About

A former mental health nurse, Linda Pennisi has spent years honing her writing skills and forging her way into the field. Linda Pennisi published her first book of poems in 2003. Seamless, which won the 2002 Perugia Press Intro Prize and was first runner-up for the Philip Levine Poetry Prize. In addition, her work won a Greenwall Fund Grant from the Academy of American Poets to support publication. Shortly after, she published her next collection, Suddenly, Fruit, winning the 2005 Carolina Wren Press Prize. One of four winners of Toadlily Press’s 2014 Quartet Series, her chapbook, Minuscule Boxes in the Bird’s Bright Throat, appears with three others in A Good Wall. Many of her poems have been featured in literary journals such as Bellevue Literary Review, McSweeny’s Book of Poets Picking Poets, Prairie Schooner, Hunger Mountain, Lyric Poetry Review, Midwest Quarterly Review, and Bitter Oleander. Pennisi has delighted audiences with her poems at a variety of readings and presentations through the years.

Inspiring young minds and sharing her knowledge and experience, Pennisi has served as an adjunct instructor, visiting assistant professor, program director, and now writer-in-residence for the creative writing program at Le Moyne College. She challenges students’ minds and refines their creative abilities through creative writing and advanced poetry workshops. She has also taught “Writing into the World,” a service-learning course which partners students with senior citizens to share their passion for writing. She also serves as a mentor to honors degree students and guides their development and pursuit of publishing opportunities.

Pennisi holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Le Moyne College and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing with an emphasis on poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts.