Biography

Linda Hutsell-Manning's writing career spans thirty years and includes an impressive variety of genres including poetry, plays, TV, short fiction and novels.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1940, she moved with her parents to Southern Ontario, completing elementary school in Baltimore and high-school in Cobourg. Dreaming of a career in the performing arts, she had been taking dance, voice and acting lessons and performing on-stage during her school years. This led in 1959 to Radio and TV Arts at Ryerson Institute in Toronto. Disappointed with the lack of a performance focus in this program, she left after one year, married and entered elementary school teacher training at the Toronto Teachers College where she graduated in 1961.

After graduation, Linda moved across Canada and back with her husband, James, who was installing computers (the size of two dozen refrigerators strapped together) on the Norad Pine Tree Radar Line. They trekked from Senneterre, Quebec to Kamloops, British Columbia and back to Morin Heights, Quebec. During this period, in order to obtain her Ontario Permanent Teacher's Certificate, she spent two years teaching at S.S.#2 Hamilton Township, a one room one stove cold water tap elementary school west of Cobourg.

Her husband's subsequent career changes moved them in 1968 to Guelph, Ontario. Here, with three young children, she began courses toward a B.A. in English. During her Canadian Literature courses at the University, her professors, Doug Daymond and Leslie Monkman, encouraged her to pursue a writing career. After graduating in 1975, with continuing encouragement from her husband and children, she began writing part-time.

Relocating from Guelph to an old farm house outside Cobourg, Linda worked on short fiction and poetry while publishing a book review column in the local paper and articles in various Canadian magazines. A twist of imagination gave her intriguing lines that became her first children's book, a story in verse, Wondrous Tales of Wicked Winston, Annick Press, 1981.

Five scripts for TVO's Polka Dot Door 1981-1993) followed. Appalled at the lack of suitable plays for elementary school production, she created three juvenile musicals: Freddykid and Seagull Sam, 1982, Merch the Invisible Wizard, 1983 and The Great Zanderthon Takeover, 1984, all published by Playwrights Canada.

Next came two picture books, Animal Hours, Oxford University Press 1990 and Dinosaur Days, Stoddart 1993.

In 1998 & 1999, she travelled to Europe visiting Coburg, Germany in 1998 & 1999 and Luxembourg in 1999, to read and promote her work. In 2000, her juvenile play, Marcie Saves the Circus won the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition, Alleyway Theatre, Buffalo, NY.

Linda's Wonder Horn Time-Travel Series consists of five juvenile novels. The first two were published by Coteau Books, Jason and the Wonder Horn in 2002, followed by Jason and the Deadly Diamondsin 2004. She subsequently toured Canada promoting this Series. The third novel in the series, Jason and the Portrait Pirates is currently being considered for publication, while the fourth and fifth are works-in-progress.

Her two educational children's books Otto Discovers FM, 2006 and Otto Hears Everything, 2005 were written in English for Opticon Denmark. The English editions have since been translated into 10 other languages.

Her adult writing lay dormant for five years. After several juvenile novel mss. were rejected, she returned to poetry and short fiction, publishing in literary magazines and anthologies including Quarry, lichen, Litwit, Prairie Journal of Canadian Literature, and Great Canadian Murder and Mystery Stories. Her adult play Going it Alone, was published by Nuage in Plays by Women for Solo Performers.

During her writing career, Linda has taught a variety of creative writing courses for adults at Loyalist College, Sheridan College, and Sir Sandford Fleming College. A number of Bookstores and Public Libraries across Canada have hosted Author Readings for her. In Elementary and Secondary Schools, she continues to give lively readings and workshops for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12(OAC).

Linda's first literary novel, That Summer in Franklin was released by Second Story Press in mid-March 2011 : she will be touring to promote it to Bookstores and Libraries across Canada.

For a Listing focusing on Linda's most current works, from short fiction to academic texts, click here.

For more detail on Linda's career, click here to see Linda's complete

Curriculum Vitae

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