Andre Dubus III is the author of seven books: The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, and the New York Times bestsellers, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, Gone So Long and his memoir, Townie, a #4 New York Times bestseller and a New York Times “Editors Choice”. His work has been included in The Best American Essays of 1994 and The Best Spiritual Writing of 1999, and his novel, House of Sand and Fog was a finalist for the National Book Award, a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. His latest book, Dirty Love, was published in the fall of 2013 and has been listed as a New York Times “Notable Book”, a New York Times Editors’Choice”, a 2013 “Notable Fiction” choice from The Washington Post, and a Kirkus “Starred Best Book of 2013”.
As a narrator of his audio books, he has won an Audiofile “Best Voices of the Year” award for his 2011 memoir, Townie, (Blackstone Audiobooks), a 2013 “Earphones” award for Dirty Love, (Audible), and is a 2014 Finalist for an “Audie Award” for his short story collection, The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, (Blackstone Audiobooks).
Mr. Dubus has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, Two Pushcart Prizes, and he is a 2012 recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. His books are published in more than twenty-five languages, and he teaches full-time at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Fontaine, a modern dancer, and their three children.
Lisa Barr is the award-winning author of the sexy “beach read” The Unbreakables and the award-winning historical thriller Fugitive Colors, a suspenseful tale of stolen art, love, lust, deception, and revenge on the eve of World War II. The novel won the Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY) gold medal for “Best Literary Fiction 2014” and first prize at the Hollywood Film Festival (Opus Magnum Discovery Award). In addition, Lisa served as an editor for The Jerusalem Post, managing editor of Today’s Chicago Woman, managing editor of Moment magazine, and an editor/reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. Among the highlights of her career, Lisa covered the famous handshake between the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and President Bill Clinton at the White House. Lisa is also the creator and editor of the popular parenting blog, GIRLilla Warfare (www.girlillawarfare. com). Her blog, entitled “When Your Kid Gets Left Out: Moms, Stop the Social Engineering” went viral, viewed by more than five million readers. She has been featured on Good Morning America, Today, Fox & Friends, and the Australia morning news show “Sunrise” for her work as an author, journalist, and blogger. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and three daughters (aka Drama Central).
Andrea Bartz is a journalist and essayist, as well as the author of the debut thriller The Lost Night, which People Magazine called an “impressive debut with a nerve-wracking finish.” Previously, she was a senior editor at Glamour, Fit Pregnancy, Psychology Today, and other magazines. She grew up in Brookfield and graduated from Northwestern University’s school of journalism, and in 2010, she co-authored the blog and book, “Stuff Hipsters Hate.” Andrea lives in Brooklyn. Her second novel, “The Herd,” will be published in 2020. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @andibartz and learn more about her at andreabartz.com.
Miciah Bay Gault is the author of the novel Goodnight Stranger (Park Row Books, HarperCollins). Miciah was the editor of Hunger Mountain for nine years, and now she teaches in the MFA in Writing & Publishing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and is coordinator of the Vermont Book Award. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Tin House, The Sun, The Southern Review, Agni, The Literary Review, and the anthology Contemporary Vermont Fiction.
Julie Beekman is the author of Two Trees, A Memoir, published by Rogue Phoenix Press in 2017. The book focuses on adoption, foster care, and trauma, all with resilience and a thread of humor. It also demonstrates the importance of child advocates.
Two Trees was written while she lived in Wisconsin, Julie now resides in Colorado and is Managing Partner of Organic Sandwich Company in Louisville and Boulder. When she isn’t writing or in the shops, she can usually be found running, hiking or skiing various Colorado trails. Julie is currently working on a follow-up Memoir as well as historical fiction.
She is a member of AllWriters’ Workplace and Workshop and continues with an online class.
Alice Benson lives in Wisconsin with her spouse and their two dogs. She discovered writing as a passion in the third act of her life and spends much of her time in pursuit of metaphors. Alice works in a human services field; previously she spent over thirteen years working with a domestic violence program. Her shorter published works have appeared in a Main Street Rag Anthology, Epiphany, Molotov Cocktail, Cliterature, English Kills Review, Scrutiny Literary Journal, Shooter Literary Magazine, Diverse Voices Quarterly and a variety of other publications. Both Alice’s books and many of her shorter works address intimate partner violence, abuse, and sexual assault. Alice’s first book, Her Life is Showing, set in a domestic violence shelter was published by Black Rose Writing in 2014. Alice’s second novel, A Year in Her Life, tackles many difficult social issues and was also published by Black Rose Writing in July 2019. For more information, visit Alice’s website www.alicebensonauthor.com.
Kimberly A. Bindschatel spent her childhood at the lake, swimming, catching frogs, chasing fireflies, and dreaming of faraway places. After high school, she set my sights on being a wildlife photographer. With my trusty Nikon, she set off for Alaska, land of the big bears. Kimberly can say, “I’ve stood within ten feet of a grizzly, in the wild, and survived. With a photograph to prove it! No, I didn’t pee my pants.”
Then, in 2010, She did something crazy. She got on a plane alone to Costa Rica with a backpack, a pair of binoculars, no set itinerary, and an open-ended ticket for return. Kimberly declared she wasn’t going home until she’d seen a Scarlet macaw, a Keel-billed toucan, and a Resplendent quetzal. She saw all three and survived to tell about it.
Last year, she made the trek to Maui to see humpback whales in their breeding grounds. She’d dreamed of the breech shot. After fourteen whale boat tours, she finally got it: A mama whale was breeching with her baby.
Her whole life, she’s loved animals. Now, as a fiction writer, she gets to go on adventures with her character, Special Agent Poppy McVie, wildlife crime fighter extraordinaire.
Marcia Bjornerud is Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University. Bjornerud¹s research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building, and she combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She has done research in high arctic Norway (Svalbard) and Canada (Ellesmere Island), as well as mainland Norway, Scotland, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region. She received a BS in geophysics from the University of Minnesota and MS and PhD degrees in structural geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to teaching at Lawrence, Bjornerud held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University and a faculty position at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Bjornerud is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Oslo, Norway and University of Otago, New Zealand. She is the author of two books for popular audiences, Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth, and Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World as well as a contributing writer to The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Wired.
Kimberly Blaeser, writer, photographer, and scholar, served as Wisconsin Poet Laureate for 2015-16. She is the author of four poetry collections—most recently Copper Yearning (2019); and editor of Traces in Blood, Bone, and Stone: Contemporary Ojibwe Poetry. A Professor of English and Indigenous Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Blaeser also serves on faculty for Institute of American Indian Arts MFA program in Santa Fe. Her work has been widely anthologized, and selections of her poetry translated into several languages including Spanish, French, Norwegian, Indonesian, and Hungarian. An enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Blaeser grew up on White Earth Reservation. She lives in the woods and wetlands of Lyons Township, Wisconsin and spends part of each year at a water-access cabin adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota chasing poems, photos, and river otters—sometimes all at once.
Drew Blanchard, born in Dubuque, Iowa, is the author of the chapbook, Raincoat Variations, and the full-length collection of poetry, Winter Dogs from Salmon Poetry. He holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from The Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
After a semi-nomadic childhood throughout California, Lorelie Brown spent high school in Orange County before joining the US Army. She’s traveled the world from South Korea to Italy and now lives north of Chicago. She sets many of her award-nominated books in Southern California because she gets enough sleet and snow in her real life.
Lorelie has three active sons, a shih tzu and a yorkiepoo puppy. The yorkiepoo makes a guest appearance in one of her books. Readers can find out which by checking out LorelieBrown.com. She also spends entirely too much on Twitter and Facebook.
Fabu, as she is professionally known, is a poet, columnist, storyteller, and educator who writes to encourage, inspire and remind. The Madison Poet Laureate (2008-2012), she continues to share experiences living in the South, the Midwest and in Africa. A scholar of African American Literature, she has published four books of poetry, Poems, Dreams and Roses, In Our Own Tongues, Journey to Wisconsin: African American Life in Haiku and Love Poems. Journey to Wisconsin…won an Outstanding Achievement in Poetry award by the Wisconsin Library Association. Her newest books are Remember Me: Mary Lou Williams in Poetry, Sacred Mary Lou and a Mary Lou Williams Coloring Book. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee in poetry and her words have appeared in literary journals, and in the sidewalk in front of The Weary Traveler Restaurant, The Willy Street Co-op, The Monroe Street Library and Collectivo on Monroe Street, all in Madison. (www.artistfabu.com)
Mark Concannon is a four-time Emmy-Award winning writer, producer and reporter. He worked for 23-years at Fox 6 in Milwaukee. While hosting the city’s top-rated morning show, Wakeup News, Mark became one of the city’s most popular on-air personalities. Mark is currently President and Executive Producer of Concannon Communications where he helps individuals and businesses tell their stories through video.
Mark was born in Philadelphia, graduated from Syracuse University with a TV/Radio degree and was a TV sports anchor in Syracuse, Norfolk, VA, Davenport, IA and Greensboro, NC before moving to Milwaukee in 1987. He has done freelance work as a reporter/anchor for Fox Sports Wisconsin Brewers and Bucks telecasts and as a reporter/producer for Milwaukee Public Television where he has produced “Mettle & Honor,” stories of Wisconsin veterans from all wars. Those stories, originating from video interviews for Milwaukee County War Memorial’s Veterans Story Project, are the basis of the newly-released book of the same title.
Valya Dudycz Lupescu has been making magic with food and words for more than 20 years, incorporating folklore from her Ukrainian heritage with practices that honor the Earth. She’s a writer, content developer, instructor, and mother of three teenagers. Valya is the author of The Silence of Trees and the founding editor of Conclave: A Journal of Character. Along with Stephen H. Segal, she is the co-author of Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family (Quirk Books) and co-founder of the Wyrd Words storytelling laboratory. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her poetry and prose have been published in anthologies and magazines that include, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2019, Kenyon Review, Culture, Gargoyle Magazine, Gone Lawn, Strange Horizons, and Mythic Delirium. You can find her at vdlupescu.com and on Twitter @valya.
Michael Edmonds (www.michael-edmonds.com) recently retired from the Wisconsin Historical Society, where he was Director of Programs and Outreach and led the teams that digitized thousands of rare books and manuscripts for sharing on the Web. A 1976 graduate of Harvard University, his work has won national awards from the American Association for State and Local History, the American Library Association, and the American Folklore Society. He has also taught at the UW’s graduate School of Library and Information Studies since 1986. He is the author or editor of six books, including most recently Taking Flight: A History of Birds and People in the Heart of America.
Jon Etter grew up amongst the stacks of his local library in the small farming community of Forrest, Illinois (population 1200 and some dogs). After graduating from college, he moved to Wisconsin and began his twenty+ year career as a high school English teacher (including ten years at Sheboygan North High School where he also coached forensics and managed the school radio station). When not grading papers and trying to domesticate his two young children, Jon has managed to publish ten short stories, three poems, and, most importantly, A Dreadful Fairy Book, the first book in his middle-grade comedy/fantasy series Those Dreadful Fairy Books from Amberjack Publishing. The other books in the series—Another Dreadful Fairy Book and A Dreadful Final Battle—are due out in November 2019 and November 2020. For more about Jon and his work, feel free to visit him on the web at www.jonetter.com.
Karen Franco, children’s book author and advocate for children with special needs. Franco was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, started as a Feature Writer for a weekly newspaper, the Zion Benton News. Life took her to California and that’s where her son, Jacob was born. Little did she know that Jacob would change her life forever, and begin the journey in the world of special needs. Franco’s son is the inspiration for her book series…Just Hold My Hand, Jacob’s Hoop, What Makes Bella Special? and now Where Did the Sun Go? Each book tells a different story with a positive outcome of how Jacob copes with his day to day struggles. In addition to being an author, and Jacob’s mom, Franco is also a speaker, bringing the message of patience, understanding and acceptance of children who are “differently” abled. Sharing her stories about living in Jacob’s world is a wonderful way to connect with others who may be experiencing similar challenges with their children. Knowing that you aren’t alone helps to face these struggles with hope, love and strength. Franco is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of Every Child’s Place, an all-inclusive, not-for-profit child care center that cares for children of all abilities. She has served on the board for 20 years. Today, Franco lives in Union Grove, Wisconsin with her husband Chris, their Labradoodle Bella and of course, Jacob.
Ann Garvin, Ph.D. is the USA Today Bestselling author of I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around, The Dog Year, and On Maggie’s Watch. Her essays have been published in Writer’s Digest, USA Today, Psychology Today, The Last Word on Nothing, and Unreasonable.is and has performed several times in Listen To Your Mother & The Moth. She is a professor at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Miami University in their low residency Masters of Fine Arts program. She is a sought-after speaker and has taught extensively in NY, San Francisco, LA, Boston, and at festivals across the country. She is the founder of the Tall Poppy Writers, a unique author-driven marketing cooperative in the U.S. that is exclusive to female authors who traditionally publish in a variety of genres. The TPW is the only marketing group of its kind and boasts Frances Ford Coppola Winery as a partner. She is a sought-after speaker on health, leadership and writing and has taught extensively across the country and internationally.
Kathie Giorgio is the critically acclaimed author of four novels, The Home For Wayward Clocks (2011), Learning To Tell (A Life)Time (2013), Rise From The River (2015), and In Grace’s Time (2017), two story collections, Enlarged Hearts (2012) and Oddities & Endings; The Collected Stories Of Kathie Giorgio (2016), a collection of essays, Today’s Moment Of Happiness Despite The News; A Year Of Spontaneous Essays (2018), and two poetry chapbooks, True Light Falls In Many Forms (2016) and When You Finally Said No (upcoming: February 2019). A fifth novel, If You Tame Me, will be released in September of 2019. Giorgio’s short stories and poems have appeared in countless literary magazines and anthologies. Her short story, “Snapdragon,” was performed on stage for the Stories On Stage series at Su Teatro theatre in Boulder, Colorado. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Write Well Award, the Million Writer Award, and for the Best of the Net Anthology. Her novel The Home For Wayward Clocks won the 2011 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association. Her novel In Grace’s Time was runner-up in fiction in the 2017 Maxy Award and the second-place winner of the 2017 Silver Pen Award For Literary Excellence. Giorgio is the director/founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop. She lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin, with her husband, mystery writer Michael Giorgio, her 18-year old daughter Olivia, who is writing her first novel, a neurotic dog named after Ursula LeGuin, a fat cat named Edgar Allen Paw, and a tiny cat named Muse.
Susan Gloss is the USA Today bestselling author of the novels Vintage and The Curiosities. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in English and Spanish, and the University of Wisconsin Law School. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her family. She’s also a proud member of the Tall Poppy Writers, a community of women writers from around the country and globe.
Doris Green currently writes for the Spring Green Home News; the regional newsletter, Voice of the River Valley, and the national newsletter, Women in Higher Education. She is a former communications specialist with the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former editor/co-publisher of the Wisconsin Community Banker magazine for the Community Bankers of Wisconsin. The second edition of Wisconsin Underground (2019) and a memoir, Elsie’s Story: Chasing a Family Mystery (2018), are published by Henschel Haus, Milwaukee. A second edition of Minnesota Underground is forthcoming in 2019. Green holds a bachelor’s degree (English) and a master’s degree (journalism and mass communication) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Based in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood, Kristine Hansen contributes stories about food, travel and design to Architectural Digest’s website, Midwest Living Magazine, Wine Enthusiast Magazine, Fodors.com, and Milwaukee Magazine. She also authored Wisconsin Cheese Cookbook: Creamy, Cheesy, Sweet, and Savory Recipes from the State’s Best Creameries, which Globe Pequot Press published in March of 2019.
Dawn Hogue is a Wisconsin novelist and poet who taught high school English for 25 years. Her poetry has appeared in Stoneboat Literary Journal, Inscape Magazine, and Blue Heron Review among others. She is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and The Council for Wisconsin Writers. She was awarded the 2017 Hal Prize for Poetry for her poem, “The Obligation,” published in Peninsula Pulse. In 2018, her poem “Red Grapes” earned honorable mention for the Hal Prize.
She is a member of The Grand Avenue Poetry Collective, a group of Sheboygan area poets who have published two poetry collections: The Water Poems and The Aging Poems (Water’s Edge Press).
Hogue has also published two test prep books for Advanced Placement English students: AP English Literature and Composition Crash Course and AP English Language and Composition Crash Course, published by REA. Both are in their second edition (The new edition of the literature is due out in July 2019).
She began her imprint, Water’s Edge Press, in 2017 in order to bring her first novel, A Hollow Bone, to print. With Lisa Vihos, she edited the well-received volume called From Everywhere a Little: A Migration Anthology (Water’s Edge Press)
Hogue is currently at work on her second novel, On Summit Road, which like its predecessor is set in Sheboygan County.
Learn more at www.dawnhogue.com.
As a child, Lora Hyler’s sense of adventure began when she discovered the Pippi Longstocking books and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Who doesn’t want to win a golden ticket and spend the rest of their life running a chocolate factory?
Lora carried her love of reading and writing into a radio news career as a reporter for NPR affiliate, WUWM and ABC affiliate, WISN, both in Milwaukee. She also worked for a media, and an energy company managing strategic communications and executive speechwriting.
In 2001, she started her public relations and marketing company, Hyler Communications, and worked with companies in many industries. She’s also no stranger to live television. Lora worked as a guest commentator for two years on Milwaukee’s NBC television station, Today’s TMJ4. And even appeared on the QVC Home Shopping Channel selling a consumer electronic product for her client!
She’s written hundreds of articles, several screenplays, short stories, and a novel for adults. Now, she’s excited to write children books. Lora is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, a global organization with a Wisconsin chapter.
Her middle grade novel, The Stupendous Adventures of Mighty Marty Hayes, is the first in a planned three-part series. The book is available in bookstores throughout the U.S. and in 11 countries abroad. Book two is due out this Fall. Lora is passionately living out her dream of writing children books and touring the world through artist residencies.
Chris Jones is the longtime chief theater critic and Sunday arts columnist for the Chicago. He also covers Broadway for the New York Daily News and appears weekly on the CBS-2 morning news in Chicago. For many years, he was a critic for Variety. His new book is Rise Up! Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton, published by Bloomsbury’s Methuen imprint.
Elizabeth Jorgensen received her undergraduate degrees from Marquette University. In 2009, she received her master’s from Carroll University and in 2017, was named Graduate of the Last Decade. Her memoir, co-written with Nancy Jorgensen, is available from Meyer & Meyer Sport.
Jorgensen’s teaching is featured on the Sejong Cultural Society’s website, in collaboration with the Korea Institute at Harvard University, as an exemplar for teachers of poetry. Jorgensen has published several articles in the Journal of Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English and served as guest editor for the Fall 2017 issue. Other work appears in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Azalea (Harvard University’s Journal of Korean Literature & Culture), Wisconsin State Reading Association Journal, and elsewhere.
Nancy Jorgensen earned a Bachelor of Music from Alverno College and a Master of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A high school choral director for many years, she is the co-author of two music education books, Things They Never Taught You in Choral Methods and From the Trenches: Real Insights from Real Choral Educators. She has written several essays and an Olympic blog for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and her writing appears in Prime Number Magazine, Smith Magazine, Cagibi, Coffin Bell, and elsewhere.
Nancy and husband Joel have two daughters. Older daughter Elizabeth teaches creative writing, composition and journalism at Arrowhead High School in Hartland, Wisconsin. Younger daughter Gwen is a CPA, 2012 Olympian and 2016 Olympic Champion in women’s triathlon.
Dr. Joseph-Silverstein began her career at St. John’s University (NYC) as a professor and research scientist, studying the development of the cardiovascular system while teaching a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses. She published more than 20 research articles and book chapters. She has served in leadership positions in higher education for more than 25 years, including serving as Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at St. John’s University, Associate Vice Chancellor at the University of Connecticut, Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio, and multiple leadership roles within the University of Wisconsin Colleges.
Jonathan Kasparek has been researching and writing about Wisconsin history for over twenty years. His doctoral dissertation on Governor Philip La Follette was published by the Wisconsin Historical Society in 2006 as the award-wining Fighting Son. Kasparek’s new biography of Senator William Proxmire, Bulldog of the Senate is his fourth book. He began teaching history at UW-Waukesha in 2004, after having worked for the State Historical Society’s Division of Public History and on the historic structure reports for the Wisconsin State Capital restoration project. He lives in the 100-year-old George Wolf House in Waukesha’s McCall Historic District with his wife and three boys and frequently talks to community groups around the state on all aspects of Wisconsin history.
Dan Kaufman is the author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics, which was published by W.W. Norton in July 2018. The book was praised in reviews in The New York Times, NPR, and other national publications, while also earning the admiration of fellow reporters such as Jane Mayer, the author of “Dark Money.” “Through the microcosm of one state Dan Kaufman does a masterful job explaining what’s happened to America, and why,” Mayer wrote.
Kaufman has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The Nation among other publications. Originally from Wisconsin, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
Jesse Lee Kercheval is a poet, fiction writer, memoirist and translator. Her books include The Alice Stories, winner of the Prairie Schooner Fiction Book Prize and the memoir Space, winner of the Alex Award from the American Library Association and The Dogeater, winner of the Associated Writing Programs Award in Short Fiction. Her latest books are the poetry collection America that Island off the coast of France, which won the Dorset Prize, and the short story collection Underground Women. She is also a translator, specializing in Uruguayan poetry. Her translations include The Invisible Bridge: Selected Poems of Circe Maia. She is also the editor of the anthology Trusting on the Wide Air: Poems of Uruguay. She is currently the Zona Gale Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Nan Kim is Associate Professor of Contemporary History and Public History Director in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she is the Co-coordinator of the Asian Studies Certificate. She is the author of Memory, Reconciliation, and Reunions in South Korea: Crossing the Divide, and her articles have appeared in The Journal of Asian Studies, Verge: Studies in Global Asias, The Asia-Pacific Journal, and The Routledge Handbook on Memory and Reconciliation in East Asia. Her research areas include dissent movements, peace activism, transnational public history, environmental humanities, and the history of the emotions. A focus of her work has been to provide a cultural interpretation and historical perspective on contemporary events in Korea that can otherwise be difficult for a broader audience to understand, including the 2010 Korean military crisis, the 2016-2017 Candlelight protest movement, and the inter-Korean peace process. Currently Nan Kim is a member of the editorial boards of Critical Asian Studies, Public History and Museum, and the Seoul Journal of Korean Studies. She also serves on the steering committee of the international peace organization Women Cross DMZ, which she represented as a delegate to the 2018 Vancouver Women’s Forum organized by the Nobel Women’s Initiative.
Maureen Leurck graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is the author of the novels Cicada Summer and Monarch Manor. Born and raised in the Chicago area, she currently lives there with her husband and three children.
Though Andrea Lochen had dreamed of being an author since the third grade, she didn’t realize creative writing was “an actual thing” until she stumbled upon the program at the University of Wisconsin as a college freshman. After graduating from college, she earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Michigan and later achieved her dream of becoming a published author.
Andrea is now the author of three novels: The Repeat Year, Imaginary Things, and Versions of Her. She teaches creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha, encouraging young writers to learn the craft and pursue their own writing dreams. She lives in Johnson Creek with her husband, two small children, and their adorably fluffy dog, Maddy. In her free time, she likes to bake cupcakes and cakes, see musicals and plays, and read as much as humanly possible.
Bobbie Malone has a PhD in American History from Tulane University, and her dissertation was published as Rabbi Max Heller: Reformer, Zionist, Southerner, 1860-1979. Moving to Madison to head the Office of School Services at the Society (1995-2011). She wrote and edited books for the state’s classrooms, including co-authoring Wisconsin: Our State, Our Story. Since retiring, she published the biography of children’s author/illustrator, Lois Lenski: Storycatcher. She is the author of Striding Lines: The Unique Story Quilts of Rumi O’Brien, to be published this fall, and she and her husband Bill have written Nashville’s Songwriting Sweethearts: The Boudleaux and Felice Bryant Story, which will appear next spring.
Ron Riekki’s books include U.P.: a novel (Ghost Road Press) and Posttraumatic: A Memoir (Hoot ‘n’ Waddle), as well as the upcoming hybrid collection My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction (Loyola University Maryland’s Apprentice House Press, 2019) and the poetry book i have been warned not to write about this (Main Street Rag, 2020). Riekki edited Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice (Michigan State University Press, with Andrea Scarpino), The Many Lives of The Evil Dead: Essays on the Cult Film Franchise (McFarland, with Jeff Sartain), And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917-2017 (MSU Press), Here: Women Writing on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (MSU Press, Independent Publisher Book Award), The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works (Wayne State University Press, Michigan Notable Book). He has anthologies upcoming with McFarland, WSU Press, and MSU Press. His fiction has been published in The Threepenny Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Wigleaf, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Akashic Books, Juked, New Ohio Review, Cleaver, Puerto del Sol, and many other literary journals. Riekki’s story “Accidents” received the 2016 Shenandoah Fiction Prize and “The Family Jewel” was selected for The Best Small Fictions 2015. Riekki acts in the movie Short Straw (director Steve Balderson) with Joe Pantoliano and Rockmond Dunbar and has the title role in the upcoming horror film Flesher (director John Johnson, Eternal Ground Films) with Erica Mary Gillheeney and Kirsten Ray.
Andrea Rothman is the author of the novel The DNA of You and Me published by HarperCollins March 12, 2019. Prior to becoming a fiction writer, Andrea was a research scientist. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and was a reader and fiction editor for the journal Hunger Mountain. Her short stories have appeared in print and online journals such as Lablit, Cleaver Magazine, and Litro Magazine. She lives with her husband and two children in Long Island, New York, and is at work on her second novel.
Sara Sarna is a poet residing in Southeastern Wisconsin, where she put down roots later in life as a result of a military family and theatre background. Along with her husband she has raised one son and two dogs. She has worked in child care, private school administration, banking, and healthcare to support her theatre and poetry habits. Her poetry has been published in print and online by Screamin Mamas Magazine and The Avocet, in print alone in the Bards Against Hunger 5th Anniversary Edition and subsequent Wisconsin edition, the Wisconsin Writers Association Creative Literary Journal for 2017 and 2018, online at YourDailyPoem.com, and used in Write On Door County’s performance of Words on Water, to name, well, most of them. Anytime she is able to use one of her passions to further a cause important to her, she is thrilled to play a part. Her blog can be found at thisiswhatimsayin.wordpress.org.
Teresa Schueller was raised in a small town in SE Wisconsin. She has always been fascinated by nature as well as an avid reader. She received her Master’s Degree in Zoology from the University of Hawaii, and her PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison in Zoology and Entomology. She has been teaching in the UW System since 2011. Through her research she has studied a variety of taxa from wolf spiders living on the lava fields in Hawaii, to Central American wasps, to specialized prairie gall-forming wasps from the Midwest. Currently, she’s a professor of Biological Sciences at UWM at Waukesha and also serves as the Director of the UWM at Waukesha Field Station.
Lila (Lerdahl) Schwenk had a passion for writing since a teenager. She finally took it seriously, when in her mid-40’s. She joined AllWriters’ Workplace and Workshop in Waukesha, WI, in the 1990’s.
When Lila saw her brother, Larry, at a family reunion in Colorado in 2000, (sober for many years) he began telling her how he’d messed up his life with alcohol and two failed marriages. All he wanted was a family, but once that was gone, he believed he was the loser his father told him was since he was a kid. Lila remembered her brother as a kind and caring person. So, with Larry’s permission, she took on the task of writing his life story.
Her book, Penalties of the Truth, begins when Larry is just a boy and was thrown into a confrontation well beyond his years, because of witnessing his father’s infidelity. Repercussions of this event affected him emotionally for most of his life. Alcoholism led to living on the streets and eventually to prison. While incarcerated, Larry found redemption and peace that transformed him into a new person.
A story from the book was published in Rosebud, a literary magazine out of Cambridge, WI. Today’s Wisconsin Woman of Greater Milwaukee ran Lila’s story of her firsthand experience in New York City on 9/11.
Lila is a member of the Wisconsin Writers’ Association. She is a retired executive assistant and lives in Waukesha, WI., with her husband, Bill.
Stephen H. Segal is the coauthor of Geek Wisdom and Geek Parenting and the Hugo Award–winning former editorial director of Weird Tales magazine. His newest book, coauthored with his partner Valya Dudycz Lupescu, is Forking Good: An Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of The Good Place (Quirk Books, October 2019). Stephen has edited award-winning food writers at Philadelphia Weekly, WQED Pittsburgh, and InPittsburgh Weekly. He currently writes about death-related topics as senior editor at Legacy.com, the world’s largest online hub of obituaries.
Patricia Skalka is the award-winning author of the Dave Cubiak Door County mysteries: Death Stalks Door County; Death at Gills Rock; Death in Cold Water—winner of the Edna Ferber Fiction Award; Death Rides the Ferry; and, most recently, Death by the Bay.
Skalka’s work has earned a starred review from the Library Journal and praise from the New York Journal of Books, Midwest Book Review, Booklist, and Mystery Scene Magazine. Publishers Weekly says that she “writes with unusually rich detail about her story’s setting and with unflinching empathy for her characters.” Kirkus Reviews calls the series “first-rate.”
Previously as a nonfiction writer, Skalka wrote for Reader’s Digest and other national print and online magazines. She is president of Sisters in Crime Chicagoland and a member of the Wisconsin chapter, The Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, Wisconsin Writers Association, and Society of Midland Authors.
Skalka divides her time between Chicago and Door County.
Catrina J. Sparkman is the owner of the Ironer’s Press, a small, boutique publishing company serving the needs of today’s Christian market. Catrina has also carved out a successful career niche for herself as an authorpreneur of several works of fiction and non-fiction, including such works as, Doing Business with God, Divine Revelation for a Twitter Generation, Passing Through Waters, Opening the Floodgates and The Fire This Time.
Sparkman is a grassroots community theater artist and the author of two original stage plays and one screenplay, Mother Love, The Cinderella Show and The Gospel According to Ruth. She is also a producer who has directed many experimental theatrical pieces including such titles as: Written By Himself—Positive Depictions of Men of Color, and Mary Lou Williams Remember Me.
Catrina is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison with a Bachelors of Arts in English, Creative Writing, and a Masters in African American Studies. When she’s not creating her own art, she works as an instructor of Theatre and Drama for the University of Wisconsin Madison, a content writer, workshop trainer, public speaker, and theatrical consultant for various national and international organizations. Catrina makes her home in Madison, WI with her husband, their three beautiful children, and the sweetest Doberman in the world named Haley. You can find her books all over the web wherever books are sold.
Chris Sturdevant is a children’s librarian from Milwaukee, WI. He studied history and physics at Carroll University. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran and chairman of the Cold War Museum – Midwest Chapter in Washington, D.C. Chris has also represented Team USA in master’s level track championships on three continents. His travels have taken him to North Korea, Chernobyl and Afghanistan.
Kim Suhr is the author of the short story collection, Nothing to Lose (Cornerstone Press, 2018) and Maybe I’ll Learn: Snapshots of a Novice Mom (KDP, 2012). She is also Director of Red Oak Writing, an organization supporting writers of all levels, from youth through adults. Her work has appeared in various literary journals and in the anthology, Family Stories from the Attic (Hidden Timber Press, 2017). She has presented at local, regional, and national writing conferences. Kim holds an MFA in Fiction from the Solstice Program in Boston where she was the Dennis Lehane Fellow. Kim serves on the Board of the Wisconsin Writers Association (WWA).
Dee Sweet served as WI’s 2nd Poet Laureate (2004-08), and writes both poetry and fiction. She also works as First Nations Organizer for WI Conservation Voters, and is a cook for a soup kitchen in Green Bay. Her fifth book, Palominos Near Tuba City, was released by Holy Cow! Press in April 2018. www.deesweet.com
Angie Trudell Vasquez received her MFA in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has been published in: Taos Journal of Poetry, Yellow Medicine Review, Raven Chronicles, Return to the Gathering Place of the Waters, and Cloudthroat among other journals and anthologies. She has a page and poems from her first two books on the Poetry Foundation’s website, and was a Ruth Lilly fellow as an undergraduate at Drake University. She has new work forthcoming from RED INK: International Journal of Indigenous Literature, Arts & Humanities.
She says, “I have been writing poems since I was seven years old. Poetry is a way of life for me. Twice I have been nominated for a Pushcart, for a poem and for an essay now. Writing is a way of life for me, reading too. I was fortunate to have parents, Greg and Cherry, who read to my nightly, and to have stories spill out on the kitchen table growing up. I learned early I had a voice. I have written op eds that have reached millions. My poems have been published on stage and internationally. I worked with a voice coach when I was the featured poet for the Latina Monologues and developed my big voice learning to use my diaphragm reciting poems on my bike and while in plank position.
“I grew up in Iowa. I am a second and third generation Iowan. I have lived for long stretches in Seattle, Washington and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I currently live in Madison, Wisconsin and with my partner Devin bought a house, and for the first time in my life have my own study, a room of my own again, to dream in, write in, and meditate. I was so fortunate to have gone to the Institute of American Indian Arts and to have studied with Joan Kane, Sherwin Bitsui and Santee Frazier. My colleagues at IAIA shaped my poems and me in beautiful and wonderful ways, and challenged me. I am forever grateful to Jon Davis for accepting me into the program. I am eternally grateful to my husband for his support, and to my sisters Tricia and Sorral, and their children, who have inspired many a poem.”
Kirk Tyvela is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee/Washington County. His recently published book, The Dictator Dilemma: The United States and Paraguay in the Cold War (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019) provides a case study of the foreign policy/diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship (1954-1989).
He moved to Wisconsin in 2008 for the promise of a job and especially for the holy trinity of beer, brats, and cheese. He and his wife, Anne, live in West Bend with their two daughters, Lillian and Gracie.
The poems of Lisa Vihos have appeared in numerous journals both print and online including Big Muddy, Blue Heron Review, Bramble, Forge, Mom Egg, New Verse News, Portage, Seems, Verse Wisconsin, and Wisconsin People and Ideas. She has two Pushcart Prize nominations and four chapbooks, the most recent, Fan Mail from Some Flounder (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2018). She is the Poetry and Arts Editor of Stoneboat Literary Journal and the Sheboygan organizer for 100 Thousand Poets for Change. She compiled the anthology, Van Gogh Dreams (HenschelHAUS Publishing, 2018) and co-edited with Dawn Hogue, From Everywhere a Little: A Migration Anthology (Water’s Edge Press, 2019).
Ed Werstein, a regional VP of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, is also the WFOP representative on the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission. Werstein was awarded the 2018 Lorine Niedecker Prize for Poetry by the Council For Wisconsin Writers. His work has appeared in Stoneboat, Blue Collar Review, Gyroscope Review, among other publications, and is forthcoming in Rosebud. His 2018 book, A Tar Pit To Dye In, is available from Kelsay Books. His chapbook, Who Are We Then? was published in 2013 by Partisan Press. Find out more here: edwerstein.com/