writers outside the U.S. by saying how seldom we are now seeing the writing and viewpoint of someone with an African-American sensibility reviewed and examined and honored for their work.
It is a concern of mine.
9) Do you imagine that your work as a writer or as a publisher will take precedence in the next few years? Which occupation is more important to you?
I don’t feel one occupation is more important than the other to me. I am truly blessed to have more than one life’s work that drives and engages me. It is just a matter of where I can do the most good at what time. And that changes.
As I said, I’m looking forward to being primarily a publisher for just a little bit. I said that to an audience in Atlanta recently and the cutest little pregnant woman came up to the signing table afterwards, leaned way over toward me and asked, “Now, you’re not going to become the Sade author, are you?”
“‘The Sade author’?” I replied, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“You know, like Sade. Put out a CD that we just love and have to play over and over and over again because she doesn’t do another one for a hundred years! You’re not going to do that, are you?”
I laughed and assured her that I certainly would not do that!
As a matter of fact, I have another novel I’ve already committed a good deal of work to that centers on a character from one of my earlier novels. And she is indeed calling to me.
10) As a writer, do you feel the Lovejoy women have more stories to tell through you?
My characters and even my fictional town of Mulberry have such rich, such complex lives that I feel I could return to any of them and tell more stories about them before and after we all met.
Whose story are you working on now? She is a character who will be familiar to my readers.
Comment(s)
Thank you, Eisa and Tina, for a wonderful, thought-provoking Q&A! It’s certainly nice to see a contemporary take control of her writing destiny; Tina is an inspiration for us writers who revere the written word and its legacy, and work tirelessly to get folks to respect what we do. Write on, Tina. Write on! We see you…
Comment(s)
hey um……… i was doin my project on u an need 4 fact about u