WELDON — One of America’s most talented authors, Shelia P. Moses, will be the featured speaker Saturday at Halifax Community College’s commencement exercises.

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The event is planned for 10 a.m. in The Centre’s auditorium.

Moses is a National Book finalist, author, playwright and producer who grew up in the Roanoke Valley.

The ninth of 10 children, she has drawn heavily on her childhood and the stories she heard growing up on Rehobeth Road in Rich Square.

The locale has served as the setting for three of her novels — “The Legend of Buddy Bush,” “The Return of Buddy Bush” and “The Baptism.”

After graduating from Shaw University in 1983, Moses moved to Atlanta, where she currently resides to work for Coca-Cola Enterprises and a number of other corporations before serving as founding president and CEO of M-Promotions, now M-Productions.

While running her own company, Moses wrote and self-published two books, “One More River to Cross” and “So They Burned the Black Churches,” before deciding to write full-time. In 1997, she wrote Dick Gregory’s memoirs, “Callus on My Soul” and later co-wrote the script based on this book for Showtime. Since then, she has written a total of 12 books, including “I, Dred Scott,” “Joseph,” “Sallie Gal and The Wall-a-kee Man” along with a play, “Ain’t No God in Hollywood.”

For her work, she has received numerous awards including the 2004 National Book Finalist, The Coretta Scott King Honor Award 2005, 2006 and 2007, Georgia Writer of the Year for Young Adults and she was nominated for the 2009 NAACP Image Award. She is currently writing a screenplay based on “The Legend of Buddy Bush” while teaching weekly workshops to future writers and publishers.

Commencement at The Centre is open to the public.