Author Terry McMillan wins Essence lifetime award

NEW YORK (AP) - Terry McMillan has been honored with a lifetime achievement award from

Essence

magazine for her best-selling, irreverent novels about the everyday struggles of modern American black women.

"No single writer today has documented the African-American experience from a contemporary black woman's point of view like Terry McMillan," said Patrik Henry Bass, a senior editor at Essence for books and art.

McMillan's best-known books are "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "Waiting to Exhale." Both were made into movies.

McMillan, 56, has a long history with Essence. As a journalism student at the University of California at Berkeley, McMillan won an Essence essay contest in 1974 for a piece on black male-female relationships.

The award-winning author and nominees in eight other literary categories were nominated by the editors of Essence. Afterward, a panel of experts in the black-publishing field selected the winners.

McMillan and the other winners were to attend the Essence Literary Awards ceremony last night. *