Penelope Reedy Papers, 1941-1996

Penelope Reedy was born on June 5, 1947 in Everett, Washington. Upon graduating from Lake Stevens High School, she moved to New York City and took classes at New York University and Brooklyn College, studying fashion merchandising, English, and journalism. Reedy moved to Idaho in 1970, where she met her rancher husband and had four children. She helped organize and run a newspaper for Camas County, Idaho and was a stringer for the Times-News in Twin Falls and the Gooding County Leader. She later went back to school and received a B.A. in English from Marquette University.

She was the founder, editor, and publisher of The Redneck Review of Literature, an independent literary magazine published from 1975-1995. Rick Ardinger saw the journal as a descendant of Wild Dog, a magazine founded by Ed Dorn (Pocatello) in the early 1960s.

Reedy briefly lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was a Program Director for Woodland Pattern Book Center. Throughout her career, Reedy's writings appeared in numerous magazines and journals including Idaho Farmer-Stockman, Ruralite, Mechanix Illustrated, Seventeen, Art Muscle, Crone Chronicles, Western American literature, and Texas Books in Review.

Penelope passed away in 2022.