Peggy Schimmelman is the poet laureate of Livermore, CA. Her work includes the new mystery novel, Insomniacs Inc. (Russian Hill Press), and poetry chapbooks Tick-Tock (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Crazytown (Writing Knights Press, 2016). Her novel Whippoorwills was released in 2014 and her novella One Day You’re a Diamond was published in serial format by Novella-T in 2017. She is co-author of Long Stories Short, a collection of 100-word stories and Two Truths and a Lie by Wild Vine Writers. Her award-winning poetry and short fiction have appeared in the North American Review, WinningWriters.com, NovellaT, the Aleola Journal of Poetry and Art, Pacific Review, Comstock Review, Wild Musette, 100wordstories.org and many other print and online journals – and occasionally on her Facebook or Instagram pages.
Peggy grew up in the Ozarks region of southeast Missouri during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Her rural upbringing has provided inspiration not only for her novel, Whippoorwills, but for many of her personal essays, short stories and poems. She is married with two children and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1992. When not writing, she reads, plays percussion with two volunteer bands, Sally’s Pub and Heartstrings, both of whom entertain veterans, the elderly, and anyone else in need of diversion. She devotes too much time to working crossword, acrostic, and Sudoku puzzles, and occasionally creates a crossword to submit and be subsequently rejected by the New York Times. She is a regular reader at Livermore’s monthly Whistlestop Writers’ Nights and other events in the Bay Area.