About Dawn
Dawn Reno Langley
(Long Bio)
Hello!
Welcome–let me introduce myself.
I’ve been writing my way toward understanding for as long as I can remember. When I was nine years old, I published a small article about the Cuban Missile Crisis, not knowing that it would become the first thread in a lifelong tapestry of questions about justice, identity, and what it means to be human. Even then, I sensed that words could hold both truth and tenderness, and that stories could open doors we didn’t yet know how to walk through.
My path began in journalism, wandering through the worlds of antiques and art. A feature I wrote on African‑American art led to Collecting Black Americana, my first major nonfiction book, and from there my writing life widened—novels, children’s books, essays, memoir. No matter the form, I’ve always been drawn to the quiet pulse beneath our lives: the moments when we break, the moments when we rise, and the courage it takes to keep choosing ourselves.
In recent years, my novels have carried me deeper into those questions: my first adult novel, All That Glitters is steeped in the antiques and art world, where I spent a majority of almost twenty years. The Silver Dolphin takes on the injustice of over-fishing our oceans. Foxglove, Listening to the Sun, and Loving Marie are three very different novels with only one core commonality: they are about deep friendships. The Mourning Parade confronts school shootings and elephant abuse head-on. Analyzing the Prescotts explores a family unraveling and remaking itself after a father announces a gender transition. The Mystic follows the thin, shimmering line between intuition and truth. The Sunflower, the second book in my historical trilogy, is finished now and preparing to meet the world in August. And Book Three waits on my desk—drafted, raw, and ready for me to breathe it into its full shape.
My work has taken me far from home and deeper into community. As a Fulbright scholar, I taught at universities across Pakistan and continue to mentor PhD students and serve on academic boards. Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Weymouth Center have given me time and space to listen to the stories that wanted to be told. My TEDx talk, How Creatives Can Save the World, reflects my belief that art is one of the most powerful forces we have.
I’ve always been fascinated by the private landscapes writers inhabit, which led me to create The Writer’s Hand Journals. Each book covers a different facet of fiction writing, with a quote from famous writers on one page–and blank space for your own writing on the other. To be honest, I am inspired by quotes on a daily basis, and I often respond with my own journal entry, so I thought writers would like to do the same.
My nonfiction book You Are Divine explores the presence of female spiritual icons in our modern lives—those quiet guides who remind us of our own strength. I spent a lot of time in the Duke Divinity Library to research this book, and my yogic practice helped ground me throughout the process.
And my first foray into memoir: Love, Leashes, & Letting Go, will arrive in late August, a book born from grief, devotion, and the quiet ways we learn to carry on. During the two years that the memoir covers, I learned what it means to practice Aparigraha, the yogic principle of non-attachment, as I travel throughout Europe taking care of others’ houses and four-legged-friends.
But the truest part of my life is the simplest: being a grandmother. My grandson and my many step‑grandchildren tether me to what matters. When I write about justice, compassion, or the fragile beauty of our world, I’m writing for them. For the future they will inherit. For the conversations we must keep having if we want to leave them something better.
Dawn Reno Langley
(Short Bio)
Dawn Reno Langley is a writer, activist, editor, writing coach, and educator, who has devoted her life to social justice issues.
After her first article, published at the tender age of nine, questioned the likelihood of an attack on U.S. soil during the Cuban missile crisis, she found her voice.
Langley’s novels, such as her new trilogy: The Art of Rivers, Book I: The Mystic, and Book 2: The Sunflower, coming in August; Analyzing the Prescotts, as well as others like The Silver Dolphin and The Mourning Parade, examine socially relevant topics like environmental issues. Her last work of nonfiction You Are Divine: A Search for the Goddess in All of Us (Llewellyn, 2022), discusses the role of female religious icons in contemporary life and how each woman embodies divine traits.
In August, 2026, she’ll release two new books: Book 2 of The Art of Rivers: The Sunflower, and her new memoir about two years of learning how to live again while traveling Europe, house and dog sitting, entitled Love, Leashes & Letting Go.
She holds an MFA from Vermont College, a PhD from the Union Institute and University, and is president of Rewired Creatives, Inc. In addition, she is a certified Yoga Instructor and teaches yoga on beaches and in forests everywhere. She is a nomad, traveling from country to country, and is currently working on Book 3 of The Art of Rivers, entitled The Alligator.