Verna Arvey (February 16, 1910 – November 22, 1987) was an American librettist, pianist and writer who is best known for her musical collaborations with her husband William Grant Still, a musician and composer.
Avery met William Grant Still in 1930, when Still travelled to Los Angeles to revive his friendship with the composer Harold Bruce Forsythe.
She was of Russian Jewish heritage and Still was African American, but their interracial union (unusual for a high-profile couple of the era) did not appear to damage their careers.
Arvey's first collaboration with Still came in 1939 when Langston Hughes, the original librettist for his opera Troubled Island, left the country before the project was completed.
She became the librettist for his subsequent operatic work, most notably A Bayou Legend, A Southern Interlude, Costaso and Mota.