Women’s History Month’s Feature: Tananarive Due, Author (Science Fiction, Mystery, Horror) and Educator

Hello book lovers! In celebration of Women’s History Month, I would like to present to you author (science fiction, mystery, horror) and educator, Tananarive Due. She’s a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the University of Leeds. In 1995, while working as a journalist and columnist for the Miami Herald she wrote her first novel, The Between.

She has also written The Black Rose, a historical fiction about Madam C.J. Walker and Freedom in the Family, a non-fiction work about the civil rights struggle. She is one of the contributors to the humor novel Naked Came the Manatee (mystery/thriller parody). Additionally, she has authored the African Immortals and the Tennyson Hardwick novel series. I love the Tennyson Hardwick novels which she collaborated with Steven Barnes (her husband) and Blair Underwood. I really wish they would write another installment of this mystery novel.

Furthermore, as an educator, she developed and taught a course at UCLA called “The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival And The Black Horror Aesthetic,” based on Jordan Peele’s 2017 film Get Out. I saw the movie and I would love to sit in on this class to get her take on these various issues.

Writing Tip: I will focus on Due’s writing of novel series and offer that when writing a series, you should create a world that draws readers in with protagonists whose back stories are revealed gradually. Each book should ideally standalone but together makes for a fantastic read.

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