Wendy Gilbert Gronbeck

Wendy Gilbert Gronbeck grew up at North Lake, near Chelsea, Michigan. (Think Jiffy Mix and Jeff Daniels.) Luckily, though not intentionally, her parents allowed her to become bored. Being bored means you must dig around in those dents and fissures in the brain where creativity hides. Hopscotching from one tussock of grass to another in a nearby swamp, she found a tiny island. This is where she sat with her notebook, pretending to be a writer. Now, she lives and writes on the dunes above Lake Michigan in “The Village of the City of Douglas.” Douglas has a longer title than main street, but you cannot sneeze without infecting an artist. She writes memoir, short stories, flash, and essays.

Wendy has worked as a video producer and writer, an oncology nurse and hospice nurse. These varied careers have provided first-hand experience with trauma and grief, heroism, and humor; her themes and characters are born of that experience. Her work has appeared in Our Iowa Magazine; Michigan History Magazine; her blogs–Iowa County Almanac, Living in the Country, and Woody and the Widow; the Erma Bombeck and Little Old Lady Comedy blogs; the short story anthology, Revenge (Free Spirit, 2022.) Her novel, Drownings, was a finalist in Novel Slices 2022, The Institute for the Novel. Her flash stories, Shooting and Still, appeared in The Bangalore Press and The New Plains Review, respectively.

Wendy’s collection of stories – Gifts from the Edge of Life: Reflections of a Grateful Nurse – won the Michigan Writers 2025 Chapbook Contest for creative non-fiction. It will be available early June, 2025.

Wendy is supervised by her dog, Nell, and two resentful cats, Dave and Vera.