Linda Lawrence Hunt

Linda Lawrence Hunt, Ph.D., an associate professor of English at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, is the author of the award-winning book, Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America.

For her doctoral dissertation at Gonzaga University, Hunt researched the 1896 journey of Estby, a Norwegian immigrant, across 3,500 miles of the American continent to win a $10,000 wager, which she hoped would save her family's farm. Hunt, who received her Ph.D. in Leadership Studies in 1997, traveled throughout the United States and Norway to reconstruct Helga's silenced story and the tapestry of a transitional era between Victorian assumptions and the "new woman" emerging at the turn of the century.

Bold Spirit, based on Hunt's dissertation and published in 2003 by the University of Idaho Press and in 2005 by Anchor Books, was honored with the 2004 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the Willa Cather Literary Award, and the Washington State Book Award. For more information: www.boldspiritacrossamerica.com

Hunt directs the Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship, which was inspired by the life and vision of Hunt's daughter Krista Hunt Ausland, who died in a bus accident while volunteering with her husband, Aaron, in community development in rural Bolivia. The foundation provides encouragement and grant support to other young adults who choose a journey of service: www.kristafoundation.org

Hunt and her husband Jim have two other adult children, Susan and Jefferson.