ReShonda Tate (born 1969) is an American
author and journalist. Tate is also known as "ReShonda Tate Billingsley."
Career
Tate has authored over 50 books, and has contributed to several anthologies.[1] Currently, she writes historical fiction. She previously wrote both adult and teen fiction under the name ReShonda Tate Billingsley, as well as nonfiction. Three of her novels have been nominated for the
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Fiction.[1] Several of her books were made into movies; Let the Church Say Amen and The Secret She Kept. The film adaptation of her sophomore novel Let the Church Say Amen, directed by
Regina King and produced by TD Jakes and
Queen Latifah, originally aired on
BET.[2] Her novel The Secret She Kept was made into a film that aired on TVOne.
Tate is also a screenwriter, with credits including "Christmas with my Ex," which aired on TV One.
In 2014, Tate co-founded a publishing company, Brown Girls Books, with author
Victoria Christopher Murray.[3] She has also appeared in the stage play Marriage Material by Je'Caryous Johnson.[4]
Black Writers Alliance Gold Pen Award for best new author (2002)
Mama's Boy named one of Library Journal's Best Books 2015 in African American Fiction[11]
Personal
Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Bruce Tate and Nancy Kilgore. She moved to Arkansas at a young age and was raised in her mother’s hometown of
Smackover, as well as in other towns in the state. She later moved to Houston, Texas, where she graduated from
Madison High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the
University of Texas at Austin. She is married to Dr. Miron Billingsley and has three children.[1]
^WILLIAMS, HELAINE. "Stars over Arkansas - VIP reception, induction adds six notable names to the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame." Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR) 24 Oct. 2010, High Profile: 44. NewsBank. Web. 27 Dec. 2016.