Sheila Bender

Sheila Bender is a poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and essayist best known for her popular books on writing instruction, such as Writing in a New Convertible with the Top Down, Writing Personal Essays, Keeping a Journal You Love, and her most recent publication, aimed toward high school students, Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays. Her new book is her most personal: a memoir chronicling how reading and writing poetry helped her move through grief after the death of her son: A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief.

She has devoted most of her career to the teaching of writing and the improvement of writing instruction. In addition to her nine books on writing, she has written instructional articles for Writer's Digest

Writer's Digest

Writer's Digest is an American magazine devoted to both beginning and established writers, offering interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, and how-to articles....

and The Writer magazines. She is also the founder of the Writing It Real Writing conference, held in Port Townsend, Washington and the editor of the Writing It Real website, where she provides an on-line writing magazine and offers individual and group writing instruction.

Bender provided the prompts to the innovative journaling

Diary

A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...

 software LifeJournal with Chronicles Software, which helps writers not only generate more interesting content, but organize and retrieve their ideas. She is also a regular instructor, panelist, and presenter at writing and educational conferences around the country.

Bender graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in English and earned an MAT

Master of Arts in Teaching

The Master of Arts in Teaching degree is generally a pre-service degree that usually requires a minimum of 30 semester hours beyond the Bachelor's degree. While the program often requires education classes in order to meet state licensure requirements, it emphasizes advanced course work in a...

 in Secondary Education from Keane College and an MA

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 in Creative Writing

Creative writing

Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...

 from the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in anthologies, newspapers, and literary magazines around North America, including The Bellingham Review, Northwest Passage, Poetry Northwest, The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...

, and the Women's Studies Quarterly.

She lives and works in Port Townsend, Washington.

Publications

Books on Writing

Writing in a New Convertible with the Top Down: A Unique Guide for Writers (with Christi Killien), 1992.

The Writer's Journal, 1996.

The Writer's Journal: 40 Contemporary Writer's and Their Journals, 1997.

Writing Personal Poetry: Creating Poems from Your Life Experiences, 1999.

A Year in the Life: Journaling for Self-Discovery, 2000.

Keeping a Journal You Love, 2001.

Writing Personal Essays: How to Shape Your Life Experiences for the Page, 2002.

Writing and Publishing Your Essays, 2003.
Writing and Publishing Personal Essays, 2005.

Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays, 2008.

Memoir

A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief, 2009.

Poetry

Near the Light, 1983.

Love from the Coastal Route: Poems, 1991.

Sustenance: New and Selected Poems, 1999.

Anthologies

Boomer Girls, 1999

We Used to Be Wives, 2002

Washington State Poets Association Anthology, 2004

Software

LifeJournal with Chronicles Software

External links

Author website http://www.writingitreal.com

Biography http://www.writers.com/bender.html

Profile http://www.accepted.com/aboutus/editors.aspx?editorid=7

Interview http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/sheila_bender.htm

Instructional articles http://leafio.com/viewer/Write_Write_Write_7_Dynamite_Instructional_Articles_for_Those_Who_Want_to_Write_Prose_from_Personal_Experience_397.show

Article on craft http://itsaboutimewriters.homestead.com/CraftSheilaBender.html

Guest blog http://madammayo.blogspot.com/2007/09/guest-blogger-sheila-benders-top-5.html

LifeJournal website http://www.lifejournal.com