B. 1947

Poet and mystery writer Linda Rodriguez was born in Fowler, Kansas. Her family relocated frequently during her childhood because of her father’s career with the US Navy. She earned a BA and an MA at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
 
In her poems, Rodriguez engages themes of love and survival, often inhabiting and reframing mythological, biblical, or Cherokee narratives. She is the author of the poetry collection Heart’s Migration (2009), which won the Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence, as well as the trilogy of novels Every Last Secret (2012), Every Broken Trust (2013), and Every Hidden Fear (2014). Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Imagination & Place: An Anthology (2009, edited by Kelly Barth), In the BLACK/In the RED: Poems of Profit & Loss (2012, edited by Gloria Vando and Philip Miller), and Primera Página: Poetry from the Latino Heartland (2008, produced by the Latino Writers Collective) as well as on Garrison Keillor’s National Public Radio program The Writer’s Almanac. She is the author of Plotting the Character-Driven Novel (2016). With Diane Glancy, Rodriguez co-edited the anthology The World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East (2017).
 
Her honors include an ArtsKC (Kansas City) Fund Inspiration Award, an Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, and a Midwest Voices and Visions Award. Founding coordinator of the Kansas City Women Writers Reading Series and founding board member of the Writers Place, Rodriguez has served as vice president of the Latino Writers Collective, director of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Women’s Center, and president of the Border Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri.