Contact Linda Back McKay about advertising, marketing, ideation, and other creative work at lbmckay@yahoo.com

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Linda Back McKay is grateful to be able to make a living around her love of writing. She is an independent advertising and marketing writer/creative director and has written for clients including FedEx, Pillbury Publications, Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, the Science Museum of Minnesota, Hotel Sofitel, Gustavus Adolphus College, Hormel, Pitney Bowes, University of Minnesota School of Veterinary Medicine and many others. Commercial awards include PRSA Classics Award for Print Ads, Minnesota Bank Marketing Association for Radio Ads and the John Caples International Award for Business-to-Business Direct Mail.

Linda’s poetry and articles have appeared in magazines and literary publications in the USA and Canada, with a variety of awards. She is author of Those Girls Are Always Dancing (poems 1996 White Space Press), the nonfiction book Shadow Mothers: Stories of Adoption and Reunion (1998 North Star Press), Ride That Full Tilt Boogie (poems 2001 North Star Press), Choppers: Drive. Ride. Fly. (nonfiction 2006 MBI Publishing), and The Cockeyed Precision of Time (poems 2007 White Space Press.)

Shadow Mothers was inspiration for the play “Watermelon Hill,” for which Linda was creative consultant, working closely with playwright, Lily Baber Coyle, and artistic director, Ron Peluso. The play was produced by the History Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota and was also inspired by her poem, “Watermelon Hill,” which tells the story of a home for unwed mothers in the 1960’s. “Watermelon Hill: The Musical,” also by Coyle, will be produced by the History Theatre in the near future.

Other publication credits include the Saint Paul Almanac, 33 Minnesota Poets (Nodin Press), Water~Stone, Adoptive Families of America magazine, Great River Review, White Pelican Review, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Writers’ Journal and others. Linda’s latest nonfiction work, MotoDivas: Lipstick, Leather and the Lure of the ride, is currently in the hands of her literary agent, Robb Quast.

As a seasoned teaching artist, Linda works with people of all ages (K-12 and adults) in schools, community centers, libraries and other venues. She is a roster artist with North Dakota Council on the Arts, South Dakota Arts Council, Young Audiences of Minnesota and VSA arts of Minnesota, a national organization that brings the arts to people with disabilities. Linda is also a private tutor. In addition, she facilitates professional development sessions for classroom teachers and other teaching artists. Linda is a featured reader and speaker for many types of groups and has given many radio and television interviews.

She is a longtime volunteer and producer at KFAI Radio in Minneapolis and has produced several radio programs. Linda also dabbles in watercolor painting and enjoys gardening, camping and motorcycling with her husband David McKay, whom she met in 1979 at KFAI. Their four grown children include Becka, a poet and PhD student in comparative literature, Michele, a PhD dissertator in the field of Second Language Acquisition and married to Jorge Aguero. Joel, a designer with the Science Museum of Minnesota and married to Becky. Katie, a social service worker and married to Calvin Hsieh. The McKays treasure every moment with Linda’s birthson, his wife and first two grandchildren, Allie Rose and Nicholas Leon. More recent fabulous grandchildren include Evan William and Gabriel Antonio, who were born a few months apart in 2004 and Evan’s sister, Mikayla Kay, born New Years Eve, 2006.