Bio
Linda Leedy Schneider, winner of the 2012 Contemporary American Poetry Prize awarded by Chicago Poetry, is a political activist, poetry and writing mentor, and psychotherapist in private practice. She has been a faculty member at Aquinas College and Kendall College of Art and Design. Linda received a Readers’ Choice Award from Pedestal Magazine and was honored by the Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition. Her work has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She leads workshops nationally and internationally and especially enjoys the Manhattan Writing Workshop which she founded and has facilitated since 2008. Linda’s work has been published in hundreds of literary magazines including The Pedestal Magazine, Rattle, The Sow’s Ear and the Journal of American Poetry. She has written six collections of poetry including Some Days: Poetry of a Psychotherapist (Plain View Press 2011) and has edited two collections of poetry written by poets whom she has mentored: Mentor’s Bouquet (Finishing Line Press 2010) and Poems From 84th Street (Pudding House Publications 2010). Linda believes a regular writing ritual leads to discovery, authenticity, personal growth and even JOY.