Tananarive Priscilla Due (/təˈnænəriːv ˈdjuː/ tə-NAN-ə-reev DEW) (born January 5, 1966) is an American author and educator. Due won the American Book Award for her novel The Living Blood (2001), and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, and the World Fantasy Award for her novel The Reformatory (2023).[1][2] She is also known as a film historian with expertise in Black horror. Due teaches a course at UCLA called "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic", which focuses on the Jordan Peele film Get Out.[3]
Tananarive Due | |
---|---|
Born | Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. | January 5, 1966
Occupation | Writer, educator |
Nationality | American |
Education | Medill School of Journalism (BS, MA) |
Genre | Science fiction, mystery, horror |
Spouse | Steven Barnes (husband) |
Relatives | Jason (son) Nicki (stepdaughter) |
Website | |
www |
Early life and education
editDue was born in Tallahassee, Florida, the oldest of three daughters of civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due and civil rights lawyer John D. Due Jr.[4] Her mother named her after the French name for Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar.[5]
Due earned a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and an M.A. in English literature, with an emphasis on Nigerian literature, from the University of Leeds.[4] At Northwestern, she lived in the Communications Residential College.[6]
Career
editDue was working as a journalist and columnist for the Miami Herald when she wrote her first novel, The Between, in 1995.[6] This, like many of her subsequent books, was part of the supernatural genre.[7] Due also wrote The Black Rose, a historical novel about Madam C. J. Walker (based in part on research conducted by Alex Haley before his death) and Freedom in the Family, a nonfiction work about the civil rights struggle. She contributed to the humor novel Naked Came the Manatee, a mystery/thriller parody to which various Miami-area authors each contributed chapters. Due also authored the African Immortals novel series and the Tennyson Hardwick novels.
Due is a member of the affiliate faculty in the creative writing MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles[8] and is also an endowed Cosby chair in the humanities at Spelman College in Atlanta.[9]
She developed a course at UCLA called "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic," after the release of the 2017 film Get Out.[3] The first course went viral and included a visit from Peele.[3]
Due was featured in the 2019 documentary film Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, produced by Shudder.[3]
Her novel The Reformatory: A Novel was published by Saga Press in 2023.[10]
Personal life
editDue is married to author Steven Barnes, whom she met in 1997 at a Clark Atlanta University panel on "The African-American Fantastic Imagination: Explorations in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror".[11] The couple lives in the Los Angeles, California area with their son, Jason.[12]
Bibliography
editNovels
editSpeculative fiction
edit- The Between (1995)
- The Good House (2003)
- Joplin's Ghost (2005)
- Ghost Summer: Stories (2015)
- The Reformatory (2023)[13][14][15][16][17][18]
African Immortals series
edit- My Soul to Keep (1997)
- The Living Blood (2001)
- Blood Colony (2008)
- My Soul to Take (2011)
Mysteries
edit- Naked Came the Manatee (1996) (contributor)
The Tennyson Hardwick novels
edit- Casanegra (2007; with Blair Underwood and Steven Barnes)
- In the Night of the Heat (2008; with Blair Underwood and Steven Barnes)
- From Cape Town with Love (2010; with Blair Underwood and Steven Barnes)
- South by Southeast (2012; with Blair Underwood and Steven Barnes)
Short stories
edit- "Like Daughter", Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2000)
- "Trial Day", Mojo: Conjure Stories (2003)
- "Aftermoon", Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (2004)
- "Senora Suerte", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction[19] (2006)
- "The Lake" (2011)
- "Enhancement", Whose Future is It? (2018)[20]
- "The Wishing Pool" (2021)[21]
Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Patient Zero | 2000 | Due, Tananarive (Aug 2000). "Patient Zero". F&SF. 99 (2): 5–21. | Due, Tananarive (2001). "Patient Zero". In Dozois, Gardner (ed.). The year's best science fiction : eighteenth annual collection. St. Martin's Griffin. | |
The Rider | 2023 | Due, Tananarive (2023). "The Rider". In Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams (ed.). An Anthology of New Black Horror. Penguin Random House. |
Other works
edit- The Black Rose, historical fiction about Madam C. J. Walker[22] (2000)
- Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights (2003) (with Patricia Stephens Due)
- Devil's Wake (with Steven Barnes) (2012)
- Domino Falls (2013)
- Ghost Summer (Collection) (2015)
- The Keeper (with Steven Barnes) (2022)
- The Wishing Pool and Other Stories (Collection) (2023)[23]
Awards and recognition
edit- Nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel for The Between
- Nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel for My Soul to Keep[11]
- Nominated for an NAACP Image Award for The Black Rose
- Received the NAACP Image Award for In the Night of the Heat: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel (with Blair Underwood and Steven Barnes)[24]
- The American Book Award for The Living Blood
- 2008 Carl Brandon Kindred Award for the novella "Ghost Summer", which appeared in the anthology The Ancestors (2008)[25]
- Winner of the 2016 British Fantasy Award for the short story collection Ghost Summer.
- Winner of the 2020 Ignyte Award for Best in Creative Nonfiction for Black Horror Rising, published in Uncanny Magazine (2019)[26]
- Winner of the 2022 Ember Award "for unsung contributions to genre"[27]
- Winner of the 2023 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction for "Incident at Bear Creek Lodge," published in Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology[28]
- Winner of the 2023 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel for The Reformatory.[29]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "The 2023 Bram Stoker Awards Winners". thebramstokerawards.com. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ "Shirley Jackson Awards". shirleyjacksonawards.org. Retrieved 2024-07-14.
- ^ a b c d "What Is Black Horror? 'The Sunken Place' Professor Tananarive Due Explains". shadowandact.com. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
- ^ a b Tananarive Due – Author
- ^ Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights, by Patricia Stephens Due and Tananarive Due (Ballantine, 2003)
- ^ a b Alumni News – Fall 2001
- ^ Mary A. Mohanraj,"Tananarive Due" in Richard Bleiler, Ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror. New York: Thomson/Gale, 2003 (pp. 309–314), ISBN 9780684312507.
- ^ "Tananarive Due | Antioch University Los Angeles". Retrieved 2013-08-31.
- ^ "Past - Present Chairs". Archived from the original on 2013-09-06. Retrieved 2013-08-31.
- ^ Hand, Elizabeth (October 30, 2023). "Deaths at a Florida 'reform' school inspire a masterful horror novel". Retrieved 2 November 2023.
- ^ a b Introduction by Gardner Dozois to "Patient Zero" by Tananarive Due in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection, p. 491.
- ^ "About Tananarive Due". Retrieved 2013-08-31.
- ^ Woods, Paula L. (2023-10-26). "Black horror is having a big moment. So is its pioneer, Tananarive Due". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
- ^ Boyagoda, Randy (2023-10-27). "'The Reformatory' Turns the Lingering Impact of Racism Into Literal Ghosts". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
- ^ "'The Reformatory' tells a story of ghosts, abuse, racism — and sibling love". NPR. November 2, 2023.
- ^ "Tananarive Due Knows the Horrors of the Past Are Still Alive Today". Shondaland. 2023-11-02. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
- ^ "Review | Deaths at a Florida 'reform' school inspire a masterful horror novel". Washington Post. 2023-11-01. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
- ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2023-10-31. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
- ^ Review of "Senora Suerte" by Eugie Foster, July 2006
- ^ "Tananarive Due" in Cellarius Stories, Volume 1. Cellarius, Ed., New York: 2018 (pp. 33–75, Kindle edition), ISBN 978-1-949688-02-3.
- ^ Words, Tananarive Due in Uncanny Magazine Issue Forty-One | 4102. "The Wishing Pool". Uncanny Magazine. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Books in Brief: Fiction; Making It Big in Hair" By Charles Wilson, The New York Times, August 27, 2000.
- ^ Due, Tananarive (2023-04-18). The Wishing Pool and Other Stories. Akashic Books. ISBN 978-1-63614-107-7.
- ^ 40th NAACP Image Awards Archived 2010-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Carl Brandon Society Award Winners Retrieved 3-1-2011
- ^ "2020 Ignyte Awards Results". FIyahCon2021. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
- ^ Asher-Perrin, Emmet (18 September 2022). "Announcing the Winners of the 2022 Ignyte Awards!". Tor.com. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
- ^ "2023 World Fantasy Award Winners". Locus Online. 29 October 2023. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
- ^ "2023 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners – the Shirley Jackson Awards".
External links
edit- Official website
- Tananarive Due at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Book review, The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, November 11, 2023 on NPR