Valerie Boyd, a renowned editor and author who taught a generation of Grady College of Journalism students how to write narrative nonfiction, died Saturday at the age of 58.
The former Atlanta Journal-Constitution arts editor wrote a widely praised biography of Zora Neale Hurston in 2003, came to teach at UGA in 2004 and was named the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Writer-in-Residence in 2007.
Hunter-Gault, one of the first two Black students at UGA, also mourned Boyd’s death in a tweet.
Boyd also served as senior editor at the Athens-based website The Bitter Southerner.
Another role was editor-at-large at the UGA Press.
This post has been updated to correct Boyd’s age and the date of her death.
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