Pat SchneiderPat is a poet, playwright, librettist, and author of ten books of poetry and non-fiction. She was born in the Ozark mountains of Missouri where she became intimate with fossils, creek beds, grasshoppers and box turtles. After a search for work took hr single mother to St. Louis, from age ten Pat lived in tenements and in an orphanage until she was given a scholarship to college. Those early experiences have deeply influenced her writing, and fueled her passion for those who have been denied voice through poverty and other misfortunes. Pat's libretto, "The Lament of Michal," was performed in Carnegie Hall by Phyllis Bryn Julson and the Atlanta Symphony directed by Robert Shaw. Her poetry has been read by Garrison Keillor on National Public Radio's Writer's Almanac. There are more than three hundred recorded productions of her plays for community theater. A film about her work with women in low-income housing, titled "Tell Me Something I Can't Forget", is included in the DVD companion to her book, Writing Alone and With Others. Pat Schneider currently leads workshops and retreats, gives readings and speeches, and is working on a new collection of poems and a collection of essays. Read More Read Less