JLSchneider is a carpenter and an adjunct professor of English at a small community college in upstate New York.
He was born in Manhasset, Long Island, though he has no recollection of his time there. When he was two, his father, a Lutheran minister, was posted to his first parish in Jeffersonville, NY. After four years in Jeffersonville his family moved to a rural enclave called Greer School in Dutchess County, NY, a community for abandoned and orphaned children where his father was the resident minister. Four years later his father lost the faith, and his parents divorced. With his mother and brother he moved to New York City, then to Emerson, NJ, where he graduated high school. At eighteen he left home to begin a geographical and psychologically itinerate life.
Back when it was acceptable to be one, he was a prolific hitchhiker ( “The Empty Road”), traversing the country numerous times by thumb and jalopy. Subsequently, he lived in Rhode Island (where he dropped out of the University of Rhode Island); Ecuador, where he was in a fake marriage; Peru, where he lived on an archeological dig ( “Seeing the Inca Trail”); Jamaica, where he had his first teaching gig ( “Hold Me Say You Will”); and London, England, where he earned his Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Antioch University.
Some of the other jobs JLSchneider has had include: Stone Mason; School Bus Driver; Bartender; United Way Driver; Shipping clerk; Produce clerk; Camp Counselor; Lifeguard; Dishwasher; Sailing Instructor; Lumber Yard Associate/Truck Driver; Bouncer; Cook; and Maine Wilderness Guide. He has also done some commercial voice-over work.
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