When Lilacs Last The McLaughlin Garden

Penelope Anne Schwartz has been the director of an academic journals publishing company, a blue-water sailor, litigation paralegal, tree farmer, wife, mother and grandmother. A native of Traverse City, Michigan, she lived in the state of Maine from 1970-2014. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. Her essay collection SLIPPERY MEN was chosen by Katha Pollitt for the Stonecoast Book Prize, and published by New Rivers Press in 2008.It received Honorable Mention in Nonfiction from the Maine Literary Awards in 2009. She published a memoir of her writing life, PENELOPE: WEAVING AND UNRAVELING, A WRITING AND REVISING LIFE in 2015. She is the recipient of the 2009 Individual Artist Fellowship in the Literary Arts as well as a Good Idea Grant, both awarded by the Maine Arts Commission. Other honors include an AWP Intro Journal Award in Nonfiction and Notable mention in Best American Essays 2005, 2009, and 2011. Her work is featured in numerous literary magazines. She has taught nonfiction writing and literature at the University of Maine, Farmington, and at Southern Maine Community College. Penelope Anne Schwartz lives in Arcata, California and teaches in the English Department of the College of the Redwoods in Eureka.