ReShonda Tate


Reshonda Tate is an American author and journalist. Tate is also known as "ReShonda Tate Billingsley."

Education

She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Career

Tate has authored 53 books, and has contributed to several anthologies. Currently, she writes historical fiction. She has previously written nonfiction works, as well as adult and teen fiction under the name ReShonda Tate Billingsley. Three of her novels have been nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Fiction. Several of her books have been 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.
In 2014, Tate co-founded a publishing company, Brown Girls Books, with author Victoria Christopher Murray. She has also appeared in the stage play Marriage Material by Je'Caryous Johnson.
Tate previously worked for NBC affiliate KFOR in Oklahoma City.

Books

  • My Brother's Keeper
  • Four Degrees of Heat Excerpt: "Rebound"
  • Let the Church Say Amen
  • Help! I've Turned Into My Mother
  • I Know I've Been Changed
  • Have A Little Faith ''Excerpt: "Faith Will Overcome"
  • Nothing But Drama
  • Everybody Say Amen
  • With Friends Like These
  • Blessing in Disguise
  • The Pastor's Wife
  • Getting Even
  • Fair-Weather Friends
  • Can I Get a Witness?
  • The Devil is a Lie
  • Friends 'Til the End
  • Caught up in the Drama
  • Holy Rollers
  • Drama Queens
  • Body of Innocence
  • A Good Man is Hard to Find
  • Lady Jasmine / Sins of the Mother / Let the Church Say Amen / Everybody Say Amen
  • Say Amen, Again
  • Sinners & Saints
  • Something to Say: poetry to motivate the mind, body and soul
  • The Secret She Kept
  • Finding Amos
  • Real As It Gets
  • You Don't Know Me Like That
  • Rumor Central
  • Friends & Foes '
  • The Motherhood Diaries '
  • A Family Affair '
  • Fortune & Fame '
  • Truth or Dare '
  • Boy Trouble '
  • The Motherhood Diaries 2 '
  • What's Done in the Dark '
  • A Blessing & A Curse '
  • Eye Candy '
  • Pay Day '
  • Mama's Boy '
  • The Perfect Mistress '
  • It Should've Been Me '
  • Seeking Sarah '
  • The Book in Room 316 '
  • If Only For One Night '
  • The Stolen Daughter '
  • More to Life '
  • A Little Bit of Karma '
  • Miss Pearly's Girls: A Captivating Tale of Family Healing ''
  • The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel ''''

    Awards

  • Texas Literary Hall of Fame
  • Smithsonian's African American History Makers
  • African American Literary Award for Best Christian Fiction for Fortune & Fame with Victoria Christopher Murray
  • NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature
  • African American Literary Award for Best Teen Fiction for Drama Queens
  • Inductee into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame
  • Rolling Out Magazine′s Top 25 Women of Houston
  • Five-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists "Spirit in the Words"
  • Let the Church Say Amen named one of Library Journals Best Books 2004 in Christian Fiction
  • #1 Essence best-selling author
  • 2006 Texas Executive Woman on the Move
  • Black Writers Alliance Gold Pen Award for best new author
  • Mama's Boy named one of Library Journals Best Books 2015 in African American Fiction

    Personal

Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Bruce Tate and Nancy Kilgore. She moved to Arkansas at a young age and spent most of her childhood in her mother’s hometown of Smackover. 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.