Lin Nelson Benedek, a third generation Californian, lives in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains with her husband and son. She works as a psychotherapist. well-being coach, writing teacher and writing coach, and is a recent graduate of the MFA program in poetry at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, where she had the great privilege of learning about poetry from Kwame Dawes, Dorianne Laux, Vievee Francis, Anna Journey, David St. John, Joe Millar, Sandra Alcosser, Marvin Bell, Ellen Bass, Eduardo Corral and Tyehimba Jess.
She aspires to write generous, big-hearted poetry: Earthy and ethereal; ecstatic and meditative; reverent and irreverent. She aspires to speak from her soul and to write about the sorrows and joys which make up our lives.
Lin’s poems have been published in a variety of journals and anthologies. Her book of mainly autobiographical poems, I Was Going To Be A Cowgirl, will be released in November of this year. She is currently revising her own life story memoir. Lin bows to poetry for all it has brought to her life—truth, beauty and treasured friends—and for bringing her home.