Linda Summersea survived a childhood on a 3-generation family farm that gave her very little and asked for everything. As a result, she lived in a constant state of survival mode from a very young age. Her first and greatest transition was on the campus of the University of Massachusetts (BFA, MFA). It was there Summersea met kindred spirits and developed self-confidence. This led to a long career as a teacher and arts administrator working with Youth-at-Risk in Massachusetts and Arkansas public schools—not yet knowing that she also had been a Youth-at-Risk. In fact, as her memoir illustrates, Summersea's childhood depression became Body Dysmorphic Disorder as soon as she was tall enough to see herself in the medicine cabinet mirror.
Soon, Summersea began to crave the act of writing, something that had been encouraged by her junior high school teachers. She began with a piece on NPR’s Tales from the South and in various online periodicals. At the same time, she created and implemented Art teaching residencies for museums and community centers. Her first television endeavor was creating, producing, and hosting ArtBreak, an award-winning Art program for children on Community Access Television in Fayetteville, AR. Her first radio production was a radio narrative re: her disabled Vietnam Vet husband’s experiences in ‘Nam, (including the music they listened to) for Voice of Vashon (WA) radio KVSH 101.9.
Then, at 67, an age when most people stop, Summersea discovered her passion for expedition hiking by walking 50 miles in the Moroccan desert with Berber nomads. This exploration across uncharted terrain led to Kazakhstan, Siberia and Mongolia because survival, it turns out, was just the beginning. She celebrated the publication of her coming-of-age memoir, The Girl with the Black and Blue Doll, at the age of 75. She has now relocated to the place where she felt her first indications of rising self-esteem, the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. And, yes, she has conquered her Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
