Deborah Bachels Schmidt

Flutist-turned-poet Deborah Bachels Schmidt lives in El Sobrante, California with her husband, Daniel, and a dog (read “spiritual guide”) Hazel. A member of the Coolbrith Circle and the Marin Poetry Center, she has published four chapbooks: Milky Breath of Stars, Twenty-one Poems for Georgia, Unsprung Runes, and Creatures of the Sky. Publication credits include Blue Unicorn, California Quarterly, The Ekphrastic Review, The lyric, and The Poeming Pigeon. Her poems have earned awards at the Poets’ Dinner, the Coolbrith Circle contest, and the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee.

In addition to poetry, she has written a memoir about growing up in Taos, New Mexico (My Land of Enchantment); a children’s book (Grandma’s Little Apple Strudel) about her family’s early twentieth century life in San Francisco; and two genealogical adventures (The Bible, the Ship, and the Pewter Plate in which she traces her runaway great-grandmother’s Swedish roots; and The Menorah in the Closet, uncovering her hidden Jewish heritage).