Sharon Ellen Youngblood (October 16, 1959 – June 11, 2024) was an American playwright, author of short stories and novels, artist, and educator.
[1] When her play Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery was optioned by Sidney Poitier for a film, she used the money to attend Brown University, earning her MFA in Creative Writing in 1993.
Her play Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery, which first premiered at Atlanta's Horizon Theater in 1988, follows a community of black women who nurture a young woman named Daughter, sharing their folk wisdom, biblical teachings, and life experiences.
It celebrates the strength and wisdom of African-American women overcoming oppression and violence in the segregated South through interconnected stories of endurance, humor, and perseverance.
[7] In a brief conversation with Edward Albee early in her career, he advised her to diversify her creative pursuits beyond playwriting, suggesting that she also explore novels, poetry, non-fiction, screenplays, and painting.
[4] She supported herself by painting and cleaning houses while consistently writing, balancing day jobs with periods of travel or artist residencies.
There, she encountered black women with similar dreams of writing novels, making films, and experiencing the expatriate life they had read about in books such as Langston Hughes’ The Big Sea.
[12] She taught creative writing at City College of New York[5] and was the 2002-2003 John and Renee Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi.
[4] Shay Youngblood has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a Pushcart Prize for her short story "Born With Religion.