Louise Bernikow

When I was a Fulbright scholar in Spain, I danced flamenco and studied 16th century mystic poets. As a writer and in my personal life, I’ve always bridged two worlds – popular and academic, shuttling in and out of the walls of academe. After my debut as a fledgling journalist covering ladies' teas (unsigned) for the Times of London, I returned home in the 1960’s to become part of the "action and passion" of my time.

ABEL, about Soviet spy Rudolph Abel, an investigative narrative rooted in the Cold War, was a step away from what was then considered "women's turf." It was a bestseller in several countries, editions and languages and has been newly optioned for a major motion picture, proving that good things can happen decades after a book is published.

The women’s movement, with its earth-shattering shift of focus to “the truth about women’s lives” – Muriel Rukeyser’s resonant phrase-- shifted mine. THE WORLD SPLIT OPEN adapted years of study in Columbia University’s Graduate School in English Literature to re-define the poetic canon with women at the center. AMONG WOMEN meditates on what happens when there are no men in the room. Both books became classics in the Women’s Studies curriculum, years after I was a founder of two Women’s Studies programs, the Columbia Seminar on Women and Society and the Women's Biography group at the CUNY Graduate Center.

As a magazine writer in those years, I bridged, again, different worlds: Cosmopolitan’s book reviewer, MS. Magazine, Playboy and the New York Times.

My passion for feminism, politics, and women's history never abated. THE AMERICAN WOMEN'S ALMANAC, an "irreverent" illustrated American women's history, came out in 1997 and I took to the road as a virtual one-woman band, bringing the inspiring story of pushing the proverbial envelope to campuses and communities with a lecture/slide show called THE SHOULDERS WE STAND ON: WOMEN AS AGENTS OF CHANGE. I’m still on the road, only now a laptop allows me to write an online column about the still-unmined stories of women’s history for WomensEnews.

An unexpected occurrence turned my head and my writing life in yet another direction. The appearance of a brown four-legged angel who wanted to live with me is the back-story for BARK IF YOU LOVE ME and, as the adventure continued, DREAMING IN LIBRO: HOW A GOOD DOG TAMED A BAD WOMAN in 2007.

Following many years as a Creative Writing teacher inside the walls of academe, I’ve slipped out once again to create a private practice as an editorial consultant. Although I’ve done the odd corporate job, my real focus is small workshops on writing book proposals and private, confidential, guidance and hand-holding (if needed) for authors at all levels so they can conceive, keep on and finish the books they want to publish.