noewoman

Victoria Noe has been a writer most of her life, but didn’t admit it until 2009.

After earning a masters in Speech and Dramatic Art from the University of Iowa, she moved to Chicago, where she worked professionally as a stage manager, director and administrator in addition to being a founding board member of the League of Chicago Theatres. She then transferred her skills to being a professional fundraiser, raising money for arts, educational and AIDS service organizations, and later an award-winning sales consultant of children’s books. Noe also trained hundreds of people around the country in marketing, event planning and grant writing.

But after a concussion impacted her ability to continue in sales, she switched gears to keep a promise to a dying friend to write a book.

That book became a series: "Friend Grief and Anger: When Your Friend Dies and No One Gives A Damn"; "Friend Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends"; "Friend Grief and 9/11: The Forgotten Mourners"; "Friend Grief in the Workplace: More Than an Empty Cubicle" and "Friend Grief and Men: Defying Stereotypes".

She's currently working on a book about the contributions of straight women in the AIDS community.

Her freelance articles have appeared on grief and writing blogs as well as Huffington Post, Windy City Times and the Chicago Tribune. Her essay, "Long-Term Survivor" won the 2015 Christopher Hewitt award for creative nonfiction.

In addition, she feeds her reading habit by reviewing a wide variety of books on BroadwayWorld's website. A native St. Louisan, she’s a lifelong Cardinals fan and will gladly take on any comers in musical theatre trivia.

Her website, Friend Grief, was named one of the top ten grief support websites in 2012.