As the eldest member of her immediate family, Linda is the keeper of family memories and traditions. When she retired from academia, Linda turned to writing essays about growing up in an Italian American enclave in Pittsburgh in the 1950s to preserve her family’s memories and as a salve for her painful loss of people and community. The essays matured into her first book, Neighborhood Girl (Brown Posey Press, 2023).

As a teenager, Linda’s grandmother, Filomena, shared a story she would never forget: at just six years old, Filomena had crossed the Atlantic alone with a man she didn’t know. “I was kidnapped,” she said. Decades later, those words inspired Linda to travel into the mountains of Southern Italy to the small village where generations of her family were born, lived, and died. The journey became Linda’s second memoir: In My Grandmother’s Shadow (Brown Posey Press, 2026). 

Linda holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Duquesne University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Carlow University, where she is also Professor Emerita of Communication. Linda is a longtime writer with Madwomen in the Attic, a diverse community of serious women writers who offer each other support and share a love of the written word. She also teaches writing through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to her two memoirs, Linda has had essays published in several literary journals. 

When she’s not writing, Linda spends time in her garden and at her Latin cardio dance class. She also loves reading, hanging out with her granddaughter, Lexi, and exploring her Pittsburgh neighborhood with her dog, Rosie.

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