Acclaimed author, playwright to return to hometown of Columbus for free lecture, discuss library's impact

An award-winning author and playwright who was born in Columbus and has achieved international acclaim will return to her hometown next week to give a free lecture and participate in an oral history program at the library that helped educate and inspire her.

Shay Youngblood, a graduate of Hardaway High School, will make her presentation Monday, starting at 7 p.m., in the Mildred L. Terry Public Library, 640 Veterans Parkway. She will discuss growing up in the area and the impact the library has had on her work.

Also during her visit, Youngblood will be among the final participants in the Mildred Terry Memory Project: Stories from the Library, which will conclude its six-month collection period Oct. 31. StoryCorps, the nation's largest oral history project, has funded the local effort, comprising nearly 100 interviews of folks who grew up in the region. The Mildred L. Terry Public Library is a branch of the Chattahoochee Valley Libraries, which is one of 10 organizations to receive the StoryCorps grant in the past three years.

Youngblood wrote the novels "Soul Kiss" (1997), "Black Girl in Paris" (2000), both published by Riverhead Books, and a collection of short fiction, "The Big Mama Stories" (Firebrand Books, 1989). Her plays "Amazing Grace," "Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery" and "Talking Bones," have been widely produced.

Among her grants and awards, Youngblood has received a Pushcart Prize for fiction, a Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, several NAACP Theatre Awards, an Astraea Writers Award for fiction, a New York Foundation for the Arts Sustained Achievement Award, and a Japan-U.S. Creative Artist Fellowship sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts.

Youngblood earned a bachelor's degree in mass communications from Clark-Atlanta University and a master's degree in creative writing from Brown University, where she taught as well. She also has instructed and lectured at American University, Boston College, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Emory University, New York University, Spelman College, the University of Minnesota and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Youngblood was a writer in residence at the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas A&M University and the University of Mississippi. She has presented at conferences in France, Spain and Sweden.

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Acclaimed author, playwright to return to hometown of Columbus for free lecture, discuss library's impact ."