Terry McMillan hosted a Women’s History Month discussion at Winston-Salem State on March 19 in the Dillard Auditorium.
For the better part of an hour, the international best-selling author presented the crowd of approximately 400 with a frank discussion about her life, her work and men.
“I love Black men,” McMillan said. “I just wish some of them would do better…. I also love gay Black men, especially those who are out.”
McMillan was first introduced to literature while shelving books at the library.
Since then, her novels have captivated critics and readers alike with their irreverent, often-humorous take on the issues facing contemporary African-American women.
Her first novel “Mama” won the Doubleday New Voices in Fiction Award in 1986 and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation a year later.
McMillan’s second novel, “Disappearing Acts,” sold more than two million copies and HBO later acquired the rights to make it into a movie.
She achieved much acclaim for her 1992 novel, “Waiting to Exhale,” which spent more than 38 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and found great success on the big screen, eventually winning seven Grammy Awards and an MTV Movie Award, among others. In 1995, McMillan wrote the stream-of-consciousness fantasy, “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” and co-wrote the screenplay for the film which was released to sold-out audiences in 1999.
Her forthcoming novel, “Getting to Happy,” will reunite readers with Savannah, Robin, Bernadine, and Gloria, the four women, now 15 years older, from “Waiting to Exhale.”