Pat Schneider (June 1, 1934 – August 10, 2020) was an American writer, poet, writing teacher and editor.
Biography
Schneider was born in Ava, Missouri in 1934. She was educated at Central Methodist College in Missouri, and earned her MA from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. In 1979 she became a graduate of the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Schneider lived in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was the founder/director of Amherst Writers & Artists and editor of Amherst Writers & Artists Press, which has published forty-two books of poetry and the national literary journal, Peregrine. Schneider has been adjunct faculty member of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She has led creative writing workshops at the University of Massachusetts, Smith College, Limavadi College (Northern Ireland) and the University of Connecticut. She has taught in Ireland, in Japan, and at the Graduate Theological Union in California, where she has also been playwright in residence and led annual and bi-annual workshops at the Pacific School of Religion. She has also led workshops in Smith College's School for Social Work and for residents of public housing in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
An annual poetry contest, the Pat Schneider Poetry Contest, was established in her honor by Amherst Writers and Artists in 2011. Schneider had four children, all of them published authors: Rebecca Schneider, Laurel Schneider, Paul Schneider and Bethany Schneider. Her husband, Peter Schneider, a published poet in his own right, died in December 2020 at the age of 89.
Schneider's published works are archived at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, and her personal papers will be collected there as well.
Publications and awards
Poetry
Schneider has published five books of poetry: Another River: New and Selected Poems (2005) The Patience of Ordinary Things (2003) Olive Street Transfer (1999) Long Way Home (1993) White River Junction (1987).
Her poetry has been published widely in literary journals and magazines, including Sewanee Review, Minnesota Review, Ms. Magazine, and Negative Capability. Her poems have been featured on The Writer's Almanac sixteen times.
Nonfiction books
How The Light Gets In, Writing As a Spiritual Practice, Oxford University Press, New York NY, 2013"
Writing Alone and With Others, Oxford University Press, New York, 2003.
Wake Up Laughing: A Spiritual Autobiography, Negative Capability Press, Mobile, Alabama, 1997. "Schneider’s honesty and courage in recounting her journey encourages readers to boldly examine unexpected stops and turns in their own lives, a heady task for any book.”
In Our Own Voices: Writing by Women in Low-Income Housing. (Editor, Introduction and Afterward) Published by Amherst Writers & Artists Press, Amherst, MA, 1989. Second edition, 1995.
The Writer as an Artist: A New Approach to Writing Alone and With Others. Lowell House, Los Angeles, CA, Hard cover,1993. Paperback, 1994.
Produced and published plays
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, including these titles:
After the Applebox, From Valley Playwrights Theatre, Playwright's Press, Vol. II, 1986, Amherst, MA. Commissioned by Cooper Community Center, Roxbury, Massachusetts. Premier production in Boston, Massachusetts, subsequent productions on Cape Cod Massachusetts (Fisherman's Players); in San Anselmo, California (Festival Theater); Northampton, Massachusetts (directed and acted by Smith College Theater Department Faculty at East Street Theater, Hadley, MA); New London, Connecticut (Connecticut College Theater Department); First production, 1989.
A Question of Place, From Valley Playwrights Theatre Playwright's Press, 1986, Vol. I. Commissioned by Historic Deerfield, Inc., Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1983. Premier performances July l-4, 1983. Produced again, seven performances, in 1984.
Crossroad to Bethlehem: A Christmas Celebration. Boston: Baker's Plays 1970. Musical play. Music and lyrics published separately. Composer: A.L. Born. Seventy- one productions reported to date by the publisher.
Libretti
Schneider is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. 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. Published and recorded libretti include: