Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for USA Today and author of the New York Times bestselling novel, The Daughters of Erietown. She is also a Professional in Residence at Kent State University’s School of Media & Journalism, where she teaches opinion writing, feature writing and ethics.
In 2005, Schultz won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for columns that judges praised for providing “a voice for the underdog and the underprivileged.” That year she also won the Scripps Howard and National Headliner journalism awards for commentary.
Schultz is also a fellow with the Vietnam Reporting Project. Her 2011 series, “Unfinished Business,” explored the long-term impact of Agent Orange in the United States and in Vietnam. The series won the Associated Press Managing Editors Journalism Excellence Award in International Perspective.
She is a public speaker on a wide range of issues, from journalism and politics to women’s rights and social justice. She has received six honorary degrees and has served twice as a Pulitzer Prize juror.
In addition to her novel, Schultz is the author of two other non-fiction books published by Random House: Life Happens – And Other Unavoidable Truths, a collection of essays, and …and His Lovely Wife, a memoir about her husband Sherrod Brown’s successful 2006 race for the U.S. Senate.. Her first children’s book, Lola Trains the Trolls, will be published by Razorbill Books in Summer 2023. She is currently working on her next novel.
Schultz and her husband have four grown children and eight grandchildren. They live in Cleveland, Ohio with their rescue dogs Franklin and Walter.