About Linda
Born and raised in Amsterdam, NY, a town that is a major character in my memoir, Off Kilter, and my novel, Where the Stork Flies, I have lived for most of my life in beautiful Bucks County, PA, where for many years, I taught memoir writing. As a former journalist, I write about the connections we make by giving each other the time and space to be heard. My personal essays have been widely published in newspapers and literary journals, and included in my essay collection, Old Women and Other Strangers. I’ve been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Honors
- Honorable Mention, 2023 Women & Ministry in the South Contest, August 2023 for “Madonna With Scars.”
- Honorable Mention, 2020 Art of Creative Unity Award, International Human Rights Art Festival, for “Notes From an American Island.”
- Honorable Mention, 2019 Bucks County Historical Society writing contest, for “One April Day.”
- First Prize Winner, 2018 Susan Wittig Albert Life-writing Competition, sponsored by Story Circle Network, for “Thirty-two Words for Peace.”
- Finalist, 2016 Ruminate Magazine Spiritual Nonfiction Prize, for “Late Blessing”
- Finalist, 2015 Eludia Award, for “Where the Stork Flies”
- Grand Prize Winner, Wild River Review, Every Family Has a Story Contest, for “Orchid in the Snow,” December 2013.
- First Prize, Pearl S. Buck Writing Center Short Story Contest, for “Cold Beer and Great Good,” April 2012.
- Honorable Mention, Smoke City Narrators Novel Pitch and First Five Pages Contest, for “Memoirs of the Queen of Poland,” Summer 2011.
- Winner, Fall Essay Contest, Obit-Mag.com, for “The Wheels on the Bus,” November 2010.
- First prize, Mom Writers Literary Magazine, Summer Short Fiction Contest, for “We Believe You to Be Our Mother,” September 2007.
- Third prize, Bucks County Writers Workshop summer writing contest, for “What We Say When We Don’t Know What to Do,” August 9, 2005.
- Second prize, creative nonfiction, Philadelphia Writers Conference, for “A Connecting Thread,” June 2004.
- Nominated for The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, 2003, for “My Body, My Self,” published in Mindprints, Vol III, 2003.
- Second prize for fiction, first JAW Magazine contest, for “Anything Could Happen,” Summer, 2003.
- Special honorable mention, Byline Magazine Profile Contest, for “Peace Talks,” May 2003.
- Second prize, Writers Lounge True Love True Tales Contest, for “Weeding in the Garden of Love,” May, 2002.
- Honorable Mention, Byline Magazine Memoir Contest, for “Whispers,” April, 2002.
- Fourth prize, ByLine Magazine New Talent Short Story Contest, for “We Believe You to Be Our Mother,” November, 2001.
- Honorable Mention, Baltimore Writers’ Alliance Micro-Fiction Contest, for “We Believe You to Be Our Mother,” September 24, 2001.
Teaching
A truly wonderful thing can happen when you write about your life. You begin to see how miraculous it is just to have lived it. Having the ability to look back and learn from events that used to paralyze me emotionally has changed my life in ways I could never have imagined.
It landed me a newspaper job and offers to teach memoir writing at senior centers, a community college and writing conferences, and connected me to women’s writing organizations who support and encourage my work. Best of all, I now know that every event, whether happy or sad, has within it, an important truth about being human and alive, a truth that grows in beauty when shared.
Classes
Memoir Writing: Writing Ourselves, Finding Our Truth. Pearl Buck Writing Center
Interviews
- Bookable Space – the audio literary salon
- Reading and Writing Podcast
- Books and Brews: what beer goes with Where the Stork Flies?
- Story Circle Network podcast (MP3)
- Allie’s Musings
- Sheila Bender’s Writing It Real
- AndiLit
- Women on Writing
- The Muffin
- Ask Wendy
- Birth of a Novel
- Time-Travel with “Late Boomers” Author Linda Wisniewski
- Warminster Public Library
- Authors Answer
- Step Into a Story
- How Far Is Too Far In a Memoir?