About Linda

Linda M. Hasselstrom is an award-winning poet and writer of the High Plains whose work is rooted in the arid landscape of southwestern South Dakota. She writes and ranches on the South Dakota ranch homesteaded by her grandfather, a Swedish cobbler, in 1899.

Linda is also a real South Dakota rancher who has roamed across miles of grassland with her horse, and she’s been thrown, kicked, stomped, defecated on and bitten by horses and cows.

She is the author of more than eighteen books of nonfiction and poetry and she has edited or co-edited five books (see the list, below). Linda’s work appears in many anthologies and she has been published in periodicals as diverse as Reader’s Digest, Bloomsbury Review, Orion, High Country News, Ms. Magazine, Saturday Evening Post and Dry Crik Review.

Linda has been a special consultant to the Rural Literature R.A.L.L.Y. Initiative, adviser to Texas Tech Press, and a speaker for Road Scholar educational travel.

Windbreak House is Linda’s home, named for the windbreak trees that block wind and snow on the open grassland.

Her website, www.windbreakhouse.com, provides details about her published poetry and nonfiction, and includes essays and photos about her western life. To see and hear her poetry performed, see the Windbreak House channel on YouTube, or see her website.

Please note that Linda no longer offers residential writing retreats at her ranch, though she did so from 1996 to 2020.

---

Nonfiction Books by Linda M. Hasselstrom

Write Now, Here’s How: Insights from Six Decades of Writing
2020, Lame Johnny Press.

Gathering from the Grassland: A Plains Journal
2017, High Plains Press.
* Sarton Women’s Book Award (Memoir), Story Circle Network, 2018.

The Wheel of the Year: A Writer’s Workbook
2015, Red Dashboard Publishing.

No Place Like Home: Notes from a Western Life
2009, paper edition 2010, University of Nevada Press.
* WILLA Award, Women Writing the West, 2009.

Between Grass and Sky: Where I Live and Work
2002, paper edition 2005, University of Nevada Press.
* WILLA Award Finalist (runner-up), Women Writing the West, 2003.

Feels Like Far: A Rancher’s Life on the Great Plains
1999, paper edition 2001, The Lyons Press.

Land Circle: Writings Collected from the Land
1991, paper edition 1993, anniversary edition (paper) 2008, Fulcrum Publishing, Inc.
* Mountains & Plains Booksellers award: one of four best books, 1992.

Going Over East: Reflections of a Woman Rancher
1987, paper edition 1993, reprinted edition with new cover and epilogue (paper) 2001, Fulcrum Publishing, Inc.
* First annual Fulcrum American Writing Award, 1987.

Windbreak: A Woman Rancher on the Northern Plains
1987, reprinted, Barn Owl Books.
* Literary Guild alternate, March 1988.

Bison: Monarch of the Plains
Text by Linda M. Hasselstrom; Photography by David Fitzgerald
142 color photos; oversized with full-color dust jacket and slip cover.
1998, Graphic Arts Center Publishing.
* Independent Publishers Association award: best environmental and nature book of 1999.
* Oklahoma Book Award, 1999

Roadside History of South Dakota
Guide to major highways, towns.
1994, reprinted, Mountain Press.

---

Poetry by Linda M. Hasselstrom

Walking: the Changes
Poetry by Linda M. Hasselstrom; photographs by James W. Parker.
2023, Lame Johnny Press.

Dakota: Bones, Grass, Sky – Collected and New Poems
Contains the complete text of Dakota Bones (1993) plus 50 new poems.
2017, Spoon River Poetry Press.

Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet
By Linda M. Hasselstrom and Twyla M. Hansen (50 poems from each author)
2011, The Backwaters Press.
* Winner of the 2012 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry (sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book).
* WILLA Award Finalist (runner-up), Women Writing the West, 2012.
* Book Award Finalist (runner-up), High Plains BookFest, 2012.

Bitter Creek Junction
2000, High Plains Press.
* Fine Arts Award, Wyoming State Historical Society, 2000.
* Wrangler Award, Best Poetry Book, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 2000.
* WILLA Award Finalist (runner-up), Women Writing the West, 2001.

Dakota Bones: The Collected Poems of Linda Hasselstrom
Contains the complete texts of Caught By One Wing and Roadkill, plus 30 pages of new poems.
1993, reprinted, Spoon River Poetry Press.

When a Poet Dies
limited edition hand-press, printed from Melior type on Fox River Olde white vellum; 220 copies printed.
2006, Red Dragonfly Press.

Roadkill
1987; reprinted 1990, Plains Press (formerly Spoon River Poetry Press).

Caught By One Wing
1984; Julie Holcomb, Letterpress; reprinted 1990, Plains Press (formerly Spoon River Poetry Press).

---

Books Edited by Linda M. Hasselstrom

When Hot Springs Was A Pup — By Badger Clark
Edited by Linda M. Hasselstrom & Peggy Sanders
1927 history of the Black Hills community of Hot Springs, South Dakota.
4th Edition, Published 2021 by Lame Johnny Press.

Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West
Edited by Linda M. Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier & Nancy Curtis
Anthology, nonfiction and poetry.
Published 2004 by Houghton Mifflin, Mariner Books.

Woven on the Wind: Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West
Edited by Linda M. Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier & Nancy Curtis
Anthology, nonfiction and poetry.
Published 2001; paper edition 2002, by Houghton Mifflin.

Leaning into the Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West
Edited by Linda M. Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier & Nancy Curtis
Anthology, nonfiction and poetry.
Published 1997; reprinted; paper edition 1998, by Houghton Mifflin.

Journal of a Mountain Man – By James Clyman
Edited and introduced by Linda M. Hasselstrom
Published 1984 by Mountain Press; reprinted 1998 by Tamarack Books; reprinted 2014 by Win Blevins (general editor of the Classics of the Fur Trade series).

For more information on all of these books, including how to order some of them from Linda, see the Books & More page of her website.

www.windbreakhouse.com

#  #  #