Overview
Nita Sweeney is an award-winning author with more than twenty-five years of experience. After a decade of legal practice (and a major depressive episode), Nita turned in her shingle for a fast writing pen. People still ask legal questions, but she's done her best to forget the answers. Instead of negotiating labor contracts for public agencies, she writes, and shares what she's learned.
Nita's articles, essays, and poems have appeared in Buddhist America, Dog World, Dog Fancy, Writer's Journal, Country Living, Pitkin Review, Spring Street, The Taos News, WNBA-SF blog, Pencil Storm, The Writing Cooperative, It's Not Your Journey, Wide Open Writing, and other newspapers and newsletters. She writes the blog, Bum Glue and publishes the monthly email, Write Now Columbus.
Her poem "Memorial" won the Dublin Arts Council's Poet's Choice Award and an early draft of her memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink, (previously titled Twenty-Six Point Freaking Two) was short-listed for the William Faulkner - William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award. The book was awarded a Maxwell Medal in the Human Animal Bond category of the Dog Writers Association of America writing competition. It is a #1 Amazon Bestseller in the "mood disorders," "bipolar disorder," and "running & jogging" categories.
Nita and her books have been featured in many web and print articles, she has appeared on numerous podcasts and in virtual summits. She is a regular guest blogger and was nominated for the Ohio Arts Council Governor's Award.
Nita earned a journalism degree from The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, a law degree from The Ohio State University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She serves on the board of the Women's National Book Association of San Francisco. For ten years, she studied with and assisted best-selling author Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) at week-long writing workshops teaching the "rules of writing practice" and leading participants in sitting and walking meditation. Goldberg authorized Nita to teach "writing practice" and Nita has taught for nearly twenty years.
When she's not writing and teaching, Nita runs. She has completed three full marathons, twenty-seven half marathons (in eighteen states), and more than eighty shorter races. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband and biggest fan, Ed, and her yellow Labrador running partner, Scarlet, the #ninetyninepercentgooddog.
Services
Non-Fiction
Fiction
Languages
Work experience
Self-employed