Bio
After nearly thirty years as a car and truck salesperson, Andrea Langworthy signed up for a writing class at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Walking into that first class, she was certain everyone in the room could see the bright neon sign over her head blinking, Not a real writer! Does not belong!
Six years later, Andrea writes a weekly newspaper column for the Rosemount Town Pages and a monthly column for Minnesota Good Age newspaper. She has been published in Minnesota Parent, Central Minnesota Women, Rochester Women, Her Voice, and Lake Country Journal magazines as well as Talking Stick, volumes 13 and 14. Talking Stick, published by the Jackpine Writers’ Bloc, awarded Andrea second place in the creative nonfiction category of their 2005 contest and an honorable mention in the fiction category.
“Is Everybody Smiling?” won second place in the non-fiction category of the Brainerd Writers’ Alliance 2004 contest and was chosen as a winner of the Birchbark Books holiday memory contest. It has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family. Andrea was the grand prize winner of The Purple Pen Editing Whisper Stories 2004 contest which had a cash prize of $5000. FundsforWriters named Andrea’s essay, Atonement, one of 11 finalists (from 174 submissions) for their Fourth Annual Essay contest.
A remembrance of her two-year-old sister running out of their St. Paul duplex to sit on the Grand Avenue street car tracks in front of their house is included in the 2009 edition of The Saint Paul Almanac. A story about her grandparents’ home after it’s been sold and redecorated with a red wall, My Nana is Rolling in Her Grave, appears in the 2010 St. Paul Almanac along with her story about her favorite St. Paul restaurant, Pazzaluna. A lunch shared with her former husband became a story that won first place in a Chicken Soup for the Soul contest and appears in Chicken Soup Divorce and Recovery. Two of Andrea’s holiday stories are featured in 2009 The Ultimate Christmas Book and Paying Homage, a tribute to her mother, will be published in Cup of Comfort for the Grieving Heart.
Online credits include BoomerWomenSpeak and two honorable mention pieces on HumorPress.com. How-tos on writing contests, writing groups, and staying motivated have appeared in PEN, a newsletter of the Twin Cities Professional Editors Network
Andrea is a member of the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, and the Minnesota Newspaper Association. She teaches a writing workshop, a how-to for entering and winning writing contests, at the Loft Literary Center hoping to give back a smidgeon of what she has received from the place that made her feel like a writer, like she belongs. The workshop is also offered at the Bloomington Arts Center and Andrea was offered a spot on the faculty of the 2010 Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop in Dayton, Ohio.
Drawing inspiration from her family and her recently departed dog, Daisy, Andrea believes every one of life’s moments has the potential to become a story and admits she is not above stealing the words right out of her husband’s mouth.
