Gloria Ballard is a native of Nashville, where she enjoyed a 32-year career in journalism as a feature writer and editor at The Tennessean before leaving the newspaper business to become a freelance writer. During her career, she covered fashion, home design, gardening, travel and other features, and was travel editor at The Tennessean from 1998 until 2006.

Currently, Gloria writes a garden column for The Tennessean, two garden blogs, garden and travel features, stories and essays. She teaches Creative Writing in the Community Education program at Watkins College of Art & Design in Nashville, and leads writing workshops in creative non-fiction and travel writing.

She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee. Gloria also writes fiction and was a 2005 participant at Sewanee Writers Conference. She is currently working on a variety of projects, serves on the Wilson County Black History Committee in Lebanon, Tenn., studied with the Master Gardeners of DavidsonCounty, and is a member of the Garden Writers Association.