PIEDMONT LAUREATE    

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 will appear also 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. She welcomes visits to her website: www.zeldalockhart.com.