Becky Mushko

Sunrise on Smith Mountain

Becky Mushko‚ retired middle school teacher, retired adjunct English instructor at Ferrum College, and 2006-07 writer-in-residence for Roanoke County Schools‚ currently writes children's literature.

For over 10 years, she wrote a humor column, "Peevish Advice," that first appeared in Blue Ridge Traditions—and then the Smith Mountain Eagle. Occasionally she still makes appearances as her character, Ida B. Peevish of Ida's Salon of Beauty & Live Bait Shop.

Born in Roanoke, Becky has lived in Richmond, VA; Newport News, VA; Lanesboro, MA; and Charleston, SC. She currently lives in rural Penhook, Virginia, with her husband, two horses, four dogs, and numerous cats. Her hobbies include attending writers' conferences, walking her farms with her dogs, trail riding (she owns an elderly racking  mare and a twenty-year-old TWH), blogging, living frugally, and reading—especially Southern writers and Appalachian writers.

 She received her BFA in Drama Education from VCU (when it was still RPI) and her MAT in English Education from The Citadel. She's also taken graduate classes at UVA, Radford, and High Point College.

Becky participates in several reading or writing-related clubs: a critique group for children's writers, the Virginia Writers Club, Lake Writers, Valley Writers, the Roanoke Valley Branch of the American Pen Women (vice-president), the Appalachian Writers Association, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She serves on the Franklin County Library Board of Trustees, the Virginia Writers Club Board of Governors for 2009-2011, and co-chairs both the Lake Writers Essay Contest for Young People and the Roanoke Valley Pen Women's Scholarship Contest. She was a panelist on a "Regional Fiction" panel at the 2007 Children's Literature Association Conference and on the "Local Fiction" panel for the 2006 Roanoke Valley Bookfest. She has participated in several bookfests in Bedford, Franklin, and Hanover Counties since 2002. Winner of several writing contests, she was once nominated for a 1997 Pushcart Prize for "Angel on Ice," which appeared in THEMA.

Photo by Linda Layne, Hanover Book Festival 2009

Her humor column, "Peevish Advice," appeared monthly in Blue Ridge Traditions--from 1998 until 2004 and twice a month in the Smith Mountain Eagle--from 2004 through 2008. She has self-published five books of regional interest: Patches on the Same Quilt, Peevish Advice, More Peevish Advice, The Girl Who Raced Mules & Other Stories, and Where There's A Will.

Her articles, book reviews, poems, or stories have appeared in Prime Living ("Blogging to Adventure" is online), THEMA, Blue Ridge Traditions, Virginia Adversaria, several volumes of the Poet's Domain series, Roanoke Times' Christmas Memories, A Cup of Comfort for Writers (Adams Media, 2007), It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (Friday Project, 2007), and Leisure Publishing's 2008 Smith Mountain Lake Visitor's & Newcomers Guide. 

In mid-May 2009, she appeared on "Cover to Cover," the Blue Ridge Regional Library's cable show on BTW21. (See Episode #98) She appeared again on Cover to Cover in December 2009. (See Episode #127)

A 2008 Prime Living article about her is here.

She is available for readings and workshops.

Becky at the 2003 Bedford Book Festival

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