Producer & Publisher of Lived Experiences, Plus Commentary on Culture & Politics
Linda Lenzke: Writer, Filmmaker, Blogger, Stand-up Comic, & Storyteller
Let me tell you a story.
I’ve been telling stories since I was a child. I learned from the best, grandparents and parents, oral historians and born storytellers, who remembered every person they ever met, who could spin a yarn, capture your attention, add and subtract details in the service of the tale, embellish when needed, and leave you with a memorable story or life lesson. They employed humor and wisdom and passed on oral traditions. My legacy is I too became a writer and storyteller.
Linda Lenzke, “Fake it, till you make it!”
The Backstory
- Though I was an undergraduate student in both journalism and communication arts, I dropped out of college more than once. As a child of the 50’s and 60’s, I received most of my education in the streets as a social activist in the late 60s and early 70s and as a young member of the counterculture.
- My early writing was primarily poetry and journaling. I realized that I became a writer by writing. Though I began journaling in early adulthood, and when I entered recovery from alcohol and substances, I’ve journaled continuously for the past 16 years when I began living alone. I have conversations with myself, and sometimes when I share stories for my blog, I invite readers to join me, hoping that readers will resonate with a universal message in our lived experiences.
Creative Collaboration
- In collaboration with others, I’ve written and performed stand-up comedy, improv, spoken-word monologues, and authored and produced plays, including Conceal & Carry: Queers Exposed with members of the LGBTQ+ Narratives Activist-Writers group. We also published a Zine, Queers Read This Too!
- I’ve been a business, and creative writer, a poet and memoirist, and founding member of the LGBTQ Narratives Activist-Writers group. Some of my poetry is featured in a number of anthologies. I’m currently a member of the Door County Write On LGBTQ+ Writers Group.
- After taking a number of reminiscence classes with mentor and writing coach, Sarah White of First Person Productions, my writing ramped up. I’m repurposing some of the reminiscence vignettes for my memoir, Perfectly Flawed and I created my blog ten years ago, Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! www.mixedmetaphorsohmy.com
- For my blog, I’ve self-published poetry chapbooks. I’ve edited a poetry and prose feature for Our Lives magazine. For the University of Wisconsin – Madison Libraries, LGBTQ+ Oral History Project, I conducted oral history interviews with community members. I’m grateful too, that I recorded my parents stories before they died.
- As a lifelong cinephile, with members of the Madison Indie Filmmakers, I became the creator, co-producer, and showrunner of Hotel Bar TV originally conceived as a web series, which is now a short film in production.
Current Projects
- I have a number of projects in the works which I hope to self-publish, series from my blog: Conversations with My Next Girlfriend, The Rejected Monologues, Grief & Gratitude: Hand-in-Hand, Random Topics, and Dispatches from the Hideout: Wisconsin Historical Society COVID-19 Journal Project.
- I’m writing new material for a stand-up comedy tour, Funny, Not Funny! and just registered a new domain, funnynotfunny.space to promote the tour and a site for more snarky takes on culture and politics.
To learn more, or explore how we may collaborate, contact me: