I first learned that Shay Youngblood (Dominica 1981) was a PCV from Laura Bice (Macedonia 1998-99) who is working temporarily in the New York Peace Corps Office. Laura had read Shay’s new novel Black Girl in Paris, and had also attended an event in New York where Shay read from the novel.
Elsewhere in this issue of our on-line newsletter, Laura reviews Shay’s Black Girl in Paris. Here we learn what Shay has to say about her own career as a writer and how her Peace Corps experience has affected her writing.

What did you do as a Volunteer?
In Dominica, in the Eastern Caribbean, I served as an Agricultural Information Officer. I had recently graduated from Clark College (now Clark-Atlanta University) with a B.A. in Mass Communications.
Tell about your first published work.
     My first published short story was written while I was a PCV. It was based on an incident that happened when one of my neighbors invited me to a christening at her church. The story, “In A House of Wooden Monkies” was published in Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, an anthology edited by Gloria Naylor.
     My first book was a collection of short stories, The Big Mama Stories, (a semi-autobiographical work about the women who raised me in a small south Georgia town after my birth mother died in the early 1960’s.
     I was working at a book table at a large conference when the publisher of Firebrand Books, Nancy Bereano, mentioned that she had seen a few of my short stories published in several small journals and praised them. She asked me what I was working on and I said I was working toward a collection. She asked me to send her my manuscript when I felt I was ready. I worked all summer long finishing stories, revising and polishing up about a dozen. I sent them to Nancy, and two weeks later she sent me a contract. Keep in mind, I had been sending out short stories to places like the New Yorker for years and getting rejection slips.
     When I began sending my work to smaller journals that seemed likely to publish stories like mine, they did. And by the time I met my publisher, I had had a few poems and stories published and a few lines on my writing resume.
     Nancy gave me one of my first serious deadlines and a goal — to have a book published. Now I set goals for myself challenging myself to write in different genres and forms.

How do you go about writing?
I write in long hand and take notes in a small notebook I carry with me everywhere. I begin a new project by doing research in the library, taking biographical notes on the characters (I cast each character as if for a movie so I can see them clearly when I’m writing) and I write and draw detailed settings. I then map the project or write an outline of how I think the story will unfold in a few pages. Next I write a one page synopsis. I always know where the story begins and where I see it ending. I don’t always end up where I thought I would, however. I enjoy the act of writing, taking a journey and being surprised by what I find. I revise each draft on the computer, composing several drafts, adding, polishing and shaping each time.
     When I’m done with the manuscript I give it to my editor who asks me questions in the margins of the manuscript to help strengthen the work. She might make suggestions to strengthen a particular character or follow through on a plot line that I’d let drop and she corrects my grammar and tells me when I’ve done a good job, too.

Are there connections between your Peace Corps experience and your writing?
There are a lot of similarities between my journey as a PCV and that of my character, Eden, to Paris. I was young and a bit naive about working and living in a foreign country and had a lot of ideas about how I thought it would be and the reality was very different. I didn’t expect to be so physically or emotionally challenged. From washing my clothes in the river to falling in love with the island and the family I rented a house from. I didn’t expect to learn so much about myself in the process but I did and I’m richer for the experience and so is my writing.

Who do you read?
There are so many writers I admire. Sometimes I ask people to tell me what they’ve read that just knocked them out and sometimes I browse the library shelves and make discoveries for myself. I want to be swept away, disappear inside the pages of a book, I want to learn something new, see the world a little differently, from a different point of view. I read a lot of poetry, cookbooks, the telephone books I find in hotel rooms (a great resource for character names), books on gardening and astronomy and travel. I luxuriate in the written word.

What are you writing now?
I’m currently writing creative non-fiction and working on my third novel.

Do you have any advice for new Peace Corps writers?
I would suggest to a writer wanting to get published to first prepare for publication by researching the publications that the writer feels would be receptive to his or her work. Read a variety of good writing, study them, notice what holds your attention as a reader. Start with small publications and build a writing resume. Take classes if you have time. Find a reader or two to give you feedback on the work. I found my M.F.A. useful as an entry into teaching and it gave me time to focus on my writing, but I mostly learned by doing, by writing as much as I could, as often as I could. I still do. I’m still learning.