About
Photo credit: Justine Martin
Meet Brenda
Brenda Sparks Prescott has spent over three decades fulfilling two childhood visions: to write stories and to be part of academic life through non-faculty roles at colleges and universities. Brenda worked at several major institutions—Harvard University, Wellesley College, and Boston College among others—first in information technology, then in fundraising. On those campuses, she became known as someone who gets things done through learning how things function and mastering the art of influencing without authority. She is a graduate of both Harvard University and the Stonecoast MFA in creative writing program. While she pursued the academic life, her family has a long history of military service, with records stretching back to the Civil War.
Brenda is the author of the novel Home Front Lines (March 2021). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in publications such as The Louisville Review, Crab Orchard Review, Portland Magazine, and the anthology Soap Opera Confidential. She is co-chief editor of Solstice Literary Magazine, an advisory board member for the Solstice MFA in creative writing program, and a founding member of Simply Not Done, a women’s writing collaborative. She practices life and Tai Chi in eastern Massachusetts and southern Vermont.
Her favorite question is, “What if?”
Ten Things you May Not Know About Me
- I’m the type that likes types and archetypes but hopefully not stereotypes.
- I don’t have too many books. I own a library.
- I own the complete set of the Dictionary of American Regional English (five volumes). See #2.
- Jazz piano is my jam. Vijay Iyer, Chick Corea, Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, Hiromi, Brad Mehldau, Robert Glasper, Mulgrew Miller, Kenny Baron, Yoko Miwa . . .
- I love the concept of balance even though I seldom achieve it.
- I once asked my mother why the giant was lying on the bridge in her inlaid-wood picture. She said the giant was actually a group of trees. I still see the giant before the trees.
- I’ve seen the “wine-dark sea.”
- I keep the faded Brownie Scout Promise plaque from my childhood in my office.
- I was a member of the juvenile delinquent barre in my gym’s adult ballet class.
- With no apologies, I will watch “Murder She Wrote” whenever it’s on. I do believe I’ve seen every episode in syndication. I am also continually seeking a quality cozy mystery series.