Women of Color Women of Word -- African American Female Playwrights

women of color women of words

shay youngblood

1959-

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Shay Youngblood was born in Columbus, Georgia. She received a BA in Mass Communications from Clark-Atlanta Univesity in 1981 and an MFA in creative writing from Brown University in 1993. In addition to writing, Youngblood has worked as a public information assistant for WETV in Atlanta and as an agriculture information officer with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republican.

April Book of the Month! Shay Youngblood's Black Girl in Paris

Ms. Youngblood has received recognition as a poet, playwright, and a fiction writer. She has also written, produced, and directed two short vidoes, and written the screenplay for Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, which was optioned by Sidney Potier for Columbia Pictures. In addition to awards for playwrighting, she has received recognition for her fiction, garnering a Pushcart Prize for her short story, "Born with Religion".

She has taught creative writing at the Syracuse Communty Writer's Project, and playwrighting at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institution for Women and at Brown University. Ms. Youngblood currently lives in New York where she teaches Creative Writing at the New School for Social Research. She is a member of the Dramatists' and Authors' Guild, the National Writers' Union, and the Writers' Guild of America.

Read an interview with Shay from amazon.com

PLAYS

"Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery" 1988: Premiered at the Horizon Theatre in Atlanta.
"Communism Killed My Dog" 1991: Workshopped at Seven Stages Theatre in Atlanta.
"Talking Bones" 1992: Workshopped at the Bay Area Playwrights' Festival, San Francisco, in 1992. Given a reading at Circle Repertory Theatre in New York in 1994. Opened at Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1994.
"Square Blues" 1992: Workshopped at the Bay Area Playwrights' Festival in 1993.
"Black Power Barbie in Hotel de Dream" 1992: First production at Seven Stages Theatre Short Play Festival.
"Amazing Grace" 1995: Opened at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
"There are Many Houses in My Tribe"- a ten minute prelude 1996: New Georges Performation in New York City

AWARDS

"Shakin the Mess Outta Misery": Susan Smith Blackburn Playwrighting Prize, Finalist, 1989; Hollywood NAACP Theatre Awards, Best Playwright, 1991
"Talking Bones": Kennedy Center's Lorraine Hansberry Playwrighting Award, 1993
"Square Blues": 21st Century Playwrights Festival, Edward Albee Honoree, 1993; Paul Green Foundation, National Theatre Award, 1995

CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL RESOURCES

For full citations of the books listed, follow links to Resources Page

Books marked with book covers or a are linked to Amazon.com records.

Women Playwrights of Diversity

LINKS

African American Literature Book Club - Has biographical information and links to other sites with information about Shay Youngblood.