[1] She went to college at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, a historically Black school, and she received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

[1][2] In 1994, Walton began her career in journalism as a recent high school graduate interning for The Florida Times-Union — she wrote for the Teen Rap section of the paper that existed at the time.

[1] Her journalism career continued after college at The Oregonian in Portland and The Washington Post in D.C.[1] She then moved to New York City where she worked as a magazine editor for a number of publications, including Essence, Entertainment Weekly, Getty Images, and LIFE.

[1] It featured Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt who were singing with Talking Heads, and Walton found herself drawn to these "two amazing Black women.

[8] The startup, called Ursa, aims to celebrate and promote short fiction by underrepresented authors through a website, a podcast, and publishing—including publishing audio stories.