Celebrated Georgia author, Macon native Tina McElroy Ansa dies at 74

Award-winning novelist and journalist Tina McElroy Ansa died early last week at her home in St. Simons Island. The 74-year-old published several works of fiction set in Georgia and was the first Black woman to be hired by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She is survived by her sister and nieces and nephews. Her husband, Jonee Ansa died in 2020.

Ansa grew up in Macon and knew she would be a writer from a young age. She went to Catholic schools in Macon and found inspiration by spending time in her family’s juke joint or on the front porch listening to stories.

“I feel my greatest contribution to African-American literature thus far is that I have done exactly what I have wanted to do: tell stories,” she wrote in a blog post in 2014.

She continued her education as a storyteller at Spelman College, where her roommate introduced her to journalism. When she graduated in 1971, she became the first Black woman hired by the Atlanta Constitution.

She started at the copy desk, moved to being a reporter, then a features editor. Eight years into her time at the Constitution she took a break from journalism to write a novel, then worked a few years at the Charlotte Observer newspaper. 

She published her first novel “Baby of the Family” in 1989. The book details the coming of age story of a young girl with the ability to see ghosts and the future. The story is loosely based on Ansa’s own childhood as the youngest child in her family, and the legend of the caul, a sign at birth indicating a child’s ability to see the future.

Wanda Lloyd, Ansa’s college roommate and longtime friend, told The Melody that Ansa was one of the first Black women to take on a literary storytelling style, the first to really build a scene and create an atmosphere with her writing.

She said Ansa’s work also touched on her spiritual side, and she took inspiration from her roots.

Lloyd co-authored an anthology with Ansa titled “Meeting at the Table,” filled with essays from African American women following cases of police brutality in 2020 like the George Floyd murder.

The two went on tour, which included a stop in Macon, to talk about the book. 

“When I was sitting in the audience listening to her, [I asked myself] ‘was this the girl I met in 1967?’” she said. “She has blossomed into this amazing writer and speaker.”

The rest of her fiction novels follow stories through the same town of Mulberry, Georgia, a fictional place Ansa created. She’s received a number of recognitions for her work, including her first novel being named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Over the years, Ansa mentored young African American writers across the country and started her own writers retreat on St. Simons Island. She also taught at Spelman.

In 2007, Ansa founded her own publishing company, DownSouth Press, which highlights the voices of Black writers and their work, fiction and nonfiction.

Hundreds of women who Ansa mentored shared their condolences and memories of Ansa on social media following news of her passing.

“Anywhere she went, she would acquire other young women who would just appreciate her words of inspiration, her instruction about writing, good writing,” Lloyd said.