{{Short description|American writer (1934–2020)}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Pat Schneider | image = Pat schneider 2015.jpg | caption = Pat Schneider | birth_date = {{birth date|1934|06|01|df=y}} | birth_place = Ava, Missouri, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2020|8|10|1934|8|10}} | death_place = Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S. | occupation = Poet, writer, editor, writing teacher | genre = | movement = | notableworks = | influences = | influenced = | website = {{URL|http://www.patschneider.com/}} }}
'''Pat Schneider''' (June 1, 1934 – August 10, 2020) was an American writer, poet, writing teacher and editor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Patricia C. Schneider 1934 - 2020 |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettenet/name/patricia-schneider-obituary?pid=196650882 |publisher=Daily Hampshire Gazette |access-date=4 September 2021}}</ref>
==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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pat Schneider|url=http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008/11/03|website=Poetry Foundation|accessdate=14 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315000523/http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008%2F11%2F03|archive-date=15 March 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Schneider lived in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was the founder/director of Amherst Writers & Artists and editor of Amherst Writers & Artists Press,<ref name="Codrescu1999">{{cite book|last=Codrescu|first=Andrei|title=Thus spake the Corpse: an Exquisite corpse reader, 1988-1998|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ahrE0Prmge0C&pg=PA481|accessdate=24 January 2011|date=1999-01-01|publisher=David R. Godine Publisher|isbn=978-1-57423-100-7|page=481}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Benvenuto|first1=Christine|title=Finding a Voice|journal=Amherst Bulletin|date=December 10, 1993|page= 24}}</ref>
An annual poetry contest, the Pat Schneider Poetry Contest, was established in her honor by Amherst Writers and Artists in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pat Schneider Poetry Contest|url=https://amherstwriters.info/awa-news/pat-schneider-poetry-contest/|website=Amherst Writers & Artists|publisher=Amherst Writers and Artists}}</ref> Schneider had four children, all of them published authors: Rebecca Schneider, Laurel Schneider, Paul Schneider and Bethany Schneider.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schneider |first1=Pat |title=Pat Schneider Full Resume |url=https://patschneider.com/pat/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Pat-Schneider-Full-Resume.pdf |website=Patschneider.com |publisher=Pat Schneider |accessdate=11 August 2020}}</ref> Her husband, Peter Schneider, a published poet in his own right, died in December 2020 at the age of 89.<ref>{{cite web |title=Peter Frederick Schneider 1931 - 2020 |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettenet/name/peter-schneider-obituary?pid=197403056 |website=Legacy.com |publisher=Daily Hampshire Gazette |accessdate=28 July 2021}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sophia Smith Collection|url=http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/collects.html}}</ref>
==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).<ref>{{cite web|title=Poems and Poets/Pat Schneider|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/pat-schneider|website=poetryfoundation.org|date=28 February 2023 |publisher=The Poetry Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Contributors|journal=The Sun|date=January 2016|issue=481|page=2}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Garrison|first1=Keillor|title=The Writer's Almanac|url=http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008/11/03|access-date=2020-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315000523/http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008%2F11%2F03|archive-date=2017-03-15|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{Quote box |width=300px |align=right |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right |quote =<poem> It is a kind of love, is it not? How the cup holds the tea, How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare, How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes Or toes. How soles of feet know Where they’re supposed to be. I’ve been thinking about the patience Of ordinary things, how clothes Wait respectfully in closets And soap dries quietly in the dish, And towels drink the wet From the skin of the back. And the lovely repetition of stairs. And what is more generous than a window? </poem> |source =From "The Patience of Ordinary Things"<br/> The Patience of Ordinary Things - 2003<ref name="legend">{{cite web|url =http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=31 |title=The Patience of Ordinary Things|publisher=Your Daily Poem|accessdate=May 13, 2017}}</ref>}}
===Nonfiction books=== ''How The Light Gets In, Writing As a Spiritual Practice'', Oxford University Press, New York NY, 2013"<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schneider|first1=Pat|title=How the Light Gets In|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780199933983}}</ref>
''Writing Alone and With Others'', Oxford University Press, New York, 2003.
''Wake Up Laughing: A Spiritual Autobiography'', Negative Capability Press, Mobile, Alabama, 1997.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schneider|first1=Pat|title=Wake Up Laughing|date=1997|publisher=Negative Capability Press|location=Mobile, Alabama|isbn=0942544544}}</ref> "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.”<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Corrigan|first1=Patricia|title=The Write Stuff: Author Says Everyone Has it|journal=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|date=October 29, 2003}}</ref>
''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.<ref>{{cite book|title=In Our Own Voices: Writing by Women from the Chicopee Writing Workshop|year=1989|publisher=AWA Press|location=Amherst, Massachusetts|isbn=0941895041|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/inourownvoiceswr0000unse}}</ref>
''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:
''The Lament of Michal''. Commissioned and recorded by the Louisville Symphony Orchestra.<ref>{{cite news|title=Magnificent Entertainment|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/110060347/|work=Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky|date=March 20, 1971}}</ref> Golden Edition series: Stereo LS 704. Composer: Philip Rhodes. Performed by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Atlanta, Boston, and Carnegie Hall. Commissioned 1970; Recorded and performed in Carnegie Hall 1980.
''My Holy Mountain: An Oratorio''. Commissioned by the New World Choir, a 40 voice all Black choir, Newton, MA. Composer: Florence Clark Turner. More than 50 performances in New England. 1971
''I Have a Dream: A Black History Oratorio''. 1970. Commissioned by the New World Choir, a 40 voice all Black choir. Recorded by Soundtrack Records. Widely produced by the New World Choir throughout New England including television production and more than 100 performances at community centers and universities. Composer: Florence Clark Turner.
===Awards=== She has been the recipient of literary prizes, and grants from the Danforth Foundation, the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Awards, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pick|first1=Nancy|title=Writer Helps Others|journal=Daily Hampshire Gazette|date=December 8, 1993}}</ref>
==AWA writing workshops==
Schneider began to develop the AWA method for teaching writing in workshops and other groups in 1979.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schneider|first1=Pat|title=Writing Aone and With Others|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York}}</ref> Working with a community of writers in Amherst, Massachusetts, she explored ways to conduct a writing class/workshop that would honor the "primary voice," encouraging students to trust what the writer John Edgar Wideman has called "the language of home."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wideman|first1=John Edgar|title=The Language of Home|publisher=The New York Times Book Review|date=January 13, 1985}}</ref>
In 1985, Schneider offered workshops to women living in public housing in Chicopee, Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Whittemore|first1=Katharine|title=A Celebration of Words|publisher=The Boston Globe|date=August 22, 1993}}</ref> Schneider chose to develop the workshop for women in public housing because she believes "there is no difference between the rich and the poor in this: writing is art, and our own stories are the stuff of which our freedom is made, our self esteem, our power."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Schneider|first1=Pat|title=Tell Me Something I Can't Forget|journal=Inside Out: Pacific School of Religion Alumnae Newsletter|date=1994}}</ref>
In 1990 Schneider's workshops "became so popular... [Schneider] had to encourage some of her students to break away and start their own groups using her techniques.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Contrada|first1=Fred|title=Writing Belongs to All|journal=Springfield Union-News|date=April 22, 1991|page= 12}}</ref> Beginning in 2004, Schneider began training other writers to become workshop leaders.<ref>{{cite web|title=AWA Leadership Training|url=https://amherstwriters.info/training-program/|website=Amherst Writers and Artists|accessdate=10 May 2017}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.patschneider.com/ Pat Schneider] * [http://www.amherstwriters.com/ Amherst Writes & Artists] * [http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/author.php?auth_id=1474 Pat Schneider on The Writer's Almanac] * [http://thesunmagazine.org/issues/481/poetry/ The Sun Magazine Selections by Pat Schneider]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} *[http://writingourselveswhole.org/about/awa-method/The Poetry Foundation Pat Schneider Listing]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} *[http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/columns/detail/058/ American Life in Poetry]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schneider, Pat}} Category:1934 births Category:2020 deaths Category:Writers from Missouri Category:American women poets Category:People from Ava, Missouri Category:University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts alumni Category:Pacific School of Religion alumni Category:Central Methodist University alumni Category:21st-century American women