Frances Bries Wojnar

Frances Wojnar earned an BA in music from St. Ambrose College while a sister of the Visitation Order in Rock Island, Illinois. After leaving the order, she earned an MA degree in music at the University of Iowa and taught music in the public school system in Vallejo, California. She enrolled in creative writing classes at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill under the direction of Clair Gustafson and joined a weekly critique group.

Now retired, Frances enjoys traveling, concerts, and writing. As a volunteer, she ushers at the San Francisco Symphony Concerts; is a mentor in a program, Investing Kids,” and is active in the California Writers Club and the Social Justice Club.

Her first book, “Eliza, an Iowa Pioneer,” is a fictionalized account of pre-Civil War tales of her great-grandmother. Her second book, “Magdalena’s Conflict,” is a mystery that deals with rituals and conflicts in a fictionalized monastery where the sisters wore the full medieval dress known as the “habit” in 1957. It is not autobiographical.