Pat Schneider

Pat Schneider (born 1934 in Ava, Missouri) is an American writer, poet and editor.

Biography

Schneider was educated at Central College in Missouri, and gained an MA in Religious Studies from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California .In 1975 she became a graduate of the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she is the Founder/Director of Amherst Writers & Artists and editor of Amherst Writers & Artists Press, which has published twenty books of poetry and the national literary journal, "Peregrine". She is a member of the faculty of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, leading creative writing workshops in two sessions each year at Pacific School of Religion. She also leads annual workshops in Ireland, workshop leadership training seminars and several writing retreats. In 1993 Pat was keynote speaker and workshop leader at a women's retreat in Japan.

Publications and awards

She has published three books of poetry: "Olive Street Transfer", "White River Junction" and "Long Way Home". Her autobiographical book, "Wake Up Laughing: A Spiritual Autobiography", was released in 1997 by Negative Capability Press. In addition, she has published two books on writing, "The Writer as an Artist" and "Writing Alone and With Others", published in 2003 by Oxford University Press.

Pat Schneider has published widely in literary journals and magazines, including "Sewanee Review", "minnesota review", "Ms. Magazine", and "Negative Capability".

She has also edited a collection of the writings of women in low-income housing projects, "In Our Own Voices".

Fourteen of her plays have been produced, nine published. There are more than 300 recorded productions of her plays in this country and in Europe. Pat is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. She has been the recipient of literary prizes, and grants from the Danforth Foundation, the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Awards, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Schneider has four children, including author Paul Schneider.

Other artistic works

Her libretti have been recorded by the Louisville Symphony and performed by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony in Boston's Symphony Hall and in Carnegie Hall, New York City.