Linda Strange
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Things That Disappear

Things That Disappear

October 22, 2023 · by Linda Strange · in Finland, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Uncategorized, USA

The pale yellow “favorite blanket” that you had as a child. The hair dryer that covered your head like a…

The Wall I Knew

The Wall I Knew

January 30, 2019 · by Linda Strange · in Germany, USA

Want to watch a video of me reading this blog? Go to my You Tube Channel. On a cold Sunday…

Where We Come From

Where We Come From

June 25, 2017 · by Linda Strange · in Czechoslovakia, England, Germany, Hungary, Moravia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, USA

A family history is a collection of stories, stories told and retold and made old not so much by the…

Persistence

Persistence

February 24, 2017 · by Linda Strange · in Germany, Russia, USA

In our elementary school, we start teaching children about character traits in the third grade. We teach them to recognize…

2017: Brace For Impact

2017: Brace For Impact

January 1, 2017 · by Linda Strange · in England, Finland, France, Germany, USA

At the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, there was a period of time, eight months and one…

A Little History

A Little History

July 31, 2016 · by Linda Strange · in England, Germany, USA

They say if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it and this certainly seems to be what’s…

Lists

Lists

December 31, 2015 · by Linda Strange · in France, Germany, Syria, USA

As another year draws to its close and the next one edges near, there seems to be in both the…

The Long Walk Across Europe

The Long Walk Across Europe

September 29, 2015 · by Linda Strange · in England, Germany, Greece, Syria

In December of 1933, a young man set out from England on a great adventure. His intention was to walk…

To The Last Man

To The Last Man

July 12, 2015 · by Linda Strange · in Germany, Greece

A nation with massive, crushing unemployment, fortunes and life savings disappeared, crowds of desperate citizens protesting in the streets, all…

November Anniversaries

November Anniversaries

November 11, 2014 · by Linda Strange · in England, Germany, Russia, USA

Americans, who tend to shun both the specific and the historical, are today celebrating Veteran’s Day in one great, glorious…

The Devil is in the Details

The Devil is in the Details

November 4, 2013 · by Linda Strange · in Germany, USA

Well, there’s so much good news to choose from, I hardly know where to start. The Obamacare web site debacle?…

Juneteenth

Juneteenth

June 6, 2012 · by Linda Strange · in Germany, USA

Juneteenth is an African-American holiday officially celebrated in 41 states of the United States. It commemorates the final abolition of…

Blame the Germans

Blame the Germans

May 7, 2012 · by Linda Strange · in Germany

They’ve been muttering about them in Greece, and in Spain, in Portugal and in Italy. All the countries of Europe…

Author

Portrait photo of Linda Strange

All countries are strange, none stranger than your own.

December 2024
It is with great pleasure that I announce that my essay Navalny, Poetry, and Truth has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Pangyrus Literary Magazine. Should you wish to read or reread my essay, click here. If you would like to see all six of Pangyrus’s Pushcart Prize Nominations, click here.
October/November 2024
One of the short stories in my Island Girl series, Graduation Day, has been published in the 2024 Connecticut Literary Anthology in conjunction with Woodhall Press. Unfortunately, there is no online link to the story, but if you would like to hear me reading excerpts from my story, you can RSVP here for the online reading on Wednesday November 13th at 6:30 pm.
April 2024
Check out my essay about the tragic death of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and the repression of independent voices in present day Russia that increasingly mirrors the repression of the Stalin dictatorship. You can read it in Pangyrus Literary Magazine.
Check out my latest short story Island Girls in Marrow Magazine about young girls of color growing up in a neighborhood that isn’t particularly kind to them.
January 2023
I am delighted to announce that Glass Mountain Literary Magazine has published my short story Retention in their current issue. You can read the story here.
September 2022
Watch a video of me reading a live version of a blog about the Berlin Wall, The Wall I Knew.
July 2022
Watch a video of me reading a live version of my blog, The Last of the Best.
May 2022
I’m excited to announce three pieces of my writing have recently been published. What Ever Happened to Igor, an essay in Pangyrus, is about a study trip I took to Ukraine in 1985 with a group of Finns and Swedes. Igor was a young Ukrainian-Swedish man from Stockholm who was going to meet his father in Kyiv, a father he hadn’t seen in twenty years. Want to watch a video of me reading the essay? Click here. Will They Make it Home Again?, another essay in Pangyrus, explores the relationship between the images of World War Two childhood evacuations recorded in select works of European literature and the images of evacuation we now see on our television screens from Ukraine. Click here to watch the video.
Finally, The Longest Day, is a short story published in the 2022 Freshwater Literary Journal. It details the experience of a young non-English speaking Cape Verdean girl, Gee, on her first day in an American inner-city school. It is an account of Gee’s first encounter with her new ESL teacher and the safe space this teacher creates for Gee to express her true emotions. Watch a You Tube video of me speaking with Georbina DaRosa, the real-life inspiration for my story.

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