Alison Mills Newman

Alison Mills Newman is a writer, chaplain, and former actress.[1] Her 1974 autofictional novel Francisco, a chronicle of Black bohemian life in San Francisco, was reissued in 2023 to acclaim.[2] She was the first African-American teenage actress on a television series, playing Carol Deering in the sitcom Julia.[3]

Mills Newman has said she decided to be an actress when she was twelve years old, and participated in theater projects with Maya Angelou under the direction of Frank Silvera.[3] She left Hollywood in her twenties, focusing on poetry and music.[1] She sang and performed alongside jazz musicians Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Weather Report, and Taj Mahal. Newman wrote Francisco on roadtrips with her future husband, Francisco Toscano Newman.[4]

Francisco was rediscovered when Jeffrey Yang, an editor at New Directions, heard of the book in an article by Henryette Mullen but was unable to find a copy. The first and only edition had been printed 50 years ago from a small independent press in Berkeley.[5] He contacted Mills Newman, and she emailed him a photocopy of the text in March 2021. "I was really floored," Yang said.[1] The book was reissued by New Directions in 2023.

In the forward for Francisco, Saidiya Hartman calls the novel "a portrait of the artist as a young Black woman." Stephen Kearse, writing for The Nation, wrote that "Francisco is a novel that is very much of the Black arts Movement."[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c "To re-release her 1974 novel, she had to make peace with her younger self". The Washington Post. 2023-04-01. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2026-01-30.
  2. ^ Hartman, Saidiya (2023-03-03). "A Love Story of the Black Arts Movement". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2026-01-30.
  3. ^ a b "I Always Loved Love: Alison Mills Newman in Conversation with Lynell George". www.smallpresstraffic.org. Retrieved 2026-01-30.
  4. ^ a b Kearse, Stephen (2023-07-12). "The Strange Legacy of "Francisco," a Novel of Black Bohemianism". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2026-01-30.
  5. ^ "A Reissued Novel Offers a Rare Look at Black Bohemian Life". Alta Online. 2024-03-25. Retrieved 2026-01-30.
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