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BIOGRAPHY:  Virginia DeBerry

Virginia DeBerry, co-author of Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made, Far From the Tree, and Better Than I Know Myself says "I'm proud to be a Buffalonian. I can't think of a better place to have grown up. This is where I learned the important things in life: family, friends, and community---the things I write about."

A product of the Buffalo Public Schools, Virginia attended schools 8, 74, 17, Fillmore Jr. High, and graduated from Bennett in 1967. Although she started college as an English major at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, she completed her education at the University at Buffalo. "My parents were very influential in my education but I also must give credit to many of my teachers for nurturing my love of language and literature."

After college, Virginia began a career as an English teacher, where she taught at Genesee Humboldt, East, Lafayette and Seneca High Schools. After nearly ten years in the classroom, Virginia decided she needed a change. The opportunity to do something truly different, presented itself when a life-long friend, fellow Buffalonian, Lawrine Childers, who worked at a New York modeling agency, convinced her to move downstate and try her hand at a brand new category in the fashion world: full figured modeling. Turning her life upside down, taking a chance and moving to New York proved to be a propitious decision and led to Virginia being frequently featured in catalogs, advertising and magazines, including Essence. She also appeared on TV programs like Today, Donahue, and Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Choosing this unlikely fork in the road also led to meeting her writing partner, Donna Grant.

Although Virginia was a successful model, she retired after two years and became a booking agent, and later Agency Director, of BB/LW, an agency that represented large-size and petite models, which later became a part of prestigious agency, Ford Models. At BB/LW, Virginia's background and experience as a teacher, led to the opportunity to become a spokeswoman for the large size fashion industry and for Hanes Hosiery. Virginia's career was the subject of articles in publications such as US Magazine and Manhattan, Inc. She was also interviewed on many local and nationally syndicated talk shows including PM Magazine, ESSENCE, the Television Program, and People are Talking.

After a stint as fashion editor of Great Dimensions newsletter, where she and Donna, who was celebrity focus editor, first worked together, Virginia went on to become the founding editor-in-chief of Maxima, a fashion and lifestyle magazine for the plus-size woman. Donna was the magazine's managing editor. When publication of Maxima ceased, Virginia and Donna realized that they had forged something beyond sisterhood. They had developed a working relationship they knew couldn't end. "So we decided it wouldn't!"

The two friends considered a few potential business opportunities, including starting another magazine. The two friends wondered if they could actually find a way to take advantage of what had been a first love for both of them... books. Once again, an unlikely decision turned out to be the right one. Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made became a national bestseller and has sold more than half a million copies. It was the number one selling African American novel in 1997. Tryin' also won an Honor Award in Fiction from the Black Caucus of The American Library Association. Far From the Tree was released in 2000 and became a New York Times best seller. Virginia and Donna's newest novel, Better Than I Know Myself will be in bookstores in the Summer of 2004. "People often ask us how we can write fiction together. We don't know how or why it works and we've decided not to question it. It just works because it does."

Virginia now resides in Central New Jersey but is close to family and friends who still live in Buffalo. Her mother, Juanita DeBerry, is a retired Buffalo schoolteacher. Her brother, John L DeBerry III, MD, is a respected local surgeon and her sister Valerie DeBerry is an executive with Rich Products Corporation.