Greenlaw, Linda (1960 - )

Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Non-Fiction

Greenlaw, a Connecticut native (born 22 Dec. 1960), grew up Topsham, Maine, and lives on Isle au Haut, where she works hauling lobster. She is the author of several bestselling books about commercial fishermen as well as a mystery series set on coastal Maine. Her ocean fishing career began as a summer job while attending Colby College. After graduation she worked her way from cook and deckhand to captain of a swordfishing boat. Her role in a boating incident was portrayed by Sebastian Junger in his book The Perfect Storm, which was made into a movie in 2000. Junger described Greenlaw as "one of the best captains, period, on the entire East Coast." Her boat, the Hannah Boden, was the sister ship to the Andrea Gail, which disappeared in the disastrous 1991 storm that was the focus of Junger's bestseller. After her mention in Junger's book, Greenlaw was approached to write the book that became The Hungry Ocean (1999), a story of one month-long swordfishing trip east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

Greenlaw left the swordfishing business in the late 1990s to lobster from waters near her Maine island home but returned to swordfishing briefly -- as evidenced by her recent book Seaworthy. She received the U.S. Maritime Literature Award in 2003 and the New England Award for non-fiction in 2004.

Selected Bibliography

• The Hungry Ocean (1999)
• The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island (2002, about Isle Au Haut)
• Fisherman are Liars: True Tales from the Dry Dock Bar (2004)
• Recipes From a Very Small Island (2005, with her mother Martha Greenlaw)
• Slipknot (2007, first in a mystery series featuring marine investigator Jane Bunker)
• Fisherman's Bend (2008 second in Jane Bunker series)
• Seaworthy:A Swordfish Captain Returns to the Seas (2010)
• Lifesaving Lessons: Notes from an Accidental Mother (2013)