Terry a. O'Neal

Author Terry a O'Neal in 2013

Terry a. O'Neal (born June 15, 1973) is an American writer and poet. O'Neal was named one of the century's great Black women writers in a book entitled Literary Divas: The Top 100+ Most Admired African-American Women Writers in Literature (2006).

Biography

O'Neal (Terry Anne Williams) was born in French Camp, California, and raised on the south side of Stockton, California, where she was exposed to arts, literature, and culture by her mother, Barbara Ann Tillman-Williams. As a child, she met Maya Angelou at the art gallery where her mother worked, an experience that she later said inspired her pursuit of writing.

In 1991, she graduated from Franklin High School in Stockton. The summer following her graduation, O'Neal married at 18-years-old, and went on to attended California State University, Sacramento in the fall of 1991.

Poetry had always been her first love in literature, largely inspired by her mother and her best-loved poets of the Harlem Renaissance: Langston Hughes, Carolyn M. Rodgers, and Gwendolyn Brooks, to name a few. While raising a family, attending grad school, building her own business, and working a full-time job, O'Neal decided to journey down her own path to writing; and in 2000, she released her first book of poetry, Motion Sickness.

Shortly after her first book, O'Neal released her second collection of poetry The Poet Speaks In Black (2001) and the children's picture book Ev'ry Little Soul (2002).

One year later, she published Sweet Lavender (2003), a coming-of-age story of a young girl forced to grow up too fast after her father walked out of her life at a young age. The novel, that was inspired by the works of Langston Hughes and her passion for father-daughter stories, was later adapted into a feature screenplay.

In 2005, O'Neal founded Lend Your Hand, Educating the World's Children, a non-profit organization geared towards providing resources and schools supplies needed to help students achieve academic success. Through the non-profit, she developed and implemented The Black History Bee, a program designed to teach youth Black history through a trivia competition.

Apart from her own writings, O'Neal has toured secondary schools across the country to encourage young people to carry out their dream, no matter how unlikely it may seem. It was her fervent desire to uplift today's youth that paved the way to her becoming the editor and publisher of the collection entitled Make Some Noise! A Youth Poetry Anthology, a collection that featured poetry by youth ages 12 to 18 years of age.

Make Some Noise IV! A Baton Rouge Youth Poetry Anthology (2017) was dedicated to Louisiana youth. Through poetry, prose and short stories, they shared intimate thoughts and feelings about surviving the historic Louisiana great flood and tragic police shootings of 2016. Nearly 100 Baton Rouge teens were published in this volume.

O'Neal's contribution to uplifting youth through writing and poetry, which has largely been overlooked, has empowered youth across the United States and abroad. Her efforts have been successful in providing a safe platform for adolescence to speak out and share their voice. The poetry series is published through her independent publishing company, LeBleu Publications, formerly known as Motion Publishing (established in 1999). Make Some Noise VII: Lift Every Voice (2025), the latest volume, brings together a tapestry of young voices from Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Filmmaking

Transcending her literary career, O'Neal delved into the world of screenwriting and filmmaking in 2007. With the support of television writer, Stacee Comage, and O'Neal's script editor, J. Kenneth Rotcop, she adapted Sweet Lavender into a full-length feature screenplay. The following year, O'Neal launched the independent film studio, Motion Productions, bearing the same name as her book publishing company.

Making an impact in the lives of others is her life's purpose. In 2009, that same passion led her to a family in search of answers about their missing son for over 25 years. While fingering through junk mail, she stumbled across the missing person’s flyer of 16-year-old Maurice Laron Jefferson, also known as “Red”, who disappeared after departing from his grandparents home on his way to basketball practice in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1983.

O’Neal felt compelled to write his mother, Bettye Bridges, who lived in Williston, SC, at the time, and told Bridges that her son’s picture “called out to me for some sort of peace and understanding.” From there, O’Neal and the family believed that a documentary would be the best medium to tell his story. That year, the documentary Hope of Finding a Son: The Maurice “Red” Jefferson Story went into production.

Years later, in 2012, she returned to her screenplay Sweet Lavender, finally moving into production under the title Along the Dirt Road. The film, that was set in Breaux Bridge, LA, was to be shot in towns within Calcasieu Parish where her mother grew up. Alpharetta teen actress and singer, Camryn Levert, who was 15 at the time, was cast as lead character, Rae Lynne, in the film. But the writer and producer took a hard hit following her divorce, and production was halted in the summer of 2014.

Poetry

Although O’Neal is best known for her young adult fiction novel, she is also a highly accomplished poet. Being exposed to Harlem Renaissance poets in her youth sparked a fondness in her for poetry at a young age. American historian and state librarian of California, Dr. Kevin Starr, formally said: “Her poems are reflective of African American culture and at the same time underscore our universal humanity.”

O’Neal largely credits her mother, also a talented poet, who introduced her to the art of poetry in her early childhood. A 2022 article in Inside Sacramento Magazine noted:

"I credit my mother for everything,” says O’Neal, raised in Stockton by her mother, Barbara Ann Tillman-Williams, a native of Louisiana who moved to California in the 1970s but reared O’Neal and her three siblings as if they were still in the south. "My mother was a seamstress, a chef, a poet, she could draw—she was an all-encompassing creative person, so how could I not be? She was always encouraging, always inspiring me to be a better me. The great I am is because of her."

After freeing a tumultuous marriage, O'Neal released a cathartic book of poetry entitled The Sparrow's Plight: Woes of a 21st Century Black Poet (2014). In the book, the author speaks of her run-ins with life being a Black, liberated woman in a White America, racial injustice, and the tragedies unfolding around the world. In the foreword by author and literary critic, Rudolph Lewis, he pointed out:

Neither Gil Scott-Heron nor Richard Wright could have written as poetically with such depth and beauty as Terry a O’Neal does with regard to two recent issues, namely, the tragedies of Fukishima and African child soldiers. I can imagine some poet might have been quite graphic when it comes to the inhumane wreckage caused by the tsunami and earthquake in northern Japan and the meltdown of six nuclear reactors. But in the nine line poem "disaster zone," O'Neal captures the horror in words of wondrous awe.

Personal Life

Terry A. O'Neal was born Terry Anne Williams to mother, Barbara Ann Tillman, from Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, and Henry L. Williams of Tyler, TX. Her Creole mother was born on June 23, 1951. The two met in the rural town of Stockton, California, after having relocated from their hometowns in the south.

Terry has three siblings: Tonia, her oldest; Tangie; and Terrance, who is the youngest. For 25 years, the family lived on the corner of Eight Street and Pock Lane across from Mount Moriah Baptist Church. Commodore Stockton Skills School was where she spent her formative years, completing her education through 8th grade before transitioning to secondary school.

By 1992, at just 18 years old, O'Neal had already become an undergrad student, a wife, and mother. For 28 years, O'Neal resided in Elk Grove, California, with her now ex-husband, Michael O'Neal, and their three children: Mike Jr., Cameron Henry, and Jorden Elizabeth. During this time, she dedicated herself to being a devoted mother while working diligently to built her literary career. When her marriage began to unravel, the two separated and lived apart for four years before their divorce in July 2018.

She relocated to Hampton, VA in 2021, and remarried the following year to former news journalist, filmmaker, and screenwriter, Kurt David Hogan. The two exchanged vows at the historic Fort Monroe on May 15, 2022. Hogan, a Boston native, spent his young adult years in New York City to elevate his professional path in media arts, television, and film. The griot couple were united by a shared passion for the arts. Both are accomplished screenwriters, blending their voices to compose poignant scripts that tell compelling narratives that depict the Black experience.

When the economy reopened following the Covid-19 pandemic, the husband-and-wife duo resumed their creative endeavors, working side-by-side as story producers and script writers on season two of the docuseries Home Sweet Home Hampton Roads, where Kurt also served as director and producer. The show aired Sunday mornings on WVEC (channel 13), an affiliate of ABC in Hampton Roads, VA.

Works

• Motion Sickness (2000) ISBN 9780967944609
• The Poet Speaks in Black (2001) ISBN 9780967944647
• Ev'ry Little Soul (2002) ISBN 9780967944661
• Sweet Lavender (2003) ISBN 9780967944678
• Good Mornin' Glory (2006) ISBN 9780976849223
• The Sparrow's Plight: Woes of a 21st Century Black Poet (2014) ISBN 9780976849247