Linda Mayfield-Hayes was born in Brooklyn, New York on Valentine's Day 1953. She received her A.A.S. in Data Processing from Kingsborough Community College. Linda began writing poetry in her early teens, but soon abandoned her craft. She didn't lift her poetic pen again until 2003, almost forty years later. Today, she is the author of three collections of poetry and one childrens book.
Linda has done poetry readings at Barnes & Noble, The Queens Central Library, Stain, and at Valarie's Sophisticated Soul Food. She has also performed at Sista's Place with the legendary Louis Reyes Rivera and the Jazzoets. Online, she goes by the pen name of Slendah. Her poetry has appeared on websites such as Mr. Africa, Soulful Chemistry, E-LiteraryCafe, NubianPoets, Black-Poetry, The Black Poetry Cafe, PostPoems, LiterateNubians and TimBookTu. She has been the featured poet at Poeticnites and MotivateAMind. Her poems have also appeared in several anthropologies.