Artist Statement:

Lynne Schmidt (she/they) is the queer, neurodivergent grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and a mental health professional with a focus in trauma and healing. They are the 2025 Maine Arts Fellow, the second-place winner of the 2024 National Federation of State Poetry Societies Founders Contest, winner of the 2021 The Poetry Question Chapbook Contest, 2020 New Women's Voices Contest, a 2024 and 2020 Pushcart nominee, and an eleven time Best of the Net nominee. Lynne is the author of the chapbooks, The Unaccounted For Circles Of Hell, SexyTime, Dead Dog Poems, and Gravity. In 2012 they started the project, AbortionChat, which aims to lessen the stigma around abortion. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her pack of dogs and one cat to humans.

Bio:

Utilizing both their poetry and therapist background, Lynne Schmidt does presentations nationally on “How Reading and Writing Poetry Makes Better Clinicians” discussing the way our neuropathways interact with poetry and naturally begin to pick up on language choices, metaphor, and symbolism, “Navigating Trauma In Memoir,” which aims to offer gentle ways to write through the incredibly hard moments of life, and "There's Been An Active Shooter - Now What" which explores the active shooter event in Lewiston, Maine, and encourages agencies to have a response plan in place. Lynne has often been labeled as “The Sad Poet” while their writing has often been described as “accessible” as much of their work aims to use the power of language instead of the reliance on heavy or extended metaphor. 

On winning a Maine Artist Fellowship:

I have often said, "I would do __________ if only I had the funding." And now, thanks to this grant, I will be better able to travel, perform, and present at conferences in the United States in 2025. Often my limiting factor is funding - many conferences don't pay for travel or lodging, and some even charge presenters a fee. Outside of conferences, performances rarely have stipends available to pay their guests, and as such, any sort of touring has been out of pocket. This award means that I can better continue to do the work I've  been doing, without the stress of having to navigate a GoFundMe, or worry around the money running out.

Artist Image Gallery: