ReShonda Tate Billingsley #BBWKN Guest Speaker

ReShonda Tate Billingsley always did have an active imagination. From making up stories to crafting award-winning poems, the national bestselling author has always maintained a love for telling stories. After numerous rejections from publishers, ReShonda stepped out on faith, established her own publishing company, and released her debut novel, My Brother’s Keeper. The book caught the attention of one of the country’s top literary agents, who secured a deal for ReShonda with megahouse publisher, Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books.

A former television and radio news reporter, ReShonda has been in the journalism business for more than two decades. Currently, she is the co-host of From Cover to Cover literary talk radio show, a freelance reporter, an editor for the Houston Defender Newspaper, as well as a professional editor, ghost writer and literary consultant.  

ReShonda recently added ‘actress’ to her impressive resume, starring in the national touring stage play “Marriage Material,” along with Allen Payne, Tank, T-Boz, Michael Colyar and Jill Marie Jones.  ReShonda has worked as a reporter for The National Enquirer and as an anchor and reporter for NBC, ABC and FOX television stations in Beaumont, TX, Oklahoma City, OK and Houston, TX. She left her job at FOX 26 News in Houston in 2007 to write full-time.

And write she does…

ReShonda is the national bestselling author of 21 titles (Eight adult novels, eight teen novels, one non-fiction, three anthologies and one poetry book). Her sophomore novel, Let the Church Say Amen, is being made into a movie of which she is Executive Producer and actress Regina King is the director.  Her teen books, Nothing But Drama and Caught up in the Drama are also being made into movies.

A much sought-after public speaker, ReShonda has won numerous awards for her journalism, fiction and poetry writing skills. She is a five-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists Spirit in the Words competition. Considered one of the top Inspirational Fiction authors in the country, her books have appeared on the Essence Bestseller’s list more than 20 times, as well as The Washington Post and Dallas Morning News Bestseller’s lists. Her books have also been featured in USA Today and Ebony Magazine as Summer Sizzlers and she was recently inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, along with R&B singer, Ne-Yo.

ReShonda’s upcoming projects include A Good Man is Hard to Find (Mar. 22, 2011), Saints and Sinners (collaboration with Victoria Christopher Murray, Jan. 2012), Say Amen, Again (July 2011) and A Little Bit of Karma (March 2012). Her current books include: Holy Rollers, The Devil is a Lie, Can I Get a Witness, The Pastor’s Wife, Let the Church Say Amen, Everybody Say Amen, I Know I’ve Been Changed and My Brother’s Keeper.

Her teen novels include Drama Queens, Caught Up in the Drama, Nothing But Drama, Blessings in Disguise, With Friends Like These, Getting Even, Fairweather Friends, Friends ‘Til the End, and Caught up in the Drama. And the anthologies Have a Little Faith and Four Degrees of Heat. She has one non-fiction title, Help! I’ve Turned into my Mother.

A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, ReShonda is married with three small children and was recently voted a Top 25 Woman of Houston by Rolling Out Magazine.