Terry McMillan Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Terry McMillan
© Stephanie Rausser

Terry McMillan

Terry McMillan Biography

Terry McMillan is the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of several novels and recipient of the Essence Award for Excellence in Literature. McMillan's ability to capture the dilemmas facing modern-day women with humor and verve has led to a worldwide following and has had a lasting effect on African-American literature.

Her works include Mama, Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction, Waiting To Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, The Interruption of Everything, Disappearing Acts, Who Asked You? Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, have also been made into films.

Terry McMillan's website

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Interview

Amongst other topics, Terry McMillan describes her writing routine, her views on celibacy, and talks about her recent novel A Day Late And A Dollar Short.

Unlike your recent fiction, your first novel, Mama, was about a young mother struggling to keep her family together. Are there ways in which A Day Late and A Dollar Short is a revisiting of the themes and issues in Mama? How similar are Mildred and Viola?
I don't think the themes are similar in Mama and A Day Late because in Mama, I was mainly concerned with the hardships one woman endured in trying to raise five children, mostly alone, and how far she was willing to go to give them a good life. In A Day Late, I think Viola, the protagonist shares some of the strengths that Mildred showed in Mama, but Viola is a tad more vulnerable in that she admits her weaknesses. Her concern for her children is, of course, out of love but also because she really doesn't have a life of her own. Further, the themes I tried to address in A Day Late dealt more with missed opportunities, sibling rivalry, misconceptions parents and children have about each other but perceive them as truths, as well as the whole notion and role that birth order plays in a family.

Each of the six narrators possesses a distinct voice. Who was the easiest person for you to "capture"? The most difficult? Who was your favorite Price?
All of ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Terry McMillan at BookBrowse
The Interruption of Everything jacket How Stella Got Her Groove Back jacket A Day Late and A Dollar Short jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Terry McMillan but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
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BookBrowse Book Club

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Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)
by Clare Leslie Hall
A love triangle reveals deadly secrets in this thriller for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing.

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