Lynne Shaner

Lynne writes fiction and poetry, slipping from the concrete, everyday world in her poetry and literary work to the more magical and fantastic. Her heroines, like Jemma and Annalyn, take on sinister forces and prevail in the enchanted world of Everland Bay.

Friendship, community, and the power of coming together to untangle life’s knots are ever-present themes in Lynne’s work.

“I’ve finally come home to my writing,” Lynne says. “Although I’ve always written — as a kid, in every job, in every stage — in recent years I’ve focused fully on my own writing. Just before the pandemic shuttered the outside world, I had a cup of coffee and conversation with a wonderful writer friend, who encouraged me to keep going and complete the messy manuscript resident in a box on the floor of my closet. It became my first novel, Journey to Everland Bay.”

Lynne studied writing at the University of Illinois and received her Master’s in Creative Writing/Fiction from Johns Hopkins University. She has held a variety of writing, editing, and consulting roles at various cultural institutions in Washington, DC, including the Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, and Dumbarton Oaks (a research institute affiliated with Harvard University).

“Writing despite the chaos in the world is a way to find hope and possibility every day,” Lynne says, “and to keep the promises I’ve made to myself.”

When she’s not writing, Lynne enjoys knitting, reading, tending her garden, and walking her miniature schnauzer, Merlin. She lives with her husband in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, where she takes advantage of every opportunity to walk along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

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