Sandi Sonnenfeld
Sandi Sonnenfeld is the author of the memoir, This is How I Speak (2002: Impassio Press), for which she was named a Celebration Author by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, which recognizes writers whose work merits special notice. Her short stories and personal essays have appeared in more than 30 literary magazines and anthologies, including Sojourner, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Storyteller, Raven Chronicles, Necessary Fiction, Perigee, Mr. Bellers’ Neighborhood, and Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review, to name just a few. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Sandi holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of Washington, where she won the Loren D. Milliman Writing Fellowship Prize. She resides in the beautiful Hudson Valley with husband Warren Berry and the world’s two most perfect cats. She's currently writing a historical novel set in 17th-century Russia.
Sandi also has a strong background as a corporate communications professional, journalist and ghostwriter. On behalf of business executives, she has ghostwritten more than 250 articles that have been published in a wide variety of mainstream and trade publications, including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Forbes, Inc., HuffPost, and Publishers' Weekly to name a few. Under her own byline, her journalism pieces have appeared in Harvard Business Review; Animals Magazine (Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals); Poughkeepsie Journal; Seattle Business Journal; Journal of Medical Marketing; Bulldog Reporter; and Travel International.
Works

This is How I Speak: The Diary of Young Woman
The Diary of Anais Nin meets The Paper Chase in this moving, entertaining and intimate portrait of an ambitious young New York dancer turned writer trying to negotiate love, sex, loss, a bad therapist and endless Seattle rain at one of the nation’s leading creative writing programs.
How to Love Your Cat and Subsquently the World in Please See Me
"Patti Hearst Has a Gun" in Renegades of Prose ( Chandler, AZ:FTB Press)
"The Sisters Divine" in Artificium (UK)
"We Would Have Had Wings" in Intellectual Refuge
"That American Thing" in Jewish Literary Journal
"Fembots Have More Fun" in Dr. TJ Eckleburg Review
"Starfish" in Intellectual Refuge
"Junket" in Necessary Fiction
“Between Takes,” in Perigee Arts
"Taxi Driver" in The Storyteller
"Hope in a Jar," in Mr. Bellers' Neighborhood
"Searching for the Writing Life" in Sumerset Review
"The Weakest Part of You" in Falling Star Magazine
"Starfish" in Isotope: The Journal of Science and Nature Writing
"Pervert" in ACM (Another Chicago Magazine)
"Adopting Grief," in Family: A Celebration (Princeton, NJ: Peterson Publishing)
"Stripper" in Salmon Magazine
"A Few Notes Upon Nearing 30" in Emrys Journal
"Graduation Ball" in Sex and the City (London: Serpent's Tail Press)
Awards and Recognition
- Honorable Mention, First Novel Competition, Chiasmus Press, Portland OR for Girl Love (2008)
- Celebration Author, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association for This Is How I Speak (Fall 2002)
- Finalist, Rosebud Magazine’s X.J. Kennedy Award for Creative Nonfiction (2001)
- Finalist, Greensboro Review Literary Awards (2001)
- Finalist, Serpentine Fiction Award (2000)
- First Prize, David Dornstein Memorial Creative Writing Award for Young Writers, Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (1989)
- Winner, Loren D. Milliman Writing Fellowship, University of Washington (1988-89)
- First Prize, Barbara Benson Fiction Award, Mount Holyoke College (May 1985)
- First Prize, Minnie Dwight Journalism Award, Mount Holyoke College (May 1985)