“If you like introverted queer heroines with messy love lives or quirky heroines who make poor decisions that’ll have you yelling, “Why, girl?! Why would you do that?!” then my novels are right up your alley.”
Berneta L. Haynes
Growing up in Arkansas, I began writing stories and exploring visual art from the moment I could pick up a pencil and write words. By the time I was eleven, I had written my first “chapter book” and had a sketchbook full of drawings. Writing and visual art have lived on in me ever since.
While at Drury University, where I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English, Writing, and Psychology, I never stopped writing. Meanwhile, my visual art interests led me to photography as a hobby. During all this artistic exploration in my twenties, I obtained a Master of Arts in English and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa. Afterward, I got a “real job” but never abandoned my creative passions.
I have continued to write, including founding a website for writers, publishing my first novel in 2015, while also experimenting with photography and learning classical guitar. In other words, art is life for me. As a queer Black woman, I write from the margins. I write because I want to imagine a world where we are free, a world where we can just live. I want to imagine a world where we can be superheroes, magical, or just basic everyday people.