2010 Piedmont Laureate, Fiction

I believe that the creative process is complete when an audience receives one’s work; like any other spontaneous creation in nature, our writing is food, medicine or kinship for an often-anonymous recipient.

Zelda Lockhart is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Fifth Born, which was a 2002 Barnes & Noble Discovery selection and won a finalist award for debut fiction from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Foundation. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Norfolk State University, a Master’s degree in English from Old Dominion University, and a Certificate in writing, directing and editing film from the New York Film Academy.

Lockhart’s second novel, Cold Running Creek, was published in 2007. This work of historical fiction garnered the attention of noteworthy literary organizations such as the Historical Novel Society, and won a 2008 Honor Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. In 2010, Ms. Lockhart’s third novel, Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle, will be released. An excerpt appeared in the 2010 issue of the Chautauqua Literary Journal.  Additional works of fiction, poetry and essays can be found in various anthologies, journals and magazines.

Ms. Lockhart lives in Durham, North Carolina and continues to lecture and facilitate a variety of workshops at colleges, community centers, libraries throughout the United States that empower adults and children to self-define through writing.

www.zeldalockhart.com

Reflections

I am honored and excited to sharing my passion for literature and the arts it encompasses with the Piedmont community. During my tenure as Laureate, I plan to design and participate in programs that will help individuals self-define through the experience of literature. I also intend to offer and participate in literary programs that help us explore the diversity and kinship in our life experiences.

I believe that the creative process is complete when an audience receives one’s work; like any other spontaneous creation in nature, our writing is food, medicine or kinship for an often-anonymous recipient. With this philosophy in mind, I also foresee many programs that bring the voices of the Piedmont people to the awaiting public. I look forward to the many new people I am bound to meet and share precious time with over the next year.