Photo courtesy of Dr. Veronica Wilkerson-Johnson.
Dedria Humphries Barker
Journalist, Author, Speaker
Dedria Humphries Barker is the author of Mother of Orphans: The True and Curious Story of Irish Alice, a Colored Man’s Widow (New York: 2Leaf Press, 2020), a women’s family social justice biography.
Bio
She is a National Endowment for the Arts G.R.I.T.
sub-awardee and a National Endowment of the Arts 2024 Big Read application review panelist and East Lansing Arts Council and Greater Lansing Arts Council grantee.
​
She is a fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Can Serrat International Artist Residency, Barcelona, Spain, and a member of, the Community of Writers, the Rally of Writers, and Bear River Writers Conference where she was amazed to see young European artists showing their work in progress while the Americans, including her, showed their work in PowerPoint presentations. That was a soul-searching moment.
​
She publishes in literary and journalism markets including PloughsharesBlog, and The Perch, a Yale University Community Mental Health publication; a monthly column on education and politics in The Lansing City Pulse, a weekly newspaper.
She has published essays in the nonfiction and fiction anthologies, including The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives of Mixed-Race Americans, and Black Lives Have Always Mattered, both issued by 2Leaf Press, and Absolute Visions.
A former staff writer with two Gannett Co., Inc., daily newspapers, she wrote features for The Commercial-News in Danville, Illinois, and news for The Lansing State Journal in Lansing, Michigan. Her career was built on experience with The Michigan Chronicle in Detroit, and The New Physician, the American Medical Student Association journal. Her work has also appeared in national markets including Salon.com, The New York Times, The Detroit News, The Milwaukee Courier, The Miami Times, Redbook and Good Housekeeping magazines, Utne Reader, the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature and the Ohio and Michigan historical societies.
Join my mailing list
Don't miss any updates on my latest projects and events - join my mailing list today! If you have any questions please write me at ededriaa@gmail.com