About Glenda

Glenda Winders is an award-winning journalist, editor, travel writer and novelist whose career has taken her from the newsroom to destinations around the world and, ultimately, to the world of fiction.

A native of Spencer, Indiana, and graduate of Indiana University, Glenda built a distinguished career in journalism that culminated in senior leadership at Copley News Service in San Diego. She joined Copley as a night wire service editor and rose through the organization to become vice president and editor and, ultimately, general manager. In that role, she helped lead an international news service and features syndicate and eventually negotiated its sale to Creators Syndicate.

During her tenure, Glenda was part of the Copley News Service team that, together with The San Diego Union-Tribune, received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its investigation of congressional corruption.

Glenda’s journalism has always extended well beyond the newsroom. For 10 years she wrote the syndicated column Letters From Home, and her work as a travel writer has taken her across the United States and around the world, exploring destinations through their people, history, art, architecture, food and culture. She continues to serve as travel editor for Creators Syndicate and regularly contributes travel features to its national syndication network. She also writes and copyedits for Napa Valley Features, covering the people, culture and character of California Wine Country.

Glenda eventually returned to her native Indiana and made her home in Columbus, a community whose internationally recognized architecture, history and creative culture provide fertile ground for her continuing work as a journalist and storyteller. She regularly writes features for The Republic and Columbus Magazine, profiling the people, organizations, history and cultural life of the region. She also serves as a Senior Cultural Researcher for Landmark Columbus Foundation, documenting the history and design of Bartholomew County’s architecturally significant school buildings.

Her accomplishments extend to fiction as well. Glenda is the recipient of a PEN/Syndicated Fiction Award and a Missouri Writing! Award sponsored by the Missouri Arts Council, and she has taught writing at both the high school and college levels.

Her first novel, The Nine Assignments, draws on the world she knows well, following a young journalist whose professional assignments become intertwined with her own evolving life. The novel is currently being adapted for television. Her second novel, Sainted in Error, explores friendship, family, betrayal and the lasting effects of mental illness. It received a coveted starred review from Kirkus Reviews, which called the novel “a gripping, indelible tale.”

Glenda lives in Columbus with her husband, Phil, where she continues to write, edit and pursue her fascination with the stories embedded in people and places.
Across journalism, travel writing and fiction, the thread running through Glenda’s work has remained remarkably consistent: a journalist’s curiosity, an editor’s eye for detail and a storyteller’s fascination with the experiences that shape people’s lives.