I’m Amanda. Or Mandy. Or Mandinha. I’m a writer, a teacher, a traveler, a dancer, and probably some other things, too.
I live on the coast of northern California, I’m from Chicago, and I like to go to places I’ve never been before. I’m sort of a nomad; that said, I adore California, especially the Bay Area, where I’ve called home, more or less, since 2010.
I’m a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.
And words. I’m big on words.
I’m a Jill-of-all-trades: I work as a writer for businesses, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations, but I’ve also published personal essays, fiction, and journalism pieces. I’ve written a feature thriller screenplay, a spec screenplay based on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” as well as a television pilot teleplay. I also have significant experience teaching English as a second language. I’m certified to teach yoga…but pretty much only my husband and my dog benefit from that anymore.
I write creatively and I adore performing my writing in front of an audience. It’s pretty much all the therapy I need.
Read my in-progress thriller blog Emerald, Iowa here. I’ve also written screenplay of this very same story.
Many years ago, I co-created & performed at RUI: Reading Under the Influence, a monthly reading series in Chicago I spearheaded for many years with other raucously talented writers. I’ve also performed for 2nd Story, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, Lit Gangs of Chicago at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Quiet Lightning, and more.
For five years, I was the Assistant Artistic Director of the phenomenal Story Week Festival of Writers, before I moved to California. I also did a glorious writer’s residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. I’ve written boatloads of articles about both Chicago and San Francisco nightlife, all for metromix.com, the former Chicago Tribune website featuring nightlife and entertainment. You can read more about my other writing on my Writing Samples page.
I’m also a breast cancer survivor who loves to give support to others in what turns out to be the World’s Worst Membership Club.
My blog posts
This isn’t a traditional travel blog. Here, I’m defining travel as any time you are doing something new, any time you do something that scares you, any time you discover or realize something you didn’t know before – which encompasses a lot. So this blog is about traveling outside my comfort zone and doing things that scare me (but like the good kind of scared, not the scary kind of scared) and within that beautiful combination, finding the essence of life – being a witness to what is happening now. Which really, is all there ever is.
I hope you like it.
Other places you’ll find me:
Instagram writing profile
Amanda E. Oliveira Snyder 