UGA Online joins the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications and the broader UGA community in mourning the loss of Valerie Boyd, a writer, editor, professor and mentor who died February 12, 2022 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. 

As the Director of the Low-Residency MFA in Narrative Nonfiction, Boyd shared her talent and enthusiasm with so many. Her leadership and drive served as a model of how to succeed as a writer. 

Boyd, a journalism professor at UGA, was told of her election to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in the fall of 2021, but plans for the upcoming ceremony had not been set prior to her death. 

“As we mourn our friend and colleague Valerie Boyd, we are grateful that we are able to celebrate her work as one of the 2022 inductees into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame,” said Toby Graham, university librarian and associate provost. “Not only was Valerie a brilliant writer and editor, but she was instrumental in training and inspiring the next generation of writers through her work at UGA. From her journalism career to her contributions to the craft of literary nonfiction, Valerie undoubtedly left her mark as part of the Georgia’s literary legacy.” 

“Valerie was a supportive friend to the UGA Libraries, serving as an editor-at-large for the UGA Press, an editor for its literary nonfiction series, and a member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame Board of Jurors,” Graham added. “Valerie will be missed for her talents, insights, and service. We are honored to share her legacy through the work of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.” 

The acclaimed journalist is the author of Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, which was named to the American Library Association’s Notable Books list in 2004. In addition to a Southern Book Award, the biography earned Boyd a Georgia Author of the Year Award in nonfiction.  Boyd served as a Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence and associate professor at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at UGA.

Boyd’s recent projects include Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker (Simon & Schuster 2022) and the anthology Bigger Than Bravery: Black Writers on the Pandemic, Shutdown and Uprising of 2020 (also 2022). Former arts editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she has published in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Bon Appetit, Oxford American, Essence and Atlanta Magazine. She was senior consulting editor at Bitter Southerner magazine and served on the board of the Southern Foodways Alliance.

The family of Boyd announced that “a memorial service will be live-streamed on March 5 and a tribute to Valerie will be held in the coming weeks and months. We will announce the date once it is finalized. In the meantime, please continue to hold the family and her spirit in your hearts. Information is forthcoming on where to make a donation in her honor.”

Read the original articles here and here.