Lauren Shows was born to a preacher and a preacher's wife, and spent the majority of her earliest childhood years rollin' 'round the bible belt, to end up in Panama City, Florida. After graduating from Florida State University in Tallahassee, she spent the next several months in existential crisis, making lattes for snowbirds and spring-breakers, before moving to Kentucky to get an MFA in writing from Spalding University. A chance meeting at Spalding landed her in Yellow Springs. She was graciously hired by the News, though her only previous dealing with newspaper publication was in third grade, when she wrote a story about a bunch of skeletons rising from the dead on Halloween, which was printed in the Owenton News-Herald. Lauren enjoys cheese, giant squid, and Michael J. Fox.

• World House Choir honors the legacy of civil rights fireband Pauli Murray

  By Lauren ShowsNovember 7, 2025

  

  This weekend, the 10-movement dramatic cantata, “Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray,” will be performed in Yellow Springs Friday and Sunday, Nov. 7 and 9, and in Cincinnati on Nov. 8.

• Hear the voices of women Vietnam vets in ‘We Were There’

  By Lauren ShowsOctober 27, 2025

  

  The reader’s theater production, adapted by Jane Blakelock, Amy Bennett and Louise Smith, with support from Mad River Theater Works, will be performed Nov. 1 and 2.

• Conscience and connection in new sci-fi novel

  By Lauren ShowsOctober 26, 2025

  

  Set in 2275, “Interwoven” follows Chief Scientist Dr. Tah Morant, conflicted creator of the Deuteron engine, slated to be used in humanity’s last desperate mission off a dying Earth.

• John Gudgel honored for 45 years in YS Schools

  By Lauren ShowsOctober 25, 2025

  

  “That’s the power of John Gudgel — to see what’s possible when others can’t, to open doors quietly but meaningfully, and to leave generations of students and families better because of his heart,” Assistant Superintendent Megan Winston said.

• Move and sing at the Foundry’s Trad Romp Wknd

  By Lauren ShowsOctober 24, 2025

  

  When the foot-stomping starts at the Foundry Theater next weekend, it won’t be just another weekend of concerts. Trad Romp Wknd, set for Oct. 24–26, is shaping up to be a full-bodied celebration of traditional music, movement and community.

• Young thespians summon spirit of Poe in ‘Shuddersome’

  By Lauren ShowsOctober 23, 2025

  

  The words of Edgar Allan Poe are set to haunt local audiences this weekend, as Yellow Springs Middle and High School thespians will stage “Shuddersome: Tales of Poe,” a one-hour adaptation of some of Poe’s most chilling works, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 24 and 25, at First Presbyterian Church.

• Senior Center and Glen Helen link arms for square dance fundraiser

  By Lauren ShowsOctober 21, 2025

  

  On Sunday, Oct. 26, from 2–4 p.m., the two nonprofits will co-host a square dance fundraiser at the Glen’s Camp Greene. The event will feature live music from beloved area old-time band The Corndrinkers, with longtime caller Ceal Turnbull leading the dances.

• Tonwship Trustees address county millage roll-back

  By Lauren ShowsOctober 17, 2025

  

  “Trustees briefly reviewed correspondence from the Greene County Board of Commissioners announcing that the board had decided to temporarily roll back 0.5 mills of inside, unvoted millage in response to ‘a significant jump in property taxes last year.'”

• First Presbyterian’s Rev. Daria bids village adieu

  By Lauren Shows

  

  After nearly six years leading First Presbyterian Church of Yellow Springs, the Rev. Daria Schaffnit will step down at the end of October to become associate pastor at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton.

• Across the English Channel — and back

  By Lauren ShowsOctober 16, 2025

  

  Earlier this year, villager Amy Wamsley swam 21 miles across the English Channel, in 16 hours and 56 minutes. She had fulfilled a promise she’d made to herself as a child: to swim the Channel the year she turned 50.