Meet the Faculty: Dr. Zelda Lockhart

“I write from a place of authenticity”

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Charlotte Lit welcomes Dr. Zelda Lockhart to our faculty in Spring 2026. Zelda will lead an online workshop called “Starting Your Multigenerational Memoir,” on two consecutive Thursdays, March 5 and 12, on Zoom. 

Register here to save your spot! 

Dr. Zelda Lockhart is a Fulbright Specialist engaged in cross-cultural writing projects for generational healing. She holds a Ph.D. in Expressive Art Therapies and was the Lambda Literary Foundation 2024 Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist. She has also authored a craft book, The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript: Turning Life’s Wounds into the Gift of Literary Fiction, Memoir or Poetry. We asked her to answer a few questions so you could get to know her better.

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Was there a “road not taken” for you — a path you almost chose instead of writing and teaching?

For me, writing or speaking a story as truth is a way of expressing myself. It’s through the desire to express what it’s like to be here that I make art. I don’t feel like there are roads not taken. But if someone were to take away my ability to express myself in writing, I would do so through dance. If they bound my feet, I would sing. If they bound my mouth, I would paint … you get the picture. If one road was stopped up, I would take another to get to the goal of expressing this human life.

What is a piece of writing advice you’ve never forgotten?

When I was in my twenties, I came into Toi Derricotte’s poetry class one day and read a poem, and everybody clapped and snapped. But Toi responded with something like, “That was clever, now go write the truth beneath the poem that you are not making yourself vulnerable enough to offer.” I knew she was right, but I was very pissed off. I went home and re-wrote the poem, which was about my grandmother’s death and was about being molested as a child by my father. I have written from a place of authenticity ever since.

Talk about a favorite place you’ve either visited or lived.

Berea, Kentucky when I was twenty-one. I lived in Daniel Boone Forest with an elder who lived pretty much off grid. That experience of being there with my son who was about to turn two years old put me fully in touch with my natural self which is THE SELF. Most of my selfhood up to that point was made up of responses to capitalistic bs. Living in the forest at such a young age brought me home to myself. It is through nature and writing that I practice healing for myself and for others.

Music while you’re writing — yes or no? If yes, what do you listen to?

I do listen to music while I write. It’s one of the jump-starters that I recommend for other people as well in my book The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript. I generally listen to something in the same vein or mood of what I am hoping to write, and I will also choose a few words of poetry and ask myself what I think, feel, or remember and get going with the writing. Lately I have been listening to the Belgian-Cameroonian singer Lubiana whose songs are about Womanhood, Motherhood and the Motherland.

Describe your teaching style in three words. 

Soulful, courageous, vulnerable

What are you looking forward to in teaching “Starting Your Multigenerational Memoir” for Charlotte Lit?

Meeting a brand-new flock of Souls who want to make authentic art for themselves, the ancestors, and the folks yet to be born. I can’t wait to meet y’all.