Penelope Schwartz

SANTA ROSA, Calif. – Penelope Schwartz, 84, died peacefully in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Sept. 29, 2025 with her daughters, Hilary and Margaret by her side.

Born in Traverse City, Mich. in 1940, Penelope earned a BA from the University of Michigan and worked in publishing in New York City, N.Y. in the 1960s. She lived in Maine from 1970 to 2014, where she raised her family and became an active member of the local literary community, earning an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Writers Program in 2008. Her book “Slippery Men” received an honorary mention from the Maine Literary Awards in 2009, and in that year, she was also the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship and a Good Idea Grant, both from the Maine Arts Commission. Other honors include an AWP Intro Journal Award in Nonfiction and Notable mention in “Best American Essays” 2005, 2009 and 2011. She taught nonfiction writing and literature at the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine, Farmington. In 2014, she moved to Arcata, Calif. where she taught writing at the College of the Redwoods. Though she spent her last decade in Arcata, Calif., her spiritual home was always on the coast of Maine.

She is survived by her daughters, Hilary (Ty Johnson) and Margaret (Peter Schaefer); and by her six grandchildren, Stella, Floyd, Hiram, and Phyllis Johnson; Tillie Schwartz and Reuben Schaefer.