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.

• Villager to run NYC Marathon to benefit local enrichment nonprofit

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 29, 2026

  

  Villager Chris Westhoff is running in the New York Marathon for Team Komera, raising money for a nonprofit enriching the lives of girls and young women in Rwanda, whose managing director, Ashley Lackovich, also lives in the village.

• Clifton Music and Arts Festival returns this weekend

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 27, 2026

  

  The Clifton Gorge Music & Arts Festival returns Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28–29, bringing more than 50 artisan vendors, about a dozen food vendors and a full slate of live music and dance demonstrations to the village.

• Local resident hospitalized with West Nile virus

  By Lauren Shows

  

  Friends of local resident and artist Bill Mischler are rallying around him after a diagnosis of West Nile virus has kept him hospitalized for the last two weeks.

• Yellow Springs School District announces temporary campus plan

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 25, 2026

  

  YS Schools students are still expected to return to classes Monday, Aug. 31, but many will begin the year in temporary locations as construction continues at the middle and high school campus on East Enon Road.

• Community fitness at BLYS

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 19, 2026

  

  Local resident Guy “Tron” Banks recently started Beyond Limits Yellow Springs — his new community fitness venture. A grand opening will be held Sunday, Aug. 23, 2–6 p.m.

• Villagers debut ‘Minimum Security’ web series

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 15, 2026

  

  “Minimum Security,” is a new, four-episode web series from MLQ Productions — the independent local film collaborative formed by Kian Barker and Miles Gilchrist in 2020 and peopled over the years by a growing cast and crew of friends.

• Filmmaker Amy Taylor to screen a short and series, talk ‘zom-rom-com’

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 12, 2026

  

  Virginia-based filmmaker Amy Taylor is coming back to Yellow Springs this month with a short film made right here in the village — and, she hopes, the beginnings of another local production.

• Villager offers fresh cuts, paid forward

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 8, 2026

  

  Beginning this month, villager Jason Laveck has committed to providing two free haircuts each month from his chair at In Salon, located at 120 Dayton St., and donations to a fund he’s established will cover additional free haircuts.

• Miami Township Trustees discuss cemetery oversight

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 7, 2026

  

  Plans to prepare the Pine Forest section of Glen Forest Cemetery for burials led to extensive discussion at the Monday, July 20, meeting of the Miami Township Trustees, as board members debated the cost of adding pine needle ground cover to the site — and more broadly, how decisions about Township cemeteries should be made.

• A local chef’s mobile ‘roots’

  By Lauren ShowsAugust 3, 2026

  

  Van Ward, known to patrons of MAZU restaurant as a purveyor of adventurous specials and dining events, struck out on her own last month with Taproot, the “mobile kitchen” she founded with her wife, Bee Ward. The new business aims to offer private dining experiences with a vegan menu, while continuing to collaborate with MAZU.