Terry McMillan
Lecture Date: 4-1-1994
Click the link below to listen ot his celebrity's lecture:
Interview: Author Terry McMillan is introduced by Dean John Eadie and Professor Geneva Smitherman. Smitherman summarizes McMillan's literary career and praises her representation of the African American female experience. McMillan lectures on her novel A Day Late and a Dollar Short (2001) and begins by reading a monologue from Viola Price, an ill, African American mother. The novel describes the trials and tribulations of being an African American mother and how Violas love outshines the criticisms she has of her children. In the novel, the woman moves on to talk about her absent husband. Viola has spent her entire life looking after everyone else, and now that she is deathly ill, she realizes that it is time to start taking care of herself. When questioned by the audience, McMillan explains the relationship between men and women at the present and how their roles are dramatically changing in society. Other questions address the characters in McMillan's novels and how they relate to her personal life. McMillan discusses the movie adapted from her book Waiting to Exhale (1992). She advises young, upcoming writers to listen to their own voice.
Biography: Popular African-American writer Terry McMillan was born on October 18, 1951 and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a bachelor's degree in journalism. While still at Berkeley, she wrote and published her first short story, The End. She continued her education at Colombia University in film studies, where she obtained a masters degree. Her third novel, Waiting to Exhale (1992), was highly acclaimed, spent months on The New York Times bestseller list, and was eventually adapted into a film in 1995 starring Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon. Her novels focus on the life of young, educated black woman. McMillan resides in Northern California with her husband and son.