ABOUT TERRY
Biography
Terry A. O'Neal is a bestselling author, poet, and educator whose work has been featured in magazines, journals, and newspapers worldwide. Recognized as one of the most influential African American female writers of our time, O'Neal was named among the Top 100+ Most Admired African American Women in Literature in the book Literary Divas—a distinction given to women who have left a lasting impact on literature and culture.
O'Neal’s body of work spans across multiple genres, including three poetry collections—Motion Sickness, The Poet Speaks in Black, and Good Mornin’ Glory—as well as two children's books, Ev’ry Little Soul and My Jazz Shoes. Her award-winning Southern fiction novel Sweet Lavender garnered critical acclaim, and her 2014 release, The Sparrow’s Plight: Woes of a 21st Century Black Poet, includes an introduction by renowned writer Rudolph Lewis.
Drawing inspiration from the powerful voices of the Harlem Renaissance, O’Neal’s work is shaped by poets like Langston Hughes, Carolyn M. Rodgers, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Their honest reflections of Black life, identity, and social reality continue to echo through her writing. Like Hughes, she leans into the rhythm and cadence of everyday Black life, while Brooks’ quiet, observant lens informs the emotional depth of her work. Rodgers’ focus on identity and resistance also finds its way into her voice. Written in what Terry A. O’Neal calls Sepia Modernism, her work carries these influences forward, bringing the past into the present without dressing it up, just truth, as it is, making her writing both a continuation and an evolution of that literary tradition.
Her poetry has resonated across borders, earning international recognition in countries such as Africa, Iran, Jamaica, Australia, Canada, Bermuda, and throughout the U.S. In 2004, her work was translated into Persian and featured in Golestaneh, a respected Persian magazine. Her creative voice has also been spotlighted on PBS, CNN, KVIE, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, FOX, and many other media platforms.
Beyond her literary achievements, O'Neal is deeply committed to mentoring young people. Through her independent publication, Make Some Noise! A Youth Poetry Anthology, she encourages adolescents aged 12–18 to find their voices and share their stories. In 2017, she released Make Some Noise IV: A Baton Rouge Youth Poetry Anthology, which includes works by local teens reflecting on the Baton Rouge police shootings, the 2016 Louisiana flood, social justice, and the personal challenges youth face in today's world.
O’Neal is also the founder of the Chloe African American Cemetery Preservation Association, a grassroots initiative devoted to restoring and protecting historic burial grounds, preserving ancestral memory, and honoring the lives and legacies rooted in the land. She is also the founder of the National Black History Bee, a trivia competition designed to engage students in African American history.
A passionate advocate for educational initiatives, O'Neal has also made her mark as a screenwriter, contributing to the writing team for the second season of the ABC daytime docu-series Home Sweet Home Hampton Roads.
O’Neal continues to use her writing as a tool for change, advocating for youth empowerment and cultural awareness while sharing stories that inspire and provoke thought. She is also pursuing a PhD in Transformative Social Change at Saybrook University.
Preserving History: The Chloe Cemetery Mission
In addition to her work as a novelist, poet, and screenwriter, Terry A. O’Neal (also known as Terry O’Neal-Hogan) is a dedicated genealogist and the founder of the Chloe African American Cemetery Preservation Association (CAACPA).
For more than two decades, Terry has traced her family’s roots through census records, land documents, obituaries, and DNA research. That work led her to Chloe Cemetery, also known as St. Mary’s Cemetery, a 19th-century burial ground near English Bayou in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Land for the cemetery was set aside for the Chloe community in 1904. It became the resting place for African American, Creole, and Native American families who were barred from the area’s white cemeteries, but over the decades it was lost to overgrowth and hurricane damage.
Among those believed to be buried there is Terry’s third great-grandfather, James Alphonse. According to his 1943 obituary, he was the last living person enslaved by Major J.C. LeBleu. Terry is also a descendant of the Hunt, Taylor, Tillman, LeBleu, and Roberts families of the Chloe community.
In February 2026, Terry filed for stewardship of the cemetery, and in March she founded CAACPA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, to restore, preserve, and document the site and the people buried there. Since then, volunteers, descendants, tribal leaders, and university partners have joined the effort. During an October 2026 cleanup, Terry located the grave of her great-grandmother, whose resting place her family had been searching for.
“We’re bringing history forward,” Terry says, so that the voices of those buried at Chloe are no longer silenced.
Learn more or volunteer at chloecemetery.org.
KPLC 7 News - October 18, 2026
A historic Southwest Louisiana cemetery all but vanished — until now
The Current · October 13, 2026
Natalie McLendon reports on Terry’s genealogical search for her ancestors, the history of the LeBleu settlement, and the families working with her to reclaim Chloe Cemetery.
KPLC 7 News · October 18, 2026
Coverage of the October volunteer cleanup, where Terry and fellow descendants uncovered family burial sections and discovered they were related to one another.
Woman fighting to save neglected Calcasieu Parish cemetery
KPLC 7 News · May 7, 2026
KPLC’s first report on Terry O’Neal-Hogan’s mission to rescue the abandoned cemetery where her ancestors are buried.
