Tananarive Due
Due at the 2023National Book Festival
Born	Tananarive Priscilla Due (1966-01-05)January 5, 1966 (age 59) Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.
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.tananarivedue.com

Tananarive Priscilla Due (/təˈnænəriːvˈdjuː/tə-NAN-ə-reevDEW) (born January 5, 1966) is an American author and educator. Due won theAmerican Book Award for her novelThe Living Blood (2001), and theBram Stoker Award for Best Novel, theShirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, and theWorld Fantasy Award for her novelThe Reformatory (2023).^[1][2] She is also known as a film historian with expertise in Black horror. Due teaches a course atUCLA called "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic", which focuses on theJordan Peele filmGet Out.^[3]

Due was born inTallahassee, Florida, the oldest of three daughters of civil rights activistPatricia Stephens Due and civil rights lawyer John D. Due Jr.^[4] Her mother named her after the French name forAntananarivo, the capital ofMadagascar.^[5]

Due earned a B.S. in journalism fromNorthwestern University'sMedill School of Journalism and an M.A. in English literature, with an emphasis onNigerian literature, from theUniversity of Leeds.^[4] At Northwestern, she lived in the Communications Residential College.^[6]

Due was working as a journalist and columnist for theMiami Herald when she wrote her first novel,The Between, in 1995.^[6] This, like many of her subsequent books, was part of thesupernatural genre.^[7] Due also wroteThe Black Rose, a historical novel aboutMadam C. J. Walker (based in part on research conducted byAlex Haley before his death) andFreedom in the Family, a nonfiction work about the civil rights struggle. She contributed to the humor novelNaked Came the Manatee, a mystery/thriller parody to which variousMiami-area authors each contributed chapters. Due also authored theAfrican Immortals novel series and theTennyson Hardwick novels.

Due is a member of the affiliate faculty in the creative writing MFA program atAntioch University Los Angeles^[8] and is also anendowed Cosby chair in the humanities atSpelman College inAtlanta.^[9]

She developed a course atUCLA called "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic" after the release of the 2017 filmGet Out.^[3] The first course went viral and included a visit fromJordan Peele.^[3]

Due was featured in the 2019 documentary filmHorror Noire: A History of Black Horror, produced byShudder.^[3]

Her novelThe Reformatory was published bySaga Press in 2023.^[10][11]

Due is the daughter ofcivil rights activistsPatricia Stephens Due and civil rights attorney John D Due Jr. . She has two sisters Johnita and Lydia.

Due is married to authorSteven Barnes, whom she met in 1997 at aClark Atlanta University panel on "The African-American Fantastic Imagination: Explorations in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror".^[12] The couple lives in theLos Angeles, California area with their son, Jason.^[13]

• The Between (1995)
• The Black Rose (2000)
• The Good House (2003)
• Joplin's Ghost (2005)
• Ghost Summer: Stories (2015)
• The Reformatory (2023)
• The Wishing Pool and Other Stories (2023)

• My Soul to Keep (1997)
• The Living Blood (2001)
• Blood Colony (2008)
• My Soul to Take (2011)

• Casanegra (withBlair Underwood andSteven Barnes, 2007)
• In the Night of the Heat (with Blair Underwood and Steven Barnes, 2008)
• From Cape Town with Love (with Blair Underwood and Steven Barnes, 2010)
• South by Southeast (with Blair Underwood and Steven Barnes, 2012)

• The Keeper (with Steven Barnes, 2022)
• Black Panther: Sins of the King (Steven Barnes, Geoffrey Thorne, Mohale Mashigo, and Ira Madison III, 2024)

• Naked Came the Manatee (contributor, 1996)
• Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights (Patricia Stephens Due, 2003)
• The Ancestors (withL.A. Banks andBrandon Massey, 2008)
• Devil's Wake (with Steven Barnes, 2012)
• Domino Falls (with Steven Barnes, 2013)
• The Keeper (with Steven Barnes, 2022)

• "Like Daughter",Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2000)
• "Patient Zero",The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection (2001)
• "Trial Day",Mojo: Conjure Stories (2003)with
• "Aftermoon",Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (2004)
• "Senora Suerte",The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (2006)^[14]
• "Enhancement",Cellarius Stories, Volume 1 (2018)^[15]

• List of horror fiction authors

• Official website
• Tananarive Due at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• Book review,The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, November 11, 2023 on NPR

• 1966 births
• Living people
• 20th-century African-American women writers
• 20th-century African-American writers
• 20th-century American novelists
• 20th-century American short story writers
• 20th-century American women novelists
• 21st-century African-American women writers
• 21st-century African-American writers
• 21st-century American novelists
• 21st-century American short story writers
• 21st-century American women novelists
• African-American novelists
• African-American short story writers
• Afrofuturist writers
• American Book Award winners
• American horror writers
• American science fiction writers
• American women horror writers
• American women science fiction and fantasy writers
• American women short story writers
• Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel winners
• The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction people
• Medill School of Journalism alumni
• Novelists from Florida
• People from Longview, Washington
• Speculative fiction writers of African descent
• Writers from Tallahassee, Florida
• African-American women short story writers
• World Fantasy Award–winning writers

• Articles with short description
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• Use American English from April 2025
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