Bashful but wanting to be a writer from second grade, I submitted a poem during junior high to a magazine listed in The Writer; it was accepted (joy) and I received a check for two dollars—the price for a taco spaghetti at the Ross Park Drive-In. I wrote privately, imagining words in a character’s mouth that I was too shy or tongue-tied to speak myself. I gained more confidence singing in a Peter-Paul-Mary trio and playing bass guitar with a short-lived group in Seattle. At the University of Wisconsin—Madison, I wrote for The Daily Cardinal while earning a BA in linguistics, a calm major. Reporting for a weekly newspaper in Iowa meant interviewing scores of strangers.
Finally, on flights, I told strangers next to me that I was a writer even if it wasn’t how I made my living. Did one revelation nudge forth another? You never know. I met a man who testified in the Tylenol murder cases, another heading to Switzerland to work at the Large Hadron Collider, and another, a bioengineer, who was taken with my idea for a hydraulic device that would provide specific data about grip ability for people with rheumatoid arthritis, of whom I am one.
A few years later, graduating from the Expository Writing program at the Univ. of Iowa (now the MFA program in Creative Writing), publishing an essay along the way, and editing—taxing, rewarding, unpaid—a quarterly literary journal for four years, I felt well initiated into the writing life. To my profound bliss, an essay published in the journal, Iowa Woman, was selected for inclusion in Best American Essays. I received a CLMP (Council of Literary Magazines and Presses) award, plus grants from Iowa’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and recognition from Chicago Women in Publishing.
By that time, I was editor, paid, of the children’s history magazine for the State Historical Society of Iowa. The publication was awarded The Golden Lamp, highest annual honor, from the Educational Press Association of America, which was announced at a sparkly hotel event in Washington, D.C., and followed by Outstanding Employee awards from the State Historical Society of Iowa, the Department of Cultural Affairs of Iowa, and the State of Iowa.
Two of my books are for young readers: Scholastic’s Suriname and West with Hopeless from Dutton (Friends of American Writers’ Juvenile Literary Award, nominated for Pennsylvania’s Young Adult Book Award, one of ten U.S. books included in “The White Ravens: A Selection of International Children’s and Youth Literature” published for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair). Other books are Calling the Midwest Home: A Lively Look at the Origins, Attitudes, Quirks, and Curiosities of America’s Heartlanders and Little Sisters: The Last But Not the Least (also translated into German) from Wildcat Canyon Press, and Teaching Your First College Class from Stylus Publishing.
Stories and essays have appeared in, among others, The Montana Review’s Time Enough for the World, The Potomac Review, Cream City Review (Best Essay of the Year), The North American Review, The Examined Life and With Wings by the Feminist Press. A story recently published in The MacGuffin was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and will be in the collection 20 over 60, edited by David Galef and Beth Weinhouse for Regal House Publishing (October 2026).
I had the good fortune to receive a scholarship to the screenwriting workshop in the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Program and have had writing residencies at Ragdale and the Bowers House Writers Retreat. I’ve had paper works shown in three Paper/Fiber art shows at a museum in Iowa. I’ve lived in nine states and Washington, D.C., and have two married daughters and a granddaughter.
Regal House Publishing is proud to bring you Carolyn Lieberg’s Facing Lincoln in 2026.
