Suzanne Alexander, MD, has lived in Madison for over twenty-five years. After working many years as a general internist, she decided to focus on her family and writing. In addition to seeing her teenagers off to college, she is working on a growing collection of short stories and a novel. She is the director of Madison’s book club for the poor and homeless, and blogs about it at www.streetsofmadison.blogspot.com.

Douglas W. Jacobson is an engineer, business owner and World War Two history enthusiast who has traveled extensively in Europe researching stories of the courage of common people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. His debut novel, Night of Flames: A Novel of World War Two, won the 2008 “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Wisconsin Library Association. Doug writes a monthly column on Poland’s experience during WW2, and has published articles on European resistance and escape organizations during the war. Doug’s second historical novel, The Katyn Order, is a story of intrigue and danger, of love and human courage in the aftermath of one of history’s most notorious war crimes.

Robert Grede, BA, MBA, is a graduate of DePauw University and The Emory University School of Business.

Grede has been on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Carroll College, and Marquette University, a syndicated columnist and frequent contributor to magazines, and has authored the best selling Naked Marketing – The Bare Essentials and several other books on marketing and strategic planning.

He recently published his first novel, The Spur & The Sash, a true story of love, passion, and betrayal amid the anarchy of Middle Tennessee in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

Books

Naked Marketing – The Bare Essentials [Prentice Hall, 1997]
Naked Marketing – The Bare Essentials, 2^nd Ed. [Marquette University Press, 2005]
The 5 Kick-Ass Strategies (Every Business Needs) [SourceBooks, 2006]
The Spur & The Sash – A Novel [Three Towers Press, 2010]

Michael is the author of three critically acclaimed crime novels, The Chicago Way, The Fifth Floor and The Third Rail. His fourth novel, We All Fall Down, will be published by Knopf in the summer of 2011. Michael is also a documentary producer and co-creator, producer and executive producer of A&E’s groundbreaking forensic series, Cold Case Files.

Michael’s investigative journalism and documentary work has won multiple Emmys and CableACE awards, numerous national and international film festival awards, as well as an Academy Award nomination.

Michael holds a law degree with honors from Duke University, a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelors degree, magna cum laude, in classical languages from Holy Cross College.

Michael was born in Boston and lives in Chicago. He owns an Irish bar in Chicago, The Hidden Shamrock.

Dr. Craig W. Hurst has been a member of the UW-Waukesha faculty since January 1993.  In addition to his teaching duties, he also serves as Chair of the UW Colleges Music Department.  Hurst enjoys music of all genres, reading, cooking, bird watching, and professional football and baseball.

Dr. Phil Zweifel began teaching English at UW-Waukesha in 1976, and since 1995 he has also served as Associate Campus Dean.  His special interests include poetry, creative writing, the works of Mark Twain, golf, and the music of Bob Dylan.

Susan Masino is the author of Let There Be Rock -The Story of AC/DC, which is now published in ten languages. Susan has been a rock journalist for over thirty years. She also teaches a continuing education program on the History of Rock and Roll for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Susan appears in the Van Halen DVD, The Early Years. For interview and review requests, please contact Wes Seeley at wseeley@halleonard.com.

Robin L. Flanigan is an award-winning freelance writer whose work has appeared internationally. She lives with her husband and daughter in Rochester, New York, where she finds peace in practicing her personal mantra: Know what you want. Work hard to get it. Accept what comes next. (www.thekineticpen.com)

Amaud Jamaul Johnson’s first collection of poetry, Red Summer (Tupelo 2006), was selected by Carl Phillips as winner of the 2005 Dorset Prize. Educated at Howard University and Cornell University, his honors include a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, a Robert Frost Fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and three Pushcart nominations. His work has been published in New England Review, VQR, The Southern Review, Shenandoah, Indiana Review, Quarterly West, Eleven Eleven, and elsewhere.  He is currently an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Distinguished Senior Broadcaster, is host and executive producer of Here on Earth: Radio without Borders.  Feraca has received several honors including  the Nation’s Discovery Award and two Hopwood Awards.  Recipient of an Ohio State and Gabriel Award for her Women of Spirit radio series on female leaders in the early Christian Church, she also received the National Telemedia Council’s Distinguished Media Award for her radio advocacy of people with mental illness.  She is author of three collections of poetry South From Rome:  Il Mezzgiorno, Crossing the Great Divide; and Rendered into Paradise.  Her newest publication is I Hear Voices:  A Memoir of Love, Death and Radio.

Amanda Barnett has been in the publishing industry in one guise or another for over a decade.   The various hats she’s worn have been book reviewer, columnist, editor, public relations, published author and senior editor. She has been on the executive board for The Wild Rose Press since July of 2008 and with the company since 2007.  If there’s one thing she truly hates to see in a manuscript it’s head-hopping She loves to read romance just like a regular reader, and when it
comes to her personal take me away books, Amanda has several shelves of favorites in her home in the South.

Susan Elbe is the author of Eden in the Rearview Mirror (Word Press), which won Honorable Mention for the 2007 Council for Wisconsin Writers Posner Poetry Book Award, and a chapbook, Light Made from Nothing (Parallel Press). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including Blackbird, diode, MARGIE, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Salt Hill, A Fierce Brightness: Twenty-five Years of Women’s Poetry (Calyx Books), and On Retirement: 75 Poems (University of Iowa Press). Among her awards are the inaugural Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize (Calyx), the Council for Wisconsin Writers Lorine Niedecker Award, Third Place in the Poetry Center of Chicago’s 14^th Annual Juried Reading, and fellowships to Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin. You can learn more about her at www.susanelbe.com.

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.

Libby Fischer Hellmann, an award-winning crime fiction author, has published seven novels. Her most recent, SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE, is a stand-alone thriller, goes back, in part, to the late Sixties in Chicago. She also writes two crime fiction series. The first, which includes the hard-boiled EASY INNOCENCE (2008) and DOUBLEBACK (2009,) features Chicago P.I Georgia Davis. In addition there are four novels in the Ellie Foreman series, which Libby describes as a cross between “Desperate Housewives” and “24.”  Libby has also published over 15 short stories in NICE GIRL DOES NOIR and has edited the acclaimed crime fiction anthology, CHICAGO BLUES. She has been nominated twice for the Anthony Award, and once for the Agatha. Originally from Washington DC, she has lived in Chicago for 30 years and claims they’ll take her out of there feet first. More at her website: www.libbyhellmann.com

Peter Geye received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his PHD from Western Michigan University, where he was editor of Third Coast. He was born and raised in Minneapolis and continues to live there with his wife and three children.  Safe From the Sea is his first novel.

Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher and found they are very much alike. She is the inimitable creator behind Ernie Pook’s Comeek, the seminal comic strip that was syndicated scross North America in alternative weeklies for two decades. She is the author of the books One! Hundred! Demons!, The! Greatest! of! Marlys!, Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel, Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies!, and The Good Times are Killing Me. She invented a genre with the bestselling and acclaimed creative how to-graphic novels What It Is (for which she received Eisner and R.R. Donnelly awards) and Picture This.

What It Is and Picture This are based on Barry’s workshop “Writing the Unthinkable” which is a tried-and-true creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive wish to write or remember. Lynda explores the depths of the inner and outer realms of creation and imagination, where play can be serious, monsters have purpose, and not knowing is an answer unto itself. Barry currently offers her workshop “Writing the Unthinkable” all over the place.

Born in Wisconsin in 1956, Lynda studied at Evergreen State College.

After being an “at-home” mom and attending college part-time until she graduated, Alice pursued her career at the University of Wisconsin. Twenty years later she retired from her position as senior editor and publications director at the La Follette School of Public Affairs. In retirement she leads writing workshops for adults and serves in a number of volunteer capacities. In her spare time, she pedals the scenic roads of southern Wisconsin and plans tours on other parts of the continent.

Each year for the last 28, Alice has spent one week of her summer vacation on a bicycle tour, always somewhere in North America. Following retirement, she was thrilled to realize her long-time dream of pedaling across America. The book she and co-author Bobbi Montgomery wrote about that adventure is now available through Terrace Books, the trade division of the University of Wisconsin Press or online from Amazon. Visit them at www.AliceandBobbi.com.

Clare O’Donohue is the author of MISSING PERSONS, the first in the Kate Conway Mysteries, as well as three Someday Quilts Mysteries (THE LOVERS KNOT, A DRUNKARD’S PATH & THE DOUBLE CROSS.  Clare began her writing career as a newspaper reporter for a small weekly paper outside Joliet, Illinois. She covered everything from school board meetings to murder trials, and wrote a weekly column. For the last thirteen years she has worked in television, writing and producing for shows on HGTV, truTV, The History Channel, Food Network, A&E and others. She continues to work as a producer and lives in Chicago, IL.

Stephanie Kuehnert got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced several DIY feminist ‘zines. Stephanie received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and was named to Newcity’s Lit 50 in 2008. Her debut young adult novel, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, a raw, edgy emotional tale about growing up punk and living to tell, is titled after a Sleater-Kinney song and was published by MTV Books in July 2008. Stephanie’s second book, Ballads of Suburbia, published by MTV Books in July 2009, is set in her hometown of Oak Park, Illinois, and has been called “an intensely real and painfully honest novel of high-school anxiety” by Booklist. Stephanie is also an award-winning columnist for the Forest Park Review. She currently lives, works, and writes in Forest Park, IL and you can find her online at www.stephaniekuehnert.com.

David Mulroy holds a BA from Georgetown and a PhD in Classics from Stanford.  He is now a professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he has worked since 1973.  He has published four books of translations of ancient Greek and Latin Poetry, Early Greek Lyric Poetry (Michigan 1992), Horace’s Odes and Epodes (Michigan 1994), The Complete Poetry of Catullus (Wisconsin 2002), and most recently Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex (Wisconsin 2011).  His work on contemporary education, The War Against Grammar (Heinemann-Boynton/Cook) appeared in 2003.  His hobbies are working out and playing softball.  He is married with two children and two granddaughters.

Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli is a writer who writes—constantly.  She is a book reviewer with the alternative newspaper, The Northern Express, in Traverse City, Michigan.

Her short stories have appeared in many journals.  She has had essays turned into stage pieces and performed.  Her first mystery novel, Gift of Evil, was published by Bantam. Her novels Dead, Dancing Women; Dead Floating Lovers; Dead Sleeping Shamam, from Midnight Ink, are in bookstores now.  Another in the Emily Kincaid mystery series: Dead Dogs and Englishmen, recently given a starred Kirkus review, will be out this July.

Hallie Ephron’s new suspense novel “Come and Find Me,” from William Morrow, follows her “Never Tell a Lie” which was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and for the Salt Lake Libraries Readers Choice Award, and won the David Award for best mystery of 2009. It was made into the movie “And Baby Will Fall” for the Lifetime Movie Network. A book lover, Hallie is also the author of “The Bibliophile’s Devotional” and “1001 Books for Every Mood,” and reviews crime fiction for the “Boston Globe.”  Her  “Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel” was an Edgar Award finalist.

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.

Wayne Breitbarth is co-owner and co-president of M&M Office Interiors in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.  Prior to his involvement in the office furniture business, he spent nearly twenty years in the automotive industry.  He received his BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and his MBA from Marquette University.  Wayne is also a Certified Public Accountant and spent the early years of his career as an auditor and small business consultant with Arthur Andersen & Co.

Throughout his career, Wayne has been involved with a number of philanthropic organizations including  serving on the board of directors for Make A Difference-Wisconsin and Community Warehouse, a nonprofit organization that serves the Milwaukee community by providing affordable home and facility improvement materials.  He is a member of the Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Accounting Careers Advisory Board and has served as a youth leader and teacher at Eastbrook Church in Milwaukee.

Wayne’s work with urban youth has been applauded by the Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and he proudly accepted the 2009 WICPA Public Service Award.

Wayne began moonlighting as a LinkedIn trainer in early 2009 and has now led seminars for over 10,000 business professionals.  He has inspired audiences both locally, at many of Milwaukee’s most prominent companies and organizations, and nationally, at conventions, industry association events, and corporate training sessions.  Wayne’s diverse business experience, pragmatic teaching style, and infectious sense of humor have earned him the praise of the press and the distinction of being referred to as the “LinkedIn Guru.”  His book, “The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success:  Kick-Start Your Business, Brand and Job Search,” published by the Greenleaf Book Group, will be available in book stores in March 2011.

Wayne resides in Mequon, Wisconsin with his wife of 30 years.  They have three daughters.

DAVID J. WALKER is the author of ten published mystery/suspense novels. His most recent book is Too Many Clients, a 2010 release from Severn House.  This is the fifth book in his “Wild Onion, Ltd.” series, featuring a wife/husband private eye team.  The sixth book in that series, The Towman’s Daughters, will be released in October, 2011.

Walker is the author of a 2008 stand-alone suspense novel, Saving Paulo, and his short story, “A Weekend in the Country,” was published in the popular 2006 anthology, Chicago Blues.

One of Walker’s Wild Onion, Ltd. books was short-listed for the Society of Midland Authors best novel award, and he has been an EdgarÒ nominee.  He has served on the Board of Directors of Mystery Writers of America.  He is also a member of Private Eye Writers of America, and has been a judge for both the Edgarâ and Shamus awards.

Walker is a life-long Chicagoan.  He has been a parish priest in Chicago, an investigator with the Chicago Police Department, and an attorney.  At present, he is a full-time writer and lives with his wife just north of the city.

Terence Faherty is the author of the Edgar-nominated Owen Keane series, which follows the adventures of a failed seminarian turned metaphysical detective.  He also writes the Shamus-winning Scott Elliott private eye series.  Two new titles were published in the Elliott series in 2011, a short story collection, THE HOLLYWOOD OP (Perfect Crime Books), and a novel, DANCE IN THE DARK (Five Star).  Faherty’s short fiction appears regularly in mystery magazines and anthologies and has won the Macavity Award from Mystery Readers International.  His work has been reissued in the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, and Germany.  He lives in Indianapolis with his wife Jan.

D.E. (Dan) Johnson, a graduate of Central Michigan University, is a history buff who has been writing fiction since childhood but had to hit his midlife crisis to get serious about it. His first novel, a historical mystery entitled The Detroit Electric Scheme, was published in September 2010 by St. Martin’s Minotaur Books. The Detroit Electric Scheme has garnered excellent reviews (including a starred review in Booklist) and also won a 2011 Michigan Notable Book Award.

Motor City Shakedown, the first sequel to The Detroit Electric Scheme, will be published by St. Martin’s in September 2011. Dan is married, has three daughters, and lives near Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Sam Reaves has written seven Chicago-based crime novels, most recently Mean Town Blues. As Dominic Martell he has penned a European-based suspense trilogy.  Reaves has traveled widely in Europe and the Middle East but has lived in the Chicago area most of his life.  He has worked as a teacher and a translator.

List of Titles:

A Long Cold Fall (Putnam:  New York, 1991)
Fear Will Do It (Putnam:  New York, 1992)
Bury It Deep (Putnam: New York, 1993)
Get What’s Coming (Putnam: New York, 1995)

Dooley’s Back (Carroll & Graf:  New York, 2002; Carroll & Graf:  New York (trade paper) 2007)
Homicide 69 (Carroll & Graf:  New York, 2007)
Mean Town Blues (Pegasus:  New York, 2008; Pegasus:  New York, (trade paper) 2010)

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.

Amy Knupp lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two sons and five cats. She graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in French and journalism and feels lucky to use very little of either one in her writing career. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, buying books in excess, traveling, breaking up cat fights, watching college basketball and playing addictive computer games. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America, Mad City RWA, and Wisconsin Romance Writers.

Born in California and raised in the Midwest, Carrie Lofty met her English husband while studying abroad–the best souvenir! Since completing her master’s degree in history, she has been devoted to raising their two precocious daughters and writing full time.

Carrie’s historical romances for Zebra and Carina Press have all received four stars from RT Book Reviews, which declared: “Lofty writes adventure romance like a born bard of old.” In October she’ll embark on a globe-trotting Victorian series from Pocket, beginning with Flawless–in which a suave viscount and his estranged wife must make a diamond company profitable or forfeit her inheritance.

In addition, Carrie recently began life as Ellen Connor, the name she shares with writing partner Ann Aguirre. Nightfall, the first of their “Dark Age Dawning” trilogy of hot-n-dirty apocalyptic romances, will be available in June from Berkley Sensation, to be followed in 2011 by Midnight and Daybreak.

Photo by Tom Bamberger

R. M. Ryan is the author of Vaudeville in the Dark, a recent book of poems.  The NY Times said Ryan writes ” . . . like the best poets . . . at the junction of rapture and rupture.”  In addition, Ryan is the author of a novel, The Golden Rules, and another book of poetry, Goldilocks in Later Life.  He is also the lyricist for a northern California rock-and-roll band.

Photo by Malone & Co.

Mary Helen Stefaniak’s second novel, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia (W. W. Norton), has been awarded a 2011 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction.  The Anisfield-Wolf awards “recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.” Juror Rita Dove described the novel as “a rollicking tale that manages to speak seriously to the tragedy of ignorance and the damage caused by fear.” The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia was also selected by independent booksellers as an Indie-Next “Great Read” in September 2010.  Stefaniak’s first novel, The Turk and My Mother, won the 2005 John Gardner Book Award and has been translated into several languages.  Her first book, Self Storage and Other Stories, received the Banta Award for Literary Excellence from the Wisconsin Library Association. A native of Milwaukee and graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Stefaniak is currently an Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing at Creighton University in Omaha.

James Klise is the author of LOVE DRUGGED, published by Flux Books in September 2010. This debut novel received a 2011 Stonewall Honor Award, and also was selected for the 2011 ALA Rainbow List. Booklist called LOVE DRUGGED “an excellent novel for both classroom and GSA discussion,” and VOYA suggested the book as “a great choice for teens who like a little twist in their mystery.” By day, James works as a high school librarian in Chicago, where he also advises the teen book club, literary journal, and gay-straight alliance. For more info, please visit www.jamesklise.com.

Scott Stoll asked himself a question: “If I could do anything, what would I do?”  His answer resulted in a quest for happiness and the meaning of life around the world on a bicycle (25,742 miles, 4 years, 50 countries, 6 continents & 4 moments of enlightenment.)  His adventures are chronicled in his entertaining book “Falling Uphill” a tale described as having moments from pure survival to pure enlightenment.  After returning home and seeing the sparkle of wonder and the fruits of inspiration is so many people, Scott hopes to create a life filled full of entertaining and inspiring tales about his adventures of self-discovery and the magic and mysteries of life.

Raised in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, William Kent Krueger briefly attended Stanford University–before being kicked out for radical activities.  After that, he logged timber, worked construction, tried his hand at free-lance journalism, and eventually ended up researching child development at the University of Minnesota.  He currently makes his living as a full-time author.  He’s been married for over 38 years to a marvelous woman who is an attorney.  He makes his home in St. Paul, a city he dearly loves.

Krueger writes a mystery series set in the north woods of Minnesota.  His protagonist is Cork O’Connor, the former sheriff of Tamarack County and a man of mixed heritage—part Irish and part Ojibwe.  His work has received a number of awards including the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, and the Friends of American Writers Prize.  The tenth book in his series, Vermilion Drift, released in 2010, was a New York Times bestseller.  The next book, Northwest Angle, will be published in September.   He does all his creative writing in a little St. Paul coffee shop whose identity he prefers to keep secret.

Awards

Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, 1998
Minnesota Book Award, 1999
Anthony Award for Best First Novel, 1999
Barry Award for Best First Novel, 1999
Friends of American Writers Prize, 1999
Minnesota Book Award, 2002
Readers Choice Award, 2003
Anthony Award for Best Novel, 2005
Anthony Award for Best Novel, 2006
Minnesota Book Award, 2007
Midwest Booksellers Association Honor Award in Fiction, 2007
Minnesota Book Award, 2008
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, 2008
Dilys Award, 2008

Denise Swanson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Scumble River mystery series. After coming face-to-face with evil, Denise quickly decided she would rather write about villains than encounter them in her daily life. She was shocked to discover that getting a book published was nearly as difficult as vanquishing scoundrels. Her series features Skye Denison, a school psychologist-sleuth. Denise writes from her experiences as a school psychologist and small town resident. Her most recent book, Murder of a Bookstore Babe, debuted March 1, 2011.

Denise lives in Illinois with her husband, classical composer David Stybr, and their cool black cat Boomerang. www.deniseswanson.com

Anthony and Barry Award winning author Julie Hyzy writes two mystery series: the White House Chef Mysteries (the fourth title in the series, Buffalo West Wing, came out in January), and the Manor House Mysteries (the second title in that series, Grace Interrupted, just came out this month!). Julie lives in the Chicago area with her husband, three daughters, and two cats. Learn more about her at JulieHyzy.com.

Robert Root is the author of two works of creative nonfiction, Recovering Ruth: A Biographer’s Tale and Following Isabella: Travels in Colorado Then and Now, and the editor of Landscapes with Figures: The Nonfiction of Place. He is also the co-editor of The Fourth Genre, a textbook now in its sixth edition, and the author of The Nonfictionist’s Guide: On Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction. A collection of his essays, Postscripts: Retrospections on Time and Place, will be published next year. A past winner of the Council of Wisconsin Writers Award in Short Nonfiction, he teaches nonfiction in the Ashland University MFA Program in Creative Writing. He lives in Waukesha.

Ann & Amanda Angel

Amanda Angel, a playwright and teacher in Brookfield, Wisconsin, has experienced a few roles in the adoption triad including searching as an adoptee and becoming a birth parent herself. Her desire to help birth parents work successfully within the adoption triad drew her to co-edit a collection of literary essays on the topic for Catalyst Books Press.

When Michael J. Trinklein moved from Iowa to Idaho, his relatives had a hard time grasping that these were actually different states. He soon learned that many Idahoans wanted to split from their poorly-formed state and create “Lincoln,” America’s 51st state. Fascinated, Trinklein began collecting stories and maps of other statehood hopefuls (including several involving Wisconsin)—the result of his quest is his new book, “Lost States.”

Trinklein has written about maps and geography for the  Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe.  He wrote and produced the PBS documentaries The Oregon Trail, The Gold Rush, and Pioneers of Television.  A university professor for 20 years, Trinklein’s undergraduate degree is from UW-Oshkosh. He lives in Cedarburg, Wisconsin…. (which nearly became Cedarburg, Charlotina).

Michael Schumacher is the award-winning author of ten books, including biographies of Allen Ginsberg (Dharma Lion), Phil Ochs (There But for Fortune), Francis Ford Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker’s Life). Eric Clapton (Crossroads), George Mikan (Mr. Basketball) and most recently, Will Eisner (Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics).  He is also the author of two books about notable Great Lakes shipwrecks (Mighty Fitz: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and Wreck of the Carl D.: A True Story of Loss, Survival, and Rescue at Sea).  He is currently at work, with comics artist and publisher Denis Kitchen, on a biography of Li’l Abner comic strip creator Al Capp.

John Koethe was born in San Diego in 1945 and educated at Princeton and Harvard Universities.  He has published eight books of poetry, including FALLING WATER (HarperCollins, 1997), which received the Kingsley Tufts Award, and NINETY-FIFTH STREET (HarperCollins, 2009), which received the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets.  He is also the author of books on Wittgenstein and scepticism, and a collection of literary essays.  In 2005 he was a Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, in 2008 he was the Elliston Poet in Residence at the University of Cincinnati, and in 2010 he was the Bain-Swiggett Professor of Poetry at Princeton University.  He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Margaret Pfeiffer is a practicing cardiac nutritionist and a board certified clinical lipid specialist. On staff with ProHealth Care Regional Heart and Vascular Center, Margaret works in Preventive Cardiology at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. She has provided practical nutrition solutions to cardiac rehabilitation patients for more than 15 years. A Registered Dietitian with the American Dietetics Association, she has developed and facilitated healthy cooking classes, presented nutrition seminars and conducted a variety of food demos. Margaret has a passionate interest in healthy cooking and believes healing your heart begins in the kitchen. She teaches healthy cooking classes at Waukesha County Technical Institute.

John Gurda is a Milwaukee-born writer and historian who has been studying his hometown since 1972. He is the author of nineteen books, including histories of Milwaukee-area neighborhoods, industries, and places of worship. The Making of Milwaukee is Gurda’s most ambitious effort. With 450 pages and more than 500 illustrations, it is the first full-length history of the community published since 1948.   Milwaukee Public Television created an Emmy Award-winning documentary series based on the book in 2006.

In addition to his work as an author, Gurda is a lecturer, tour guide, and local history columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

He holds a B.A. in English from Boston College and an M.A. in Cultural Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Raised in Washington State by parents who ground their own whole wheat flour, baked fresh bread every weekend, and regularly planned meals using Frances Moore Lappé’s vegetarian manifesto Diet for a Small Planet, Danielle developed an appreciation for healthy eating at an early age. A vegetable enthusiast with a passion for local, sustainable food production, she has been participating in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) with Luna Circle Farm in Rio, Wisconsin—i.e., by eating their produce—since moving to the Madison area in 2003. She came across From Asparagus to Zucchini while working as a volunteer Outreach Ambassador for the Madison Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC), and it quickly became her favorite vegetable go-to guide. She looks forward to meeting fellow foodies and sharing her knowledge of food preservation, the benefits of CSA, and making the most of the goodies that comprise a typical CSA box.

Danielle holds a Ph.D. in music history, and by day she works as an editor for an academic music publishing company. She lives with her husband and two cats in Middleton, Wisconsin, where in her free time she enjoys getting outdoors, practicing yoga, and striving to create the perfect sourdough baguette.

Dean A. Kowalski received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and 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, forthcoming).  He as edited (and contributed to) two philosophy and pop culture books for the University Press of Kentucky, The Philosophy of The X-Files (2007, paperback 2009) and Steven Spielberg and Philosophy (2008). His third volume, again with University Press of Kentucky, The Philosophy of Joss Whedon, is to be published in 2011.   He is married (Patricia) and has two children, Nicholas and Cassie.

Robert A. Birmingham served as Wisconsin State Archaeologist between 1989 and 2004 and is the author of many articles and publications in Wisconsin archaeology and history. He now teaches anthropology at UW- Waukesha and writes from his home in Madision, Wisconsin. He is the co-author of the award winning books Indian Mounds of Wisconsin (UW-Press) and Aztalan: Mysteries of An Ancient Indian Town (Wisconsin Historical Society Press). Mr. Birmingham is  the recipient of the Increase Lapham Research Medal from the Wisconsin Archeological Society and the 2007 State Park Hero award from the Friends of Wisconsin Parks for his promotional and educational work at Aztalan State Park.

Jonathan Kasparek earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of  Wisconsin-Madison in 2003 and has written several books and articles on Wisconsin history.  A work based on his dissertation, Fighting Son: A Biography of Philip F. La Follette won first place in the political science category at the 2006 Midwest Book Awards.  Since 2004, he has taught history at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha.  He is beginning a biography of Senator William Proxmire and is continuing to work on a history of the American Midwest.

Sandra Kring lives in central Wisconsin.  Her debut novel, Carry Me Home, was a Book Sense Notable Pick and a 2005 Midwest Booksellers Choice Award nominee.  The Book of Bright Ideas was Target’s Bookmarked pick for the summer of ’06, and named to the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age list as a cross-over book in 2007. Thank You for All Things was All You magazine’s first book club selection.  Her latest book, How High the Moon, is a Midwest Booksellers Association’s Connections Pick, and a Target Breakout Book. Kring is currently working on a sequel to The Book of Bright Ideas.

Jim Kokoris is the author of three novels, The Rich Part of Life, Sister North and the recently  released The Pursuit of Other Interests,  He is also a humorist. More than a dozen of his essays have appeared in The Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine and The Chicago Tribune Op/Ed page.  He is a native Chicagoan, born and raised on the city’s Southwest Side. He graduated from the University of Illinois  at Urbana-Champaign in 1980 and now lives in a suburb of Chicago with his wife Anne, and their three sons.

His first book, The Rich Part of Life, won the Friends of American Writers’ Award for Best First Novel of 2001. It has been published in 15 languages and was optioned for film production by 20^th Century Fox and will be directed by Academy Award winning director and writer Jim Mangold, whose most recent film was the acclaimed 3:10 to Yuma.. The Rich Part of Life was also chosen by two national book clubs, and is currently in its seventh printing.

Sister North, which depicts the journey of a middle-aged Chicago lawyer in search of divine guidance and spiritual renewal, was published in October of 2004.  Publisher’s Weekly called it “touching and funny,” The New York Times said it was “hilarious” and The Chicago Tribune hailed it as “an impressive achievement.” It too has been optioned  for feature film consideration.

The Pursuit of Other Interests, chronicles the life of Charlie Baker, a middle- aged, workaholic  advertising executive who loses his job and does not tell his family. Lost at 50-years old and without the career that has defined him, he is forced to confront his life and face sobering – and at times humorous –realities as he desperately looks for a job during a relentless recession.

 In addition to his writing career, Jim is also President and co-owner of JSH&A Public Relations, one of the country’s top boutique public relations agencies.  The firm’s clients include some the best and biggest companies in American business, including McDonald’s, Jim Beam Brands, Hershey Foods, Midas International and Purina.

 A guest on NPR several times, Jim is also a favorite on the book club circuit. He has appeared at more than a hundred book clubs and book events around the country, offering his uniquely humorous take on the writing business.

Stephen D. Sullivan is the award-winning author of more than 30 published books and has worked on more comics and game material than he can easily count.  He has been in publishing since 1980, when he moved to Wisconsin to join the Dungeons & Dragons development team. Steve has worked on projects ranging from D&D to Star Wars to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the Simpsons and many, many more.  His adaptation of the movie Iron Man was nominated for a Scribe Award.  Steve’s comic series The Twilight Empire ran in Dragon Magazine for fifty issues. Together with Jean Rabe, he created the Blue Kingdoms fantasy world, a setting both authors continue to use in their stories and other work.  Steve hosted 42 episodes of Uncanny Radio–a show devoted to monsters and the supernatural–with his friend Linda Godfrey.  When not writing, Steve keeps busy doing artwork and running his own small publishing company, Walkabout Publishing.  His books are available on Amazon.com (including for Kindle) and at better booksellers everywhere.  Steve’s latest work includes the Dungeons & Dinosaurs story “Kidnapped by Saurians,” the mythological romp “Thor Loser,” and the steampunk story  “Automata Futura,” featured in the Hot & Steamy anthology.  You can find out more about Steve and his work at: www.stephendsullivan.com

There are things which Chris Keefe hates more than bios, though he is hard pressed to think of any now.  Chris’ two alien parents crash landed in Madison in the 1950′s, Chris was born 15 or so years later after his parents finally hit upon the right concoction to grow offspring in the hodge-podge lab they had managed to cooked up in their basement.  Chris Keefe eventually graduated from NYU with a Bachelors of Fine Arts  in Film and Television, which was, as it turns out a god awful field to work in.   So, he married a doctor, essentially becoming a free loader, raised some boys, did some illustrating for the Gaming Industry, and  woke up one morning to realize he’d opened a family and community-oriented comic book store, Kowabunga Comics, in Oconomowoc, WI.  There were balloons and everything.

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.

ELLEN M. KOZAK is a Milwaukee copyright, publishing and media lawyer and the author of several pseudonymous novels, many articles, and three nonfiction books:  From Pen to Print: The Secrets of Getting Published Successfully (winner of the Council for Wisconsin Writers Award for best 1990 non-fiction book),  Every Writer’s Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law, now in its third edition from Henry Holt & Co., and her third and newest book, The Everything U.S. Constitution Book, just out from Adams Media.   A graduate of Barnard College and the University of Wisconsin Law School, she also holds a Certificate in Law of the Media from the NYU School of Law.  She has served as the chair of both the Intellectual Property Law Section and the Sports & Entertainment Law Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Liam Callanan is a novelist, essayist and creator of the Poetry Everywhere animated film series. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, whose English department he will chair next
year.

Trudy Knauss Paradis was born in Milwaukee to German immigrant parents.  She was raised in a close-knit Milwaukee neighborhood, where residents regularly spoke German on the street.  Trudy graduated from Milwaukee-Downer college with a degree in Sociology and Economics.  She then took a position with the Department of Army Civilian Service, which took her to Tokyo, Japan for several years.  After traveling to many fascinating countries, Judy return to Milwaukee and married.  The couple then moved to historic Cedarburg where they raised two children.  After her children were grown, Trudy returned to the workforce as a public schoolteacher, a role she held for 30 years.

Being very proud of her German ancestry, Trudy has served as a volunteer at Milwaukee’s German Fest for 20 years.  For eight years she was the Director-in-Charge of Cultural Exhibition.  Trudy loves to spend her free time with her children, her three grandchildren and her three “grand-dogs.”  A talented calligrapher, she also enjoys knitting, reading, and working outside in her garden.

She is the co-author of German Milwaukee: Its History, Its Recipes (G Bradley Pub, 2006 ).

Susan Marshall is an author, speaker and independent business owner whose career spans more than 25 years and includes a wide range of experiences.  From an early start as an advertising assistant, she progressed through a series of marketing and general amangement roles before founding Executive Advisor, LLC in 1997.     Along the way, she led a successful turnaround, raised a family and now speaks to a variety of audiences from community groups to senior executives.  Her corporate and consulting experience includes work with General Motors, Nestle, Subaru of America, Harley-Davidson and Apple Computer.  She has been welcomed as a guest-lecturer at several University of Wisconsin campuses, and at Marquette University, Alverno College, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

For two years, Susan served as a facilitator for the New York City Leadership Academy, one of only two selected nationally to assist the Academy in teaching public school principals the skills of transformational leadership.  Her own education blended work, family, and schooling in a 13-year quest to a Bachelor’s Degree in Management and another 2- 1/2 years to complete work on an MBA.  Her book,  How to Grow a Backbone: 10 Strategies for Gaining Power and Influence at Work (NTC/Contemporary Books, 2000) has been translated into German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.

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.

Chuck Stebelton works as Literary Program Director at Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee. He is author of Circulation Flowers (Tougher Disguises, 2005). Recent print objects and chapbooks include ‘Tis’ (The John Riepenhoff Experience, 2009); A Maximal Object (Mitzvah Chaps, 2008); Flags and Banners (Bronze Skull Press, 2007); and Precious (Answer Tag Home Press, 2005). Newer writing appears in the current issues of The Cultural Society, Lungfull!, Cannot Exist, and Kadar Koli.

Nicholas Michael Ravnikar teaches writing, reading and communication (but not necessarily in that order) at Gateway Technical College in Racine and Kaplan University in Milwaukee. In addition to facilitating a variety of non-profit arts workshops over the past nine years, he produced the feature-length documentary Quilts on Barns: The Beauty of Rural Art and edits The Bathroom, which comprises an irregular e-zine and chapbook series.  Most recently, he organized with Nick Demske the first annual Racquetball Chapbook Tournament.

Patrick Rothfuss published his first book, The Name of the Wind, in 2007. Since then the book has become a New York Times best seller, been praised by authors such as Ursula K LeGuin, and won various awards around the world.

When he is not working on the sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear, Pat attends conventions, practices civil disobedience, and generally makes a nuisance of himself. He loves words, laughs often, and refuses to dance.

Karen McQuestion’s essays have appeared in Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Christian Science Monitor and several anthologies. She is the author of six books self-published on Amazon’s Kindle, one of which, the novel, A Scattered Life, caught the attention of an L.A. based production company and became the first self-published Kindle book to be optioned for film. A Scattered Life will be published by AmazonEncore, Amazon’s new publishing division, on August 10, 2010. McQuestion lives with her family in Hartland, Wisconsin.

As Senior Editorial Contributor for Publishers Weekly, Barbara Vey brings readers and writers together with her popular Beyond Her Book blog.  From her entertaining “Drive By Videos” to reader feedback on books with WW Ladies Book Club, YA Saturday Book Club, Your Turn Friday, BHB continues to grow into a must read daily adventure.  An avid reader, Barbara consumed a book a day before taking on the glamorous life of a roving reporting. Traveling all over the United States to conferences from Romance to Thrillers, Mysteries to Horror, Historicals to Comic Con, Barbara has even broken through the barrier into the entertainment industry by covering Red Carpet Events and interviewing the likes of Richard Dean Anderson, Joshua Jackson, Joss Whedon, Dakota Fanning and others. But her love of Romance and the Happily Ever After keeps her grounded while she offers readers a place to step away from life’s daily trials to take a positive journey through the world of books.

Eva Augustin Rumpf is the author of the memoir Reclamation:  Memories from a New Orleans Girlhood, the satiric novel Prot U and co-author of Til Divorce Do Us Part, a self-help book for women in troubled marriages.  She has been a freelance writer for 35 years, publishing hundreds of newpaper and magazine articles.  Several of her essays and articles have been syndicated nationally.

Born in New Orleans, Rumpf left Louisiana to attend Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois.   She began her professional career as a teacher of English and reading.  She later earned her Master’s degree in journalism from Marquette University and worked for several years as a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal while also teaching a university journalism class.   She has worked in full-time positions teaching journalism and advising student media, first at Marquette University and later at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

Eva now lives in Milwaukee with her husband and continues to write and teach writing workshops for adults.

Mary Lou Santovec is a writer and editor living in Jefferson, Wisconsin.  She has published articles in newspapers, newsletters and magazines on a variety of topics including higher education, community banking, lifestyles, health and gardening. She is the co-author of two books, 1,001 Commonly Misspelled Words: What Your Spell Checker Won’t Tell You (with Robert Magnan) and Americana in 1/12^th Scale: Fifty Authentic Projects (with JoAnn Ogreenc).

 Her hobbies include reading, travel, creating art and, of course, gardening.  Her husband, Rick, accompanied Mary Lou on most of the travels involved with Wisconsin Gardens and Landscapes and took over 8,000 photos, many of which ultimately were included in the book.

A graduate of Oberlin College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Kelly Dwyer has written two novels, The Tracks of Angels and Self-Portrait with Ghosts, both published by Penguin Putnam Inc., and two children’s books, Sophie’s Magical Windmill and The Dream Tree, published by ArchitectureKids.  She has been awarded a Michener/Engle Fellowship, a Wisconsin Arts Board Grant, and a Library Association Award for Outstanding Novel written by a Wisconsin Writer.  Kelly lives in Baraboo, Wisconsin, with her husband, young daughter, and a menagerie of animals, where she writes and teaches part-time at the University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County.