Yolanda Barnes comes from California. She majored in journalism and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California. While she was a student she wrote for the Black student newspaper, Alluswe, and freelanced for the Los Angeles Times. After graduating, she worked at the Hartford Courant. (An outstanding athlete, she also taught, for a time, at the Los Angeles School of Gymnastics. Most recently she has attended the University of Virginia, where she taught in Continuing Education and received her M.F.A. degree.