HARRISBURG -- For the featured author at Harrisburg District Library's Brown Bags and Books program, writing has been a lifelong interest.
Melinda Clemmons Blackorby, an Oakland, Calif., resident who has lived in the Golden State for about 25 years, grew up in Harrisburg. Blackorby is a freelance writer and editor in the field of child welfare.
On Wednesday, though, it was her poetry and fictional prose that she shared with those gathered in the library's community room.
Blackorby, the daughter of Dave and Lynda Clemmons of Harrisburg, said she's enjoyed writing for many years, and she has a direct family connection.
"My mother was my high school English teacher when I was a freshman," she said, recalling that time in her life with a smile. "I've always loved to write, and I wrote in college," she said.
While working on her master of fine arts from Washington University in St. Louis, she also worked on fiction projects, she said.
She worked in the field of children's services and foster care for more than 20 years, and continues to be a contributor to the Chronicle of Social Change, an online news Website for child welfare and juvenile justice.
In recent years, though, the 1983 Harrisburg High School graduate also begin revisiting the world of fiction.
"I started taking a workshop and writing poetry and sending it out -- or not," she said, with a light laugh. "It's something that I love to do, but I still feel like I'm learning."
