'It's your sound, so use it'

 

“I just believe that young people need to be able to learn how to write in their own voice. Just like a musician, you pride yourself on having your own distinct sound.” – Terry McMillan

 

Born in Port Huron, MI on Oct. 18, 1951 McMillan grew up in Michigan, earned a degree from UC-Berkeley, and started her writing career in her late 30s.  Her “breakthrough” book was 1992’s Waiting to Exhale, credited with contributing to a shift in Black popular cultural consciousness and the visibility of a female Black middle-class identity. 

   

And while she drew on her own experiences for part of that book, it was her semi-autobiographical novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back that firmly cemented her writing as a force to be reckoned with.  The most recent of her now-published dozen novels is It’s Not All Downhill From Here.

 

Characterized by relatable female protagonists, her books, she says, reflect a part of herself, something she thinks all writers have incorporated into their work.   

 

“Few writers are willing to admit (that) writing is autobiographical,” she said.  “But it mostly is.”