Patricia Lee Lewis was born and raised in Texas and moved with her family to western Massachusetts years ago. She is an award-winning poet, and her first novel, Thorns of the Mesquite, in paperback and as an e-book, launched in late 2025. A historic novel set in 1938 on a ranch in West Texas, it's a wild west tale told from a feminist, civil rights point of view, and is available at Levellers Press, Broadside Bookshop, and on Amazon. All author’s profits go to organizations serving victims of domestic violence and those which protect civil rights for all people.
Patricia has published two books of poetry, A Kind of Yellow (first-place winner of Writer’s Digest’s International Chapbook Poetry contest); and the full-length High Lonesome, with themes resonant of Thorns of the Mesquite. She holds a BA from Smith College, PBK, and an MFA from Vermont College for the Fine Arts.
In over 30 years, she led hundreds of creative writing workshops and retreats at her Patchwork Farm mountainside retreat in Westhampton MA, hosted over 40 residencies for writers, led many writing & yoga retreats in Texas, and 70 writing & yoga retreats internationally.
Since she moved into downtown Northampton MA, she’s held 98 “Writer’s Cave” workshops online and continues her work with writers through the invaluable Straw Dog Writers Guild, of which she is a co-founder and first president. She is beyond grateful to live and work in the company of other writers. Contact her at patricialeelewis@gmail.com; website at www.writingretreats.org.
