Arthenia J. Bates Millican, born, June 1, 1920, in Sumter, South Carolina, the daughter of Susan Emma David Jackson and Calvin Shepherd Jackson, returned to Sumter to make her retirement home there after a long and productive career teaching and writing.

Arthenia's first poem was published when she was only sixteen. A protegee of Langston Hughes, she went on to write poems and prose, fiction and non-fiction, articles, reports, letters, and book reviews over the course of her lifetime. Her short works have appeared in the National Poetry Anthology, Essence Magazine, The College Language Association Journal, The Negro Digest, Black World, Obsidian, and many others. She was a contributing editor for James Baldwin, A Critical Evaluation and Sturdy Black Bridges: A Vision of Black Women in Literature.

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Video reading of “On Clean Cooking” by Arthenia Millican, performed by Storyteller Extraordinaire, Barbara Cheesboro

Excerpt from A Tribute to Arthenia Bates Millican; a film documentary depicting her life story and works, produced by Jones Productions