Author Category | African American
«Back to Authors and Guests Ronald Daise BOOK:Gullah Branches, West African Roots PRESENTING:Saturday 2:00 p.m. The Hilton Columbia Center; Sunday 12:45 p.m. Lexington Meeting Room www.gullahgullah.comRonald Daise grew up on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. His parents both graduated from Penn Normal Industrial and Agricultural School, one of the country's first schools for freed blacks. Like the mission of the Penn Center, which stands on the site of the school, Ron has worked to promote and preserve the history of the sea islands through books, recordings, and performances. In Gullah Branches, West African Roots, Ron tells about his travels to Ghana and Sierra Leone and weaves poetry, personal experience, spirituals, and stunning visuals to connect Gullah heritage to West African values and traditions and the African Diaspora of three hundred years ago. It is a tribute to the fascinating and colorful Gullah culture. READ MORECATEGORIES: Nonfiction History African American Memoir |
 Varian Johnson BOOK:My Life as a Rhombus PRESENTING:Saturday 10:00 a.m. Lexington Meeting Room B; Saturday 2:00 p.m. Congaree Meeting Room A&B www.varianjohnson.comGrowing up, Varian Johnson couldn't decide whether he wanted to be an engineer or a writer, so he decided to do both. My Life as a Rhombus was inspired by a friend who had an abortion because she was barely making ends meet and another child would have been unfair to the daughter she already had. Varian was born and raised in Florence, South Carolina, and attended the University of Oklahoma, where he received a BS in Civil Engineering. He is currently enrolled in the Vermont College MFA Program for Writing for Children and Young Adults. His first novel, A Red Polka Dot in a World Full of Plaid, made the Essence Magazine bestseller list in March 2006. My Life as a Rhombus is his first young adult novel. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife and two cocker spaniels. READ MORECATEGORIES: Fiction YA - Young Adult African American |
 Tina McElroy Ansa BOOK:Taking After Mudear PRESENTING:Saturday 3:20 p.m. Richland Meeting Room A&B http://www.tinamcelroyansa.com/Tina McElroy Ansa is a novelist, publisher, filmmaker, teacher and journalist. But above all, she is a storyteller. She calls herself “part of a long and honored writing tradition, one of those little Southern girls who always knew she wanted to be a writer.” She grew up in Middle Georgia in the 1950s hearing her grandfather’s stories on the porch of her family home and strangers’ stories downtown in her father’s juke joint, which inspired Mulberry, Georgia, the mythical world of her four novels, Baby of the Family, Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With and You Know Better. Her newest novel is Taking After Mudear. READ MORE CATEGORIES: Fiction African American Southern Fiction |
 Earl Middleton BOOK:Knowing Who I Am: A Black Entrepreneur's Struggle and Success in the American South http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/2008/3715.html(1919-2007) Earl M. Middleton was the founder and owner of Coldwell Banker Middleton and Associates, one of the largest real-estate brokerages in CATEGORIES: History Biography African American South Carolina History |
 Andrew Billingsley BOOK:Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families PRESENTING:Sunday 2:00 p.m. Richland Meeting Room A&B http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/2007/3686.htmlThe author of Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families, Andrew Billingsley is a professor of sociology and African American studies and senior scholar in residence at the Institute for Families in Society at the His previous books are Mighty like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform and Climbing Jacob’s Ladder: The Enduring Legacy of African-American Families. Billingsley is the recipient of the DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Association of Black Sociologists. He was also featured in the PBS documentary Blacks in the Civil War, narrated by Morgan Freeman. READ MORECATEGORIES: Nonfiction Biography African American South Carolina History |
 Dinah Johnson BOOK:Hair Dance! PRESENTING:Children's Field Trip Day; Sunday 12:45 p.m. Congaree Meeting Room A&B www.dinahjohnson.comAs “Dianne,” Johnson is an English professor at the University of South Carolina. Her primary research interest is African American children’s literature; her project has been to recover this literature and its history. As “Dinah,” Johnson is a writer of children’s literature. She enjoy doing schools visits to share her books All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts, Sunday Week, Quinnie Blue, Sitting Pretty: A Celebration of Black Dolls, and Hair Dance!. Forthcoming books include: Tom Feelings, My Daddy (Third World Press) and Black Magic (Henry Holt). Dinah Johnson will participate in a special field trip day for pre-selected area 3rd graders on Friday, February 22nd. READ MORECATEGORIES: Children's Literature African American |
 Sallie Ann Robinson BOOK:Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon and Night PRESENTING:Saturday 3:20 p.m. Richland Meeting Room C http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/t-7982.htmlSallie Ann Robinson is author of Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way. She now makes her home in Savannah, Georgia. READ MORE CATEGORIES: Nonfiction African American Cooking |