Linda Murphy Marshall is a multi-linguist and writer with a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literature from St. Louis University, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Her writing has been published in The Los Angeles Review, The Catamaran Literary Reader, The Ocotillo Review, Maryland Literary Review, Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, and elsewhere. She has also been asked to speak at Maryland Writers’ Association, American University, and Rice University In addition, she is a docent at the Library of Congress, served as Translation Editor at The Los Angeles Review, and is an Associate at the National Museum of Language.
In her work as an African language specialist, she co-authored a book on Xhosa, a South African “click” language, and acted as a consultant on another book on another South African “click” language, Sotho. In addition, she made over a dozen work trips to the continent of Africa and has been to every continent but Antarctica.
Her first memoir, Ivy Lodge: A Memoir of Translation and Discovery, was published in 2022. Her second memoir, Immersion: A Linguist’s Memoir came out in 2024.
An artist, her paintings have been on display at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., were featured at the Loudoun Academy of the Arts Foundation in Virginia, and at the Columbia Art Center in Maryland. Her painting “Mirror Mirror” appeared on the cover of Adanna Literary Journal, her painting “All That Jazz” accompanied a poem in the literary journal Jerry Jazz Musician, and her painting “Raw Oysters” accompanied a story in Persimmon Tree, an online magazine of the arts.
In addition, Dr. Marshall is a lifelong award-winning classical pianist and, as an adolescent, played on the local public radio station in her hometown, St. Louis.
