Patricia has spent much of her life as an advocate: for women, for civil rights, for peace, for a healthy environment, for small farms and rural communities, for the arts. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, she moved north years ago with her children. She is a business owner and trail walker, and has been director of several organizations, including women’s centers, community economic development corporations, district congressional offices, and served as an elected county commissioner for four years. In 1985, when she joined Pat Schneider’s Amherst Writers & Artists writing workshop, she found the courage to write for others to read.
Patricia holds an MFA degree in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and completed her undergraduate degree at Smith College, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1970. She is a founder and past president of Straw Dog Writers Guild, serving writers primarily in western Massachusetts. A grant from the Massachusetts Arts Council, enabled her to help establish a writing program at her local library. Trained to teach English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), Patricia and friends volunteered in the Maya village of Santa Cruz la Laguna on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, where she led retreats beginning in 2006, at Villa Sumaya Retreat Center.
Her poetry, fiction and feature articles have appeared in a variety of journals & anthologies, including The Los Angeles Times, Hampshire Life, and The Boston Sunday Globe. Her poems have appeared in Upstreet, Sanctuary: Magazine of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and Crossing Paths: An Anthology of Poems by Women (Mad River Press), among others. Her work has been featured in the Berkshire Review, which nominated her poem, “Two Hundred Wings” for a Pushcart Prize. She was supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to perform her poems as a benefit for the Miniature Theatre of Chester.
