Category Archives: Adult Authors

After publishing 15 award winning novels as Lynn Leslie and Leslie Lynn, Sherrill Bodine has decided to be herself. She’s writing about her life in Chicago to reveal the heart beneath society’s glitter. She not only attends black-tie affairs and works on charity board projects, but is just as likely to be taking a grandchild to lunch and a movie. She’s happily married to John, with whom she eloped when she was an 18-year-old freshman in college. It was quite the scandal. They have four beautiful children and twelve grandchildren.

THE OTHER AMANDA won the Wisconsin Romance Writers of America Write Touch Readers’ Award and TALK OF THE TOWN was chosen by Cosmopolitan magazine as its “Red Hot Read” for February 2009. Sherrill’s latest book is ALL I WANT IS YOU, Grand Central Publishing. www.SherrillBodine.com

Estella Lauter is Professor Emerita at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh after thirty-two years of teaching and administering programs in the UW System, where she was known for her work on women and the arts. She published three books and many articles spanning literature, visual art, aesthetics, psychology and religion. She is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and the Academy of American Poets. Now  retired in the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin, she chairs the Democratic Party of Door County and does whatever she can to promote peace and justice for all forms of life. Her first chapbook, Pressing a Life Together By Hand (2007) appeared in the New Women’s Voices series from Finishing Line Press, and was nominated fro two Pushcart prizes.  The Essential Rudder: North Channel Poems was released by the same press in 2008. Her poem “Gaza, January 2009″ tied for first prize in the 2009 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Contest from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; it appears on www.wagingpeace.org.

Chuck Rybak lives in Wisconsin and is currently an Assistant Professor of English and Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay.  He is the author of two chapbooks, Nickel and Diming My Way Through and Liketown.  His full-length collection, Tongue and Groove, was released in 2007 by Main Street Rag.  Poems of his have appeared in The Cincinnati Review; Pebble Lake Review; War, Literature & the Arts; The Ledge; Southern Poetry Review; Verse Wisconsin; and other journals.

Kelly Barnhill is a teacher, writer and mom from Minneapolis. She writes fiction and non-fiction – things that are Literary and Speculative and Informative and Frightening and Odd. Sometimes she does all of these things at once. She’s the author of thirteen non-fiction titles for children, over thirty short stories for adults, and two novels for middle grade readers. She is hard at work on two more stand-alone novels and one series. Wish her luck. (She will need it.)

Jeanette Hurt is an award-winning author and writer who specializes in writing about food, wine and travel.  Her latest book is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sausage Making, and she also is the author of The Cheeses of Wisconsin: A Culinary Travel Guide, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wine and Food Pairing, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tapas.  Her work appears regularly in Wine Enthusiast, SecondAct.com, and The Four Seasons Magazine.  She also is the “cheese correspondent” for WUWM’s “The Lake Effect” radio program, and she teaches writing, wine and food pairing, and culinary education classes.  Follow her on Twitter or Facebook, and visit her web site, www.jeanettehurt.com.

Andrew M. Mclean, rare books expert and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, has taught classes on the history of printing & book collecting, and owned Martha Merrell’s Bookstore in Racine (WI). He has served as an appraiser and consultant to rare book librarians & archivists, appraising donations given to institutions such as the American Geological Society, Wisconsin State Historical Society, US Air Force Academy, NML Insurance Co., UW-Milwaukee Libraries, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Archives. He also appraises at the annual Milwaukee Public TV/ Channel 10 Appraisal Fair. He has published “The Appraiser and the Appraisal: What Makes a Book Valuable?” in Libraries, Museums and Archives. Legal Issues & Ethical Challenges in the New Information Era, ed. T.A. Lipinski (Scarecrow Press, 2002), pp. 31-45.

G. K. Wuori is the author of over a hundred stories published throughout the world in the U.S., Japan, India, Germany, Spain, Algeria, Ireland, and Brazil.  A Pushcart Prize winner and recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, his work has appeared in such journals as The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review, The Barcelona Review, Shenandoah, The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, StoryQuarterly, The Massachusetts Review, Mad Hatters Review, TriQuarterly, The Battered Suitcase, and Five Points.  His story collection, Nude In Tub, was a New Voices Award Nominee by the Quality Paperback Book Club and his novel, An American Outrage, was Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year in fiction. His most recent publication is the novella, Now That I’m Ready To Tell You Everything.  He is Associate Editor of the literary journal, Kippis, and currently lives in DeKalb, Illinois where he writes a monthly column called Cold Iron at www.gkwuori.com.

Angela Maycock serves as Assistant Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association. She provides guidance and support to librarians, teachers, and others on the application of ALA’s intellectual freedom policies and the First Amendment in situations involving challenges to materials and services in the library. She also undertakes projects to educate librarians and the general public about intellectual freedom issues through speaking engagements, conference programming, and outreach initiatives. Angela is passionate about connecting librarians with the resources they need to confront the complex challenges to intellectual freedom in libraries today. Prior to her work at ALA, Angela served as Reference and Instruction Librarian at the Michigan State University Libraries. She received her M.S. degree in Library Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her B.A. from Penn State University.

Angela Sorby received her PhD from the University of Chicago and is currently Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Marquette University.   She is the author of three books, Distance Learning (poems, New Issues Press, 1998); Schoolroom Poets (criticism, UPNE, 2005); and Bird Skin Coat (poems, U of Wisconsin Press, 2009), which won the Brittingham Prize, the Midwest Book Award for Poetry, a National Fellowship of Poets Merit Citation, and Outstanding Poetry Title Recognition from the Wisconsin Library Association.  Among her other honors are a Fulbright fellowship, the Lorine Niedecker prize, and a Discovery/”The Nation” prize.  She lives in Milwaukee with her husband and three children.

Involved in law enforcement for over 15 years, Gale Borger has a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’s Degree in Education.  A Master Gardener, she says she loves all things green as well as screwball comedy, classical music, classic cars and classic rock.

Gale and her husband live in Southeastern Wisconsin along with a Dogue de Bordeaux, two cats, freshwater tropical fish and a Leopard Gecko named Ellie.

Gale’s newest title, Totally Fish (Echelon Press, 2011) is the second in the Miller Sisters Mysteries Series.

My name is Jerry Kiesow, my wife and I live in Grafton.  For the majority of my life, I was employed in the printing industry.  During those years I developed and operated a stock photo business and did a little writing.  After retirement, I began learning and expanding my writing and photo business.  Presently, I write regular columes for The News Graphic, On Wisconsin Outdoors, and MidWest Outdoors.  I also do assignment work for anyone who will read my words and/or enjoy my images.

I conduct outdoor workshops which include fly tying, fly fishing, and digital photography. These workshops utilize the skills I have learned over several decades.  Interestingly, at least for me, is that with each class I continue to learn along with the students.  I enjoy doing these, because as I share some of my experiences, hopefully, I also encourage others to find ways to enjoy the outdoors properly – with respect.  For details, and to follow my activities, check out my website: www.jerrykiesowoc.com.

Keep a good thought!

TED HERTEL, JR., a Wisconsin attorney, is a past president of MWA Midwest, serving for two years on its National Board. He co-chaired Bouchercon ’99 and was local arrangements chair for EyeCon ‘95, both in Milwaukee. His published writings include a biographical essay on Linda Barnes (St. James Guide); two essays on Ellery Queen: Queen’s Gambit (The Tragedy of Errors), a critical examination of the themes in the Queen novels, and a biographical essay, Ellery Queen: The American Detective Mystery (CrimeSpree); the biographical essay, T as in Treat: Alphabet Crimes of Lawrence Treat (CrimeSpree).  He contributed an essay to the Anthony and Macavity Award-winning book Mystery Muses. His short fiction includes My Bonnie Lies . . . (The Mammoth Book of Legal Thrillers; received Anthony and Macavity nominations; received Robert L. Fish Edgar Award for Best First Short Mystery Story by an American Author); It’s Crackers to Slip a Rozzer the Dropsey in Snide (Small Crimes; Anthony nominee; Honorable Mention, Sternig Short Fiction competition).  His latest publication is the short story The Town at the End of the Road (West Coast Crime Wave). Later this year The Name of the Dame will be published in the Murder and Mayhem in Muskego anthology. Hertel is also a reviewer for Deadly Pleasures magazine.

Wendy Vardaman, wendyvardaman.com, is Poet Laureate (with Sarah Busse) of Madison, WI and co-editor/webmaster of Verse Wisconsin, versewisconsin.org, and Cowfeather Press, cowfeatherpress.org. She is the author of Obstructed View (Fireweed Press 2009) and co-editor of the 2013 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar. In addition to poetry, she writes essays and interviews, which have appeared in Poetry Daily, Women’s Review of Books, and Poets.org, as well as other venues. She has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and works part-time for The Young Shakespeare Players. With husband, Thomas DuBois, she has three children and does not own a car.

Bruce Dethlefsen, Cathryn Cofell & Bill Orth are scheduled to perform at the Festival as Obvious Dog

Bill Orth is an accomplished guitarist, bassist and vocalist who has been playing and performing for more than 40 years. He also composes music and has recorded one cd of original music with the band, annaranaway and another with Cathryn Cofell and Obvious Dog. He and Bruce Dethlefsen have been performing together for more than 10 years, the last 3 of which have been as Obvious Dog. In his other life he is the Director of Human Services for Sauk County.

Lisa Lickel is a Wisconsin writer who lives with her husband in a hundred and sixty-year-old house built by a Great Lakes ship captain. Surrounded by books and dragons, she writes inspiring fiction. Her published novels include mystery and romance, all with a twist of grace. She edits, writes book reviews and interviews, and has penned dozens of feature newspaper stories, short stories, magazine articles and radio theater. She is the editor in chief of Creative Wisconsin magazine and of OtherSheep, a Christian sci fi/fantasy magazine. Lisa also enjoys blogging at theBarnDoor.net and ReflectionsinHindsight.wordpress.com. She loves to encourage new authors. Find her at LisaLickel.com.

Jacqueline “Jackie” Maggiore was raised in Appleton, WI, where she and Sister Carla (Carol Piette) became lifelong friends. A graduate of Marquette University, she earned an MSW degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She and her late husband Anthony raised their family in Milwaukee. Grandmother of three and retired from a social work career, she lives in Glendale, WI where she is active with Maryknoll Affiliates, Gesu Parish, and local peace and justice efforts. She began Vessel of Clay as a personal tribute to her friend, but found a deeper appreciation for Carla through her contacts with Carla’s colleagues and travels to El Salvador and Chile. She has co-authored another biography, a tribute to lay missioner Mary McCormick, currently pending publication.

Tracey Devlyn writes historical romantic thrillers (translation: a slightly more grievousjourney toward the heroine’s happy ending). Tracey’s also co-founder of Romance University, a group blog dedicated to readers and writers of romance, and Lady Jane’s Salon-Naperville, Chicagoland’s exciting new reading salon devoted to romantic fiction.

An Illinois native, Tracey spends her evenings harassing her once-in-a-lifetime husband and her weekends torturing her characters. For more information on Tracey, including her Internet haunts, contest updates, and details on her upcoming novels, please visit her website at:

TraceyDevlyn.com |  Twitter.com/TraceyDevlyn

Facebook.com/AuthorTraceyDevlyn |LadyJanesSalonNaperville.com

Daniel  P. Coughlin was born and raised in a small town in southern Wisconsin.  At the age of 19 he joined the United States Marine Corps and served four and a half years as a Machinegunner in the infantry.  After being Honorably discharged, Daniel attended and graduated from California State University at Long Beach.  While studying screenwriting under the mentorship of acclaimed writer Brian Alan Lane, he also interned and served as a script analyst for his favorite director Wes Craven.

Daniel is the author of two commercially successful films —  Lake Dead, which was selected as one of After Dark Film’s 8 Films to Die For, and Farmhouse, starring A-List film and television star Steven Weber (Wings, Deperation, Single White Female).  He has sold numerous short stories to such publications as Strange Tales of Horror, Macabre Cadaver Magazine, and Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine.  Daniel was hailed by Macabre Cadaver Magazine as, “A Promising New Voice in Old School Horror.”

SARA RATH is a versatile, award-winning author with over a dozen books in a variety of genres, including four volumes of poetry, seven nonfiction books (including three biographies) and is currently writing her third novel.  Critics have said she has a “wicked sense of humor,” and her work is sometimes “laugh out loud funny.”  The New York Times Book Review said The Complete Pig, published May, 2000 (paperback ed. 2004), “contains enough eccentric pig lore to leave the browser giddy with pleasure.

Jerry Apps, born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of more than 30 books, many of them on rural history and country life. His nonfiction books include: Living a Country Year, Every Farm Tells a Story, When Chores Were Done, Humor from the Country, Country Ways and Country Days, One-Room Schools, Cheese, Breweries of Wisconsin, Ringlingville USA (History of Ringling Brothers circus), Old Farm: A History, Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days: A Century of Farming With Horses, and Campfires and Loon Calls. His children’s books include: Stormy, Eat Rutabagas, Tents, Tigers and the Ringling Brothers, and Casper Jaggi: Master Swiss Cheese Maker. He has an audio book, The Back Porch and Other Stories. Jerry has published four novels, The Travels of Increase Joseph, In a Pickle: A Family Farm Story, Blue Shadows Farm and Cranberry Red. Jerry is a former publications editor for UW-Extension, an acquisitions editor for the McGraw-Hill Book Company, and editor of a national professional journal.

Jerry has won awards for his writing from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Library Association (the 2007 Notable Authors Award), American Library Association, Foreword Magazine, Midwest Independent Publishers Association, Robert E. Gard Foundation, The Wisconsin Council for Writers (the 2007 Major Achievement Award), Upper Midwest Booksellers, and Barnes and Noble Bookstores, among others. In 2010 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.  Check www.jerryapps.com for more information.

Dave Thome’s romance novel was published in November 2011 through Kindle Select Publishing. He also published a companion book, Man Writing a Romance, a collection of essays based on the blog in which he chronicled writing Fast Lane. Before he turned to novel writing, he wrote 20 screenplays, including four that were optioned by film production companies. He is in the process of making some of those screenplays available through Amazon, and plans to publish his second novel, Chick Flick, a dark and twisted, kind of sort of romance, this summer.

Dave is a past President of the Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum. His writing has won state and national awards.

Ronnie Hess is an award-winning journalist who has had a long and passionate interest in food, especially French food. She is the author of Eat Smart in France, a culinary travel guide that has received much praise and won several honors. Ronnie lived and worked in France as a reporter for CBS News and as a teacher and she visits the country often. Her food and travel writing has appeared in national and regional newspapers and magazines. Ronnie studied cooking with Liane Kuony at The Postilion Restaurant and School of Culinary Arts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and for several years sold French-style tarts at Madison-area farmers’ markets under the name 4&20 Blackbirds. A poet, Ronnie is also the author of Whole Cloth: A Poem Cycle. She lives in Madison.

Mark Zubro, born in Racine, Wisconsin, is the author of twenty-two mystery novels and five short stories. His book A Simple Suburban Murder won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men’s mystery. He taught eighth graders English and reading for thirty-four years. He was president of the teachers’ union in his school district from 1985 until 2006. He retired from teaching in 2006 and now spends his time reading, writing, napping, and eating chocolate.

One of the keys in Zubro’s mysteries is you do not want to be a person who is racist, sexist, homophobic, or a school administrator. If you are any of those, it is likely you are the corpse, or, at the least, it can be fairly well guaranteed that bad things will happen to you by the end. And if in Zubro’s books you happen to be a Republican and/or against workers’ rights, it would be far better if you did not make a habit of broadcasting this. If you did, you’re quite likely to be a suspect, or worse.

Hailed as “very talented for his young years,” Benjamin Schoening is one of the up–and–coming musical talents of his generation. Although gifted with a rare and beautiful lyric baritone voice, Benjamin chose to begin his musical career as an orchestral French Horn player and later became a conductor; thus he is beginning his singing career later than most singers do.  However, his combination of talents and unusual abilities has allowed him to gain a unique insight into the music he performs and has caused immediate success as a singer.

Benjamin has enjoyed much success as a recitalist throughout the United States and Europe. Most recently he has performed recitals in the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Alabama.  His particular area of interest as an Art Song Recitalist is songs in the English language. His love for and understanding of poetry inspires his work in that area.

In addition to performing, Benjamin is a devoted teacher. He has served as a guest clinician for many events in the Midwest and Southwest United States and served as conductor of the 2007 Arizona Northeast Regional Honors Orchestra.  He is the former director of musical activities and professor of music at Northland Pioneer College (Arizona). Currently, Benjamin is presently an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin – Barron County, where he is Director of Campus Musical Activities, Director of the Holiday Festival, and Music Director/Conductor of the Red Cedar Choir.

Before coming to UW-Barron County, Eric was previously employed as a teaching assistant, lecturer, and adjunct professor at UW-Eau Claire, UW-Madison, and UW-Milwaukee. His areas of expertise are American politics, judicial politics, public law, political theory, and international relations.

Eric and colleague Benjamin Schoening recently published the book Don’t Stop Thinking about the Music: The Politics of Songs and Musicians in Presidential Campaigns (Lexington Books, 2012), which traces the use of music in presidential campaigns from the nation’s founding through the 2008 election. Eric’s first book, To Secure the Liberty of the People: James Madison’s Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court’s Interpretation (Northern Illinois University Press, 2010), explores Madison’s political theory when he drafted the Bill of Rights and compares it to how Supreme Court jusitices have used Madison as an authority when deciding cases.

Eric has also authored or co-authored in peer-reviewed journals including “Barron County Restorative Justice: The Role One Program Played in Reducing Juvenile Crime and Restoring Lives” (co-authored with Mary Hoeft, Protecting Children, 2009) and “The Influence of Magna Carta in Limiting Executive Power in the War on Terror” (Political Science Quarterly, 2011-12).

Eric is a former member of the Rice Lake City Council and currently serves as the Rice Lake Municipal Judge. He is also an attorney and a member of the Wisconsin Bar Association.    He lives in Rice Lake with his wife Julie, and their children, Maddie and Jackson. His hobbies include playing chess, and watching the Packers, Badgers, and Brewers.

Dean A. Kowalski received his A.B. from Ripon College and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; he is currently an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha. Specializing in the philosophy of religion, he has published research articles in such journals as Religious Studies and Philosophy and Theology. He is the author of Classic Questions and Contemporary Film: An Introduction to Philosophy (McGraw-Hill, 2004) and Moral Theory at the Movies: An Introduction to Ethics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011).  He as edited (and contributed to) three philosophy and pop culture books for the University Press of Kentucky: The Philosophy of The X-Files (2007, paperback 2009), Steven Spielberg and Philosophy (2008, paperback 2010), and The Philosophy of Joss Whedon (2011). Most recently, he has edited (and contributed to) The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Aristotle, Locke (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, 2012). He is married (Patricia) and has two children, Nicholas and Cassie.

Annelise Ryan is the pseudonym for the author of the Mattie Winston mystery series: WORKING STIFF (2009), SCARED STIFF (2010), FROZEN STIFF (2011), LUCKY STIFF (2012), and BORED STIFF (2013). She also had three suspense novels published by HarperCollins in the nineties under her real name (Beth Amos) and has a contract for three books in a new mystery series to be published under the pseudonym Allyson K. Abbott, featuring a Milwaukee based bartender named Mackenzie Dalton, the first of which is tentatively titled MURDER ON THE ROCKS. She has written more than 200 published articles, worked as a book reviewer for Barnes & Noble, and is an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She is an RN whose past work experience has included everything from birth (obstetrics) to death (hospice). She currently works in an ER and enjoys a number of side hobbies, including competitive Scrabble, stained glass, and scuba diving.

Jess Lourey is the author of the Lefty-nominated Murder-by-Month mysteries set in Battle Lake, Minnesota, and featuring amateur sleuth, Mira James. November Hunt, the seventh in the series, hit shelves March 2012. In a starred review, Booklist says, “It’s not easy to make people laugh while they’re on the edge of their seats, but Lourey pulls it off!” Jess has also been teaching writing and sociology at the college level since 1998.

When not raising her wonderful kids, teaching, or writing, you can find her gardening, traveling, and navigating the niceties and meanities of small-town life. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, The Loft, and Lake Superior Writers, and serves on the national board of Mystery Writers of America.

Adrienne Giordano writes romantic suspense and women’s fiction.  She is a Jersey girl at heart, but now lives in the Midwest with her workaholic husband, sports obsessed son and Buddy the Wheaten Terrorist (Terrier). She is a co-founder of Romance University blog. For more information on Adrienne’s books please visit www.AdrienneGiordano.com.

Adrienne can also be found on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/AdrienneGiordanoAuthor and Twitter  http://twitter.com/AdriennGiordano.

Anne Laughlin is the author of Veritas, which won a 2010 Goldie award in the Mystery category. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies from Cleis Press, Alyson Books, Bold Strokes Books and others. Runaway, her next novel with Bold Strokes Books, will be published in March 2012.

In 2008 Anne was named an Emerging Writer Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation. She has been accepted into writing residencies at the Ragdale Foundation (2009) and Vermont Studio Center for the Arts (2010).

Anne lives in Chicago with her partner, Linda.

John Klima previously worked at Asimov’s, Analog, and Tor Books before returning to school to earn his Master’s in Library and Information Science. He now works full time as a librarian. When he is not conquering the world of indexing, John edits and publishes the Hugo Award-winning genre zine Electric Velocipede. As of 2010, the magazine has also been nominated for the World Fantasy Award four years in a row. In 2007, Klima edited an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories based on spelling-bee winning words called Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories. In 2011, Klima edited an anthology of retellings of fairytales for Night Shade Books. He and his family live in the Midwest.

Alex Bledsoe grew up in West Tennessee an hour north of Graceland (home of Elvis) and twenty minutes from Nutbush (birthplace of Tina Turner). He now lives in a century-old yellow house in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls.  His books include The Hum and the Shiver, Dark Jenny, Burn Me Deadly and The Girls with Games of Blood.

Swimming in the Daylight: An American Student, a Soviet-Jewish Dissident, and the Gift of Hope is the story of the improbable friendship between Lisa Paul, an American college student, strong in her Catholic faith, and Inna Kitrosskaya Meiman, a Soviet-Jewish dissident, which takes place in the repressive 1980s Moscow, just before Soviet Union came apart at the seems.

Swimming in the Daylight has received a positive review from Booklist Review and has been recommended by Anne Garrels of National Public Radio. Ms. Paul has been featured on MPTV’s I remember Milwaukee and has been interviewed by Jean Feraca on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Here on Earth.

Raised in Appleton, Ms. Paul lived in Moscow from 1983-1985. After obtaining a Russian Studies degree from the University of Minnesota in 1986, she worked for two organizations committed to improving U.S.-Soviet relations. She then attended Marquette University Law School and is now a civil litigation attorney in Milwaukee, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.

Editor and award-winning author J.R. Turner is a huge fan of all things fun and thrilling. She gets a kick out of surprising her kids and loves to tell goofy jokes—that aren’t always funny. She lives in Wisconsin, a state known for cheese, bratwurst, and beer—and 1001 recipes for Cheesy Bratwurst Beer Soup. Between writing and editing books, enjoying the outdoors, cooking exotic recipes like Kitty Litter Cake, and trying her hand at all types of arts and crafts, her life is one adventure after another.  Visit http://www.jennifer-turner.com to learn more.

John Galligan is the author of The Wind Knot (February, 2011), fourth in a series of mysteries featuring a wandering trout bum who becomes a reluctanct sleuth when bodies turn up on the stream. The first in the series, The Nail Knot, is “a real treat” (Library Journal) set in Black Earth, Wisconsin. The second, The Blood Knot, is a “superbly told tale” (Kirkus) and winner of Crime Spree Magazine’s 2005 Book of the Year. The third novel in series, The Clinch Knot, is a “stunning…excursion into the wilds of human frailty” (Publisher’s Weekly). Galligan’s debut novel, Red Sky, Red Dragonfly (2000) is a “smart and fast-paced novel” (Capital Times) and a “humorous and original tale spanning two continents…a winner” (Japan Times). He lives and teaches college writing in Madison, Wisconsin.

Mary Rickert grew up in Fredonia, Wisconsin. She is the author of the World Fantasy Award winning short story collection, “Map of Dreams.” Her work has been anthologized in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, The Very Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Interfictions 2, Best American Fantasy 2, Poe’s Children, and the library of America’s American Fantastic Tales, amongst others.   Her latest collection, “Holiday” was released in by Golden Gryphon Press in 2010.  She lives in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Called the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post and a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan, Reed Farrel Coleman is the former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America. He has published thirteen novels in three series and one stand-alone, Tower, co-authored by award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen. Reed has been a three-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best Novel and has been twice nominated for the Edgar© Award. He has also received the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. He was the editor of the short story anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn and is the co-editor of the poetry journal The Lineup. His short fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in Long Island Noir, Dublin Noir, The Darker Mask, Crimespree Magazine, The Cincinnati Poet’s Collective, Poetry Bone, and several other publications. Reed is an adjunct professor of English at Hofstra University, teaches a creative writing seminar for gifted high school students, and helped develop MWA U. He lives with his family on Long Island. Visit his website: www.reedcoleman.com

Jeff Poniewaz & Antler

Jeff Poniewaz received a B.A. and M.A. in English from UW-Milwaukee, where since 1989 he’s taught “Literature of Ecological Vision,” a course he devised.  His eco-activism spans from local urban greenspace struggles to the global rainforest crisis. Since his first published poems appeared in Kaleidoscope and Beloit Poetry Journal in 1968, his poems have also appeared in Earth First!, Greenpeace Chronicles, Los Angeles Times,  Blake Times, Exquisite Corpse, Viet Nam Generation, New York Quarterly and numerous other periodicals.  His collection of eco-writings spanning 1975-82, Dolphin Leaping in the Milky Way (Inland Ocean Books, 1986) was praised by Allen Ginsberg for its “impassioned prescient ecological Whitmanesque/Thoreauvian verve and wit.”

A collection of his subsequent eco writings is forthcoming, as well as a volume of selected poems on miscellaneous subjects spanning from 1965 to the present.  His poems have appeared in a many anthologies, including Earth Prayers (1991), Prayers at 3 A.M. (1995) and Prayers for a Thousand Years—Blessings and Expressions of Hope for the New Millennium (1999), all three published by HarperSanFrancisco, and The Soul Unearthed—Celebrating Wildness and Personal Renewal through Nature (Tarcher, 1996).  Lawrence Ferlinghetti called Jeff’s epic “September 11, 2001” the “best poem I’ve seen on 9/11.”  Extensive excerpts from it were published in September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (William Heyen, ed.), An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind—Poets on 9/11 (Allen Cohen, ed.), and in Van Gogh’s Ear out of Paris.  He has taught and performed poetry at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, the Kerouac Poetics School in Boulder and at Antioch College in Ohio.  He won a 1987 “Discovery Award” from PEN, the international writers’ organization.  In addition to the Eco Lit course he has taught since 1989, since 1999 he has taught a course on Whitman and poets inspired by Whitman.  His last name is pronounced POE-nYEAH-vAHsh and is Polish for “because.”

Jeff Poniewaz & Antler

Antler’s epic poem Factory was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in the City Lights Pocket Poet Series in 1980.  Antler’s book Last Words was published by Ballantine in 1986.  Antler: The Selected Poems was published in 2000.  Allen Ginsberg called Antler “one of Whitman’s ‘poets and orators to come’.”   Antler won the 1987 Witter Bynner Prize awarded annually “to an outstanding younger poet” by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in New York City, and the 1985 Walt Whitman Award, given annually to an author “whose contribution best reveals the continuing presence of Walt Whitman in American poetry.”  The citation accompanying the Whitman Award stated: “His poems make audible the words of the earth, with original energy, insouciance, and affectionate comradeliness toward all beings.”

Antler’s poems have appeared in hundreds of periodicals, including: City Lights Review, New Directions Journal, Whole Earth Review, Utne Reader, Exquisite Corpse, New York Quarterly, Wilderness and The Sun.  His poems have also appeared in dozens of anthologies, including Erotic by Nature,  Son of the Male Muse,  Earth Prayers,  The Soul Unearthed–Celebrating Wildness and Personal Renewal through Nature,  Wild Song–Poems of the Natural World,  What Book!?–Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop,  The Journey Home: The Literature of Wisconsin through Four Centuries,  and  American Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century.

He has taught at Esalen Institute in California,  Omega Institute outside New York City,  Antioch College in Ohio,  and the Kerouac Poetics School in Boulder.

He was chosen by Friends of Milwaukee Public Library to be Milwaukee’s poet laureate during 2002-04.   In 2003 the Councilof Wisconsin Writers chose him to receive its Major Achievement Award.  In 2004 he received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from UW-Milwaukee, from which he received a BA in Anthropology in 1969 and an MA in English in 1970.  When not wildernessing or traveling to teach and perform poetry, he lives near the Milwaukee River in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Victoria Houston is the author of the Loon Lake Mystery Series — DEAD MADONNA, DEAD HOT SHOT, DEAD RENEGADE, DEAD DECEIVER and DEAD TEASE.  DEAD TEASE, twelfth in the series, was published in hardcover, trade paperback and as an eBook for Kindle, Nook and iTunes by F & W Crime/Tyrus Books in March 2012.  The mysteries are set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin against a background of fishing – fly fishing as well as fishing for muskie, bass, bluegill and walleyes.  Houston’s mystery series has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation with Neal Conan”.

She has written six non-fiction books, including co-authoring RESTORE YOURSELF: A Woman’s Guide to Reviving Her Libido and Passion for Life (The Berkley Publishing Group/2001) with Dr. James Simon, immediate Past President of the North American Menopause Society.  An an award-winning author specializing in family issues, Houston’s has received significant national media attention.   She has been interviewed by most major newspapers and has appeared extensively on local television and radio in all major markets.

KATHIE GIORGIO’S short story collection, “Enlarged Hearts,” is due to be released in early 2012 by the Main Street Rag Publishing Company.  Her first novel, “The Home For Wayward Clocks,” was released on February 1, 2011, by the Main Street Rag Publishing Company as well.   Her short stories have appeared in Los Angeles Review, Harpur Palate, Fiction International, Dos Passos Review, Ars Medica, Thema, CutThroat, The Pedestal, St. Petersburg Review, Lowescroft Chronicle, Lalitamba, Riverrun Review, Alimentum, Evening Street Review, Frontstem, Bayou, Epiphany, Eclipse, Potomac Review, Arabesques Review, Hurricane Review, Oyez Review, Jabberwock Review, Karamu Review, Reed Magazine, The Binnacle, Licking River Review, Bellowing Ark, Hiss Quarterly, Midway Journal, The Externalist, Fogged Clarity, and many more.  She’s been anthologized by Papier Mache Press, Main Street Rag Publishing Company, EBibliotekos, Pill Hill Press and Susurrus Press.  Her poem, “In Retrospect,” appears now in Fearless Books’ newest anthology on love and touch and she has appeared in the Wisconsin Poets Calendar. She has been the featured author in Women Writers’ ezine.  She’s been nominated twice for the Million Writer Award and for the Best of the Net anthology.  Interviews with Kathie have appeared on NPR, in Poets & Writers magazine, and in several literary magazines. She is the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop, a creative writing studio.  She also teaches for Writers’ Digest and serves on their advisory board.