Schneider was educated at Central College in Missouri, and earned her Master of Arts from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. In 1979 she became a graduate of the Master of Fine Arts Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
She has taught creative writing workshops at the University of Massachusetts, Smith College, Limavadi College (Northern Ireland) and the University of Connecticut. She teaches annually in Ireland, and bi-annually at the Graduate Theological Union in California, where she has also been Playwright in Residence at the Pacific School of ReligionShe also leads annual workshops in Ireland, workshop leadership training seminars and several writing retreats. In 1993 Schneider was keynote speaker and workshop leader at a women"s retreat in Japan.
She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she is the Founder/Director of Amherst Writers & Artists and editor of Amherst Writers & Artists Press, which has published twenty books of poetry and the national literary journal, Peregrine. She has been the recipient of literary prizes, and grants from the Danforth Foundation, the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Awards, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Schneider is an adjunct faculty member of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.
