Here Donna is flanked by several admirers at the recent In Your Write Mind workshop.
I have tried a dozen or so times to write this section about Donna Munro in the formal, third-person, traditional biographical style, but it’s not working. It sounds bland and sterile and boring—all the things that Donna is not. Yes, Donna did her undergraduate work at the University of Missouri-St. Louis where she studied history and education. In 2004, she received her Master’s Degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She currently teaches high school history in the Hazelwood School District and lives with her husband Matt, her daughter Rio, and her son Matt in Florissant, Missouri.
But I don’t just want you to know about Donna, I want you to get a sense of who she is. So, what can I tell you to help you really know Donna? That she’s brave and strong and fierce? Check. That she’s kind and generous and vivacious and fun? Double check. That she’s loved? Oh, you can check that one a thousand times over. Donna is exactly the kind of person I want to be if I ever decide to grow up. I met Donna in 2002 as she began her Master’s degree at Seton Hill University, and we became immediate friends. I can’t imagine how anyone could not become friends with Donna. Her vitality and passion—for writing, for teaching, for family, and for life in general—are contagious.
There’s a lot I could tell you about Donna. I could tell you about how she routinely volunteers to chaperone dozens of high schoolers on international field trips (Yikes!) and brings trinkets back to give out to her friends (Awww!). I could tell you about how brightly and lovingly she talks about her husband and children. I could tell you about how excited she gets when she’s unraveling a new story idea or taking new SHU people on the unofficial Seton Hill ghost tours. I could tell you all kinds of things.
But what I want you to know most about Donna is she is a fighter… and a survivor.
And she is loved.
–Tanya Twombly
