Fearless and Determined: Two Years Teaching in a One-Room School

Linda Hutsell-Manning's writing career spans thirty-five years and includes an impressive variety of genres including poetry, plays, TV, short fiction and novels. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1940, she moved to Ontario at age nine and, after Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and Toronto Teachers' College, taught for two years in a one-room school between Cobourg and Port Hope, Ontario. Following this, she attended the University of Guelph as a mature student, graduating with a B.A. in 1975. Encouraged by two of her university professors, she began writing full time in 1981. She has worked as a free-lance journalist; taught creative writing at several community colleges and hosted an author reading series. In the first twenty years, she published primarily juvenile fiction including three picture books, three juvenile plays, two time-travel novels and scripts for TVO's Polka Dot Door. During this time, she gave countless school/library workshops across Canada as well as in Germany and Luxembourg. In 2011, her literary novel, That Summer in Franklin, was published by Second Story Press. Its sequel, The Tangling of Years, is waiting to be published. In 2017, a novella, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, was short-listed in a Quattro Books novella competition. Her two-act comedy, A Certain Singing Teacher premiered in 2017. She is currently working on a novella/short story collection, Whatever Were You Thinking When You Did That? and a poetry collection, Falling into Light. She has lived in many Canadian communities from Kamloops, BC to Cobourg, Ontario, where she now makes her home, writing in the attic office of a century farmhouse. More information about Linda's publications can be found at www.lindahutsellmanning.ca