Contributors' Notes
Don Ammons poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1993.
Paula D. Anderson writes while gazing into the Rooky Woods which is part of the Kettle Moraine and her back yard. She also publishes Echoes, a poetry journal.
Stephen Anderson was the First Place winner of the Kay Saunders Memorial New Poet Award in 2005. His work has appeared in Southwest Review, Verse Wisconsin, Tipton Poetry Journal, and numerous other print and online publications. His poems appear in the anthology Portals and Piers (Sunday Morning Press, 2012).
Bob Arnold's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1990.
Linda Aschbrenner is the editor/publisher of Marsh River Editions. She edited and published the poetry journal Free Verse from 1998 to 2009 which now continues as Verse Wisconsin. She lives in Marshfield and is presently lost in the 1950s as she works on a book of family memories with her two sisters, Elda Lepak and Mavis Flegle.
Sharon Auberle wonders how to sum up her life in three lines: writer, image maker, seeker. Blessed to live across from the Big Water. Latest book is EVErywoman. Find her online at her website, Mimi’s Golightly Cafe.
Gerald Bahr, Vietnam veteran and U.S. Marine, earned his Masters of Arts degree from UW-LaCrosse in 1974. He taught English in Naha Koza, Shogakuin, Japan, New South Wales, Australia, and Boyceville, WI. He passed away in 2009, but left these poems for his wife, Jane, who has kindly shared them with Verse Wisconsin.
Mary Jo Balistreri writes poetry as an expression of gratefulness. It provides a means of giving witness, of praising, and of understanding the world and her place within it. Visit maryjobalistreripoet.com.
Judy Barisonzi has been a Wisconsin resident since 1966, and she now lives among the lakes and woods of northwest Wisconsin. Semi-retired from teaching English at the University of Wisconsin Colleges, she gives workshops in creative writing and memoir writing, participates in several local writing groups, and publishes poems in local and national magazines.
Ellen Wade Beals writes poetry and prose. In 1999, her story “Picking” was awarded Willow Springs fiction prize. Her poem “Between the sheets” appears in Everything’s a Text (Pearson 2010). She is the editor and publisher of Solace in So Many Words (Weighed Words LLC, an imprint of Hourglass Books). Visit solaceinabook.com.
Guy R. Beining has had six poetry books and 25 chapbooks published over the years, and appeared in seven anthologies. Recent publications include chain, epiphany, perspective (Germany), New Orleans Review, The New Review of Literature.
Linda Benninghoff has most recently published in Canary, a journal of the environmental crisis, and Poets and Artists. She has an MA in English with an emphasis on creative writing from Stony Brook. Her book, Whose Cries Are Not Music, was reviewed in VW.
David Blackey is a retired attorney whose professional career involved working for civil rights. He recently sat on the board of ACLU-WI.
Jan Bosman is a UW-Madison graduate and retired English teacher whose poetry has improved because of encouragement from Wisconsin poets, beginning with Ellen Kort.
Lynn Burgess's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1990.
Jeff Burt works in manufacturing in Santa Cruz County, California, was raised from Lake Superior down to the lead mines of southwestern Wisconsin, and several points in-between.
Sarah Busse is one of two Poets Laureate of Madison, Wisconsin (2012-2016). She co-edits Verse Wisconsin and her first full-length collection, Somewhere Piano, was published in fall 2012 by Mayapple Press (Woodstock, NY). She has been awarded the WFOP Chapbook Award, the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ Lorine Niedecker Prize and a Pushcart Prize. She teaches at the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival. You can find the summer 2013 schedule here: http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/iswfest/.
John L. Campbell started free-lance writing for business and trade magazines in 1995. His book, Writing in Retirement, explains his evolution into fiction and poetry along with the profiles of thirteen other writers. His latest poetry chapbook is entitled Backstreet Voyeur.
Lynda Carver's translation of Elliot Richman's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1995.
Kosrof Chantikian is the author of two collections of poetry, and the editor of Octavio Paz: Homage to the Poet, and The Other Shore: 100 Poems by Rafael Alberti. He was the editor of KOSMOS: A Journal of Poetry, and was general editor of the KOSMOS Modern Poets in Translation Series.
Dr. Lucia Cherciu is a Professor of English at SUNY / Dutchess in Poughkeepsie, NY, and she received her Ph.D. in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2000. Her poetry appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Connecticut Review, Cortland Review, Memoir (and), Legacies, Spillway, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, Off the Coast, and many other literary magazines, both in English and in Romanian. Her book of poetry “Lepădarea de Limbă” (“The Abandonment of Language”) was published in 2009 by Editura Vinea in Bucharest. Her second book, “Altoiul Râsului” (“Grafted Laughter”) was published by Editura Brumar in 2010.
Kelly Cherry’s newest collection, The Life and Death of Poetry, will be published by L.S.U. Press in spring 2013. She was formerly the Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia and a member of the Electorate of Poets Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
Brent Christianson is a native of LaCrosse and currently lives in Madison with Rebecca, his wife. He is the Director of Lutheran Campus Ministry in Madison. His poetry has appeared in several journals, anthologies, and editions of the Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar. He was also the poet laureate (self-appointed) of LaCrosse Central High School, 1968-69.
Lenore McComas Coberly, former president of WFOP, is at work on both fiction and poetry in Madison. Ellen Kort and Lenore taught together at Green Lake Conference Center for many years.
Cathryn Cofell serves on the Advisory Board of Verse Wisconsin. She has published six chapbooks and a CD that combines her work with the music of Obvious Dog. Her full-length collection of poems, Sister Satellite, is forthcoming from Cowfeather Press.
Cid Corman's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1990.
Barbara Cranford was born in Chicago, where she was an encyclopedia editor, poet, sculptor and gallery owner. In her Central Wisconsin woods where she has lived since 1971, she conducts an occasional poem-making workshop and writes when she feels like it.
Rachel Dacus’s books include Femme au chapeau, Earth Lessons and Another Circle of Delight. Her poetry has been anthologized and she regularly contributes interviews to Fringe Magazine (www.fringemagazine.org). “Writing a Poem with Monet” will appear in her collection, Gods of Water and Air, (forthcoming).
Kathleen Dale is the recipient of several prizes and best-in-issue awards for her poems, which have appeared in over thirty journals. Her chapbooks, including Rescue Mission, 2011, are available on her website. Baubo Speaks is forthcoming this year from Green Fuse Press.
Alice D’Alessio was winner of the 2005 Posner Prize for her book A Blessing of Trees. Her book Days We Are Given was a chapbook winner from Earth’s Daughters. Conversations with Thoreau, was published in August of 2012 by the UW Parallel Press.
Ramona Davis holds a degree in Creative Writing. In addition, she owns Altered Words, a self publishing company that also offers proofreading, resume, and typing services, as well as creative writing tutoring. In her spare time she writes reviews for Verse Wisconsin, teaches crochet, tests crochet patterns and writes reviews of them for RAKJ Patterns, and writes poetry on her blog.
Mary Lou Bittle-DeLapa's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1995.
Bruce Dethlefsen plays bass and sings in the musical (he hopes) duo Obvious Dog, the name taken from Wiscosin Poet Laureate Marilyn Taylor’s description of a poem “beyond resuscitation.” His most recent collection is Unexpected Shiny Things (Cowfeather Press, 2011).
CX Dillhunt is editor for Hummingbird: Magazine of the Short Poem. His poem “Window – Window, Our Lady, from The Incomplete Glass Man’s Glossary” won first place in the 2012 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters poetry contest.
p n w donnelly's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1993.
Like Ellsworth Kelly, Sadie Ducet also believes in the importance of freedom, separateness, invisibility and anonymity as an artist. Sarah Busse (Madison Poet Laureate 2012-2015 and co-editor of Verse Wisconsin) curates her work.
Susan Elbe is the author of The Map of What Happened, which won the 2012 Backwaters Press Prize, and Eden in the Rearview Mirror (Word Press), as well as two chapbooks: Where Good Swimmers Drown, winner of the Concrete Wolf Press 2011 Chapbook Prize, and Light Made from Nothing (Parallel Press). You can learn more about her at www.susanelbe.com.
As a young poet attending her first WFOP conference, Sherry Elmer was amazed that Ellen Kort loved her poem. Sherry has since had many occasions to be amazed by Ellen, and she is forever grateful for Ellen’s encouragement, inspiration, and friendship.
Theodore Enslin's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1993.
Kathleen Eull holds a BA in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her work has appeared in The Emergency Almanac, Echoes, KNOCK, pith and as part of the Verse and Vision II project at the Q Artists Cooperative in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. In addition, an interview with New York based poet Scott Zieher appears in his second book IMPATIENCE (Emergency Press, 2009). After serving for three years as the co-chair and event coordinator for the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books, she is currently the director of development for the Pewaukee Public Library Foundation.
Fabu is Madison’s third Poet Laureate. She has two new publications: In Our Own Tongues, published by the University of Nairobi Press and African American Life in Haiku published by Parallel Press. Her website is www.artistfabu.com.
Deborah Fass's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1994.
Ian Hamilton Finlay's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1992.
William Ford has two books, The Graveyard Picnic (Mid-America Press, 2002), and Past Present Imperfect (Turning Point, 2006). Two chapbooks, Allen & Ellen, and Descending with Miles were published by Pudding House in 2010.
ed galing is 95 years old, born in New York in 1917, and often writes about this era, but not always. He has won many literary awards, two Pushcart nominations, written 70 chapbooks, become Poet Laureate of Hatboro. He was published in Verse Wisconsin’s first issue.
Max Garland is the author of the poetry collections The Postal Confessions (winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry), Hunger Wide as Heaven, and the chapbook Apparition. Poems and prose have appeared in journals and anthologies including Poetry, The New England Review, Gettysburg Review, and Best American Short Stories. Awards include an NEA Fellowship for Poetry, James Michener Fiction Fellowship, and fellowships from Wisconsin Arts Board in both poetry and fiction. He lives and teaches in Eau Claire, and is the current Poet Laureate of Wisconsin.
Carmen Germain has published in Natural Bridge, Dos Passos Review, The Madison Review, New Poets of the American West, and others, and has e-reviews in Rattle and Verse Wisconsin. Cherry Grove published These Things I Will Take with Me. She lives in the other Washington.
Kathie Giorgio is the author of Enlarged Hearts (2012) and The Home For Wayward Clocks (2011), winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association. The sequel is due out in 2013. She is the director and founder of AllWriters' Workplace & Workshop, an international creative writing studio located in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Jessica Gleason writes because Bukowski no longer can. She occasionally likes to sleep in a Star Trek uniform and has mastered The Song of Time on her ocarina.
Sanford Goldstein's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1995.
For his first book of poems, Poor Manners (Ahadada Books, 2009), Adam Halbur was chosen the 2010 resident poet of The Frost Place, the Robert Frost homestead in Franconia, New Hampshire. His work has also appeared in the anthology Never Before: Poems about First Experiences (Four Way Books, 2005) as well as in various journals.
Karen Haley has lived in Wisconsin most of her adult life, and raised five children here.
K.S. Hardy lives above a dormant oil field in Ohio. His poetry has appeared in Off the Coast, Old Red Kimono, Illumenum, and many other places. He has been nominated for a Rhysling Award.
Ronnie Hess is the author of a chapbook, Whole Cloth (Little Eagle Press) and a culinary travel guide, Eat Smart in France (Ginkgo Press). She lives in Madison.
William J. Higginson's translation of Masaoka Shiki's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1995.
Tod Highsmith lives in Madison where he plays with a palette of poems, prose and paint.
In the summer of 2012, Maryann Hurtt studied poetry at Charles University on a John Woods Scholarship. Learning Czech and finding new ways to hear and use English keep her fascinated.
Ann Iverson is the author of Come Now to the Window (Laurel Collective), Definite Space (Holy Cow! Press), and Art Lessons (Holy Cow! Press). Her work was featured on Writers’ Almanac. She received her MALS and MFA from Hamline University.
Catherine Jagoe is a writer, translator, and contributor to Wisconsin Public Radio’s Wisconsin Life series. Poems from her collection Casting Off (Parallel Press, 2007) have appeared on The Writer’s Almanac and Poetry Daily.
Joan Wiese Johannes was born near Horicon Marsh. Her poems have been widely published and won numerous awards. Her chapbook Sensible Shoes was the 2009 winner of the John and Miriam Morris Memorial Chapbook Contest sponsored by the Alabama Poetry Society.
Jim Kacian's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1991.
Mark Kliewer is a Professor of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has had poems published in Kenyon Review, JAMA, Tar River Poetry, Wisconsin People and Ideas, and other journals.
Poet and essayist, Judy Kolosso’s work has been published in Verse Wisconsin, Fox Cry Review, WI People and Ideas, WI Poets Calendars, and several anthologies. She recently won the WI Writers’ 20l2 Jade Ring for Poetry.
Ellen Kort served as Wisconsin’s first Poet Laureate from 2000-2004. The author of 11 books and 8 collections of poetry, Ellen’s work has been featured in a variety of anthologies and incorporated architecturally in downtown Milwaukee’s Midwest Express Center, the Green Bay Botanical Gardens and the Fox River Mall. Her poetry has been performed by the New York City Dance Theatre and recorded on audio by Ellen Burstyn, Ed Asner and Alfre Woodard. Ellen uses her skills as a poet and teacher to reach out to the community in numerous ways, teaching at local universities and schools and conducting writing workshops for at-risk teens, nurses, physicians and for survivors of cancer, AIDS and domestic abuse.
Len Krisak’s latest book is Virgil’s Eclogues (UPenn Press). With work in the Antioch, Hudson, PN, and Sewanee Reviews, he is a Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur prize winner and a four-time champion on Jeopardy!
Elizabeth Searle Lamb's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1995.
Jackie Langetieg has three books, White Shoulders (Cross+Roads Press), Just What in Hell is a Stage of Grief and Confetti in a Silent City (Ghost Horse Press). A fourth book, A Terrible Tenderness, awaits publication.
Kristin Laurel completed a two-year immersion program in poetry at The Loft Literary Center (MPLS) with Thomas R. Smith as advisor. Publications can be seen in CALYX, Grey Sparrow Review, The Main Street Rag and others. Her first book, Giving Them All Away was recently published by Evening Street Press.
Former teacher, textbook author and entrepreneur, Linda Lee (Konichek), lives on a 114 acre horse farm in Eagle, Wisconsin. Her 2009 book, Celebrating the Heart-Land, contains 71 poems and photos that pay tribute to the life and values of the Midwest.
John (Jack) Lehman is the founder and original publisher of Rosebud. He is the literary editor of Wisconsin People & Ideas as well as managing partner of Zelda Wilde Publishing and editor/publisher of Lit Noir magazine.
MaryEllen Letarte developed and directs the Louise Bogan Chapter of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society. versealive.wordpress.com
Kristi Ley currently lives and teaches along the border of Thailand and Myanmar. She was born and raised in Wisconsin, thus she prefers her Old Fashioneds with brandy and her cheese curds battered and fried.
Charles Liedl recently returned from teaching English and traveling in Peru. He is currently studying English education at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire.
Sandra Lindow's most recent chap book, The Hedge Witch's Upgrade, was published in 2012. She lives on a hilltop where she teaches, writes, and edits. Her last chemo was Jan. 8, 2012 and her recovery goes well.
Ellaraine Lockie’s recent chapbook, Wild as in Familiar, was a finalist in the Finishing Line Press Chapbook Contest and after publication there, received The Aurorean’s Editor’s Choice Award for Spring, 2012.
Mary Linton is a wetland ecologist and poet from Fort Atkinson. Her poetry has appeared in Appalachia, Aethlon, Blueline, Builder, Country Feedback Magazine, Farming Magazine, Friends’ Journal, HUMMINGBIRD, Poetry Motel, and Seeding the Snow.
Peggy Willis Lyles' poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1994.
LynleyShimat Lys’s mother grew up in Oshkosh and went to college in Wisconsin, and most of her side of the family lives there. Lynley was in Madison a few years ago when her play, "Prelude to Gaza," was produced by the Kathie Rasmussen Women's Theatre as part of an evening of short plays. Her poems have been published in a variety of journals, most recently in Flashquake. She currently lives in Jerusalem where she is writing a master's thesis on Palestinian poet Jabra Ibrahim Jabra.
Beth Mathison has had work published in The Foliate Oak (including the 2008 and 2009 annual “best of” print editions), 365tomorrows.com, mysteryauthors.com. Short stories published with Untreed Reads include her Mobster comedy/mystery series and the Young at Heart romance series. www.bethmathison.com.
Freesia McKee is a lifelong Milwaukeean and poet. Her work has been published in Stone Highway Review, Magnolia, The Boiler Journal, The Undergraduate Journal of Service-Learning and Community-Based Research, and elsewhere. A longer description of her work can be found at https://www.artsinmilwaukee.org/profiles/1069/.
Hope McLeod is presently a Staff Writer for the Bayfield County Journal in Ashland, Wisconsin, and a contributing writer to Wisconsin Trails, Home Education Magazine, and The Ashland Daily Press. She has one published chapbook, The Place We Begin, (Herd a Word, 2012). Other publications where her poems have recently appeared include: WritersRead Volume I (Little Big Bay, 2013), Raven 2012 “Voices of the North Woods,” and Millenium 2013. Hope is the Northwest Regional Representative for WFOP. She lives in Washburn and is married to musician Bruce Bowers. They have one daughter, Yazmin, also a musician.
Tim McLafferty lives in NYC and works as a drummer. He has played on Broadway in Urinetown, Grey Gardens, and many other interesting places. His work currently appears in many fine journals, including Forge, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pearl, Portland Review, and Right Hand Pointing. Visit timmclafferty.com.
Mary Mercier’s poetry has appeared in Free Verse, Fuse, Connotations, and Wild Earth. She is the author of one chapbook, Small Acts (Parallel Press).
Patty Miler has been writing since she could hold something in her hand. Most recently she was published in Fox Cry Review.
Tom Montag's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1994.
June Moreau's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1995.
Jennifer Morales is a multi-genre writer, editor, and performance artist in Milwaukee, WI. Jennifer’s poem “Pillow / Book” is forthcoming in pixel and sound at KenningJournal.com. Earlier poetry has been published in Between the Heart and the Land/Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest and at Poetic Milwaukee. "Cross Reference," her poem about the bombing of Hiroshima, won an honorable mention in the 2010 national War Poetry Contest. She serves as a board member for the Council for Wisconsin Writers.
Wilda Morris has participated in numerous workshops led by Ellen Kort. Wilda is past president of the Illinois State Poetry Society and current workshop chair of Poets & Patrons of Chicago. Her blog at www.wildamorris.blogspot.com provides a monthly contest for other poets.
Richard W. Moyer is 82, his poems have been published widely in the small press and he is really happy to be alive and see them in print.
Gillian Nevers, a docent with MMoCA since 1993, no longer gives tours but stays involved by helping to organize poetry readings connected to exhibitions. Her poetry has appeared in various journals online and in print. One of her poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the membership chair of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.
John Olski is a Library Associate for Brown County and a former adjunct instructor of college composition.
Lorine Niedecker's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1995.
H.F. Noyes' poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1993.
Sara Parrell was awarded first prize in the 2008 Poetry Center of Chicago’s Juried Reading for her manuscript Psalms of New Orleans, and her work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, qarrtsiluni, and other journals. Her essay “Beyond Ekphrasis: Collaboration as a Journey” in Verse Wisconsin was nominated for Dzanc Books’ Best of the Web 2010.
Elmae Passineau has published three chapbooks, On Edge, Beloved Somebodies, and Things That Go Bump in the Night. She is currently a thinker, reader, friend, helper, feminist, and writer.
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. For more information, including his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” and a complete bibliography, please visit his website at www.simonperchik.com.
Nancy Petulla lives on a 150-year-old farm. She began writing poetry at age 65. She is a retired minister to the elderly, ill and dying. Her poems have been published in Free Verse, Verse Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Poets Calendar 2013.
Kathleen Phillips’ poems have been published in Free Verse, WFOP Poet’s Calendar, Siftings from the Clearing, Hummingbird and Echoes. They can also be found in the anthologies, Empty Shoes, Cradle Songs, Love Over Sixty, and Voice and Vision from Gallery Q.
Tara Pohlkotte learned the power of the spoken and written word from her daddy the preacher, and brother the musician, Cory Chisel. You can find more of Tara’s writings at her personal blog, http://www.pohlkottepress.com.
Charles Portolano started writing poetry 16 years ago to celebrate the birth of his daring, darling, daughter Valerie and preserve the memories. Valerie was born with many obstacles to overcome giving him much to write about. Valerie is doing great now; she is quite the young writer. He has a new collection of poetry out, The little, lingering, white, lies we allow ourselves to live with.
Gloria H. Proscal's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1990.
Zara Raab is the author of Swimming the Eel. Her work appears in West Branch, Arts & Letters, The Dark Horse, River Styx and elsewhere. Her reviews and essays appear in Redwood Coast Review, Poetry Flash, The Review Review, Colorado Review and elsewhere.
Fran Rall is coauthor of Common Joy II, a book of ekphrastic poems about outdoor sculpture in Madison, has won a prize for haiku in Japan, and organized the statewide poetry reading at Olbrich Gardens for 20 years.
Twice a winner of grants in creative writing from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Georgia Ressmeyer has published two short novels, numerous poems, and a poetry chapbook, Today I Threw My Watch Away (Finishing Line Press, 2010).
Harlan Richards grew up in Madison, and earned a BS in business administration from UW-Platteville. He has had numerous poems published in print journals and online in various venues. He is currently working on his first book of poems. betweenthebars.org/blogs/637.
Jenna Rindo teaches English to Vietnamese, Hmong, Spanish and Kurdish students. Her poems and essays have been widely published in journals and anthologies. She lives with her husband, kids, sheep, chickens and other less domesticated creatures.
Lou Roach is a retired psychotherapist, now living in Poynette,WI. She writes, reads and loves spending time with family and friends. She has published poems and reviews in small-press mags. Her most recent book is For Now.
James P. Roberts currently co-hosts the monthly Writers Read Open Mike at the DeForest Public Library and is still the South-Central Region Vice-President for the WFOP. His latest poetry collection, Dancing With Poltergeists, is ‘sold out’ but a new printing by Popcorn Press is in the near future.
Mary Rodriguez’s short stories have appeared in Wisconsin People & Ideas, Country Woman, and Wisconsin Review. Two earlier poems have been included in Wisconsin Poets’ calendars.
Charlie Rossiter, NEA fellowship recipient, host of www.poetrypoetry.com, has authored four books of poetry and numerous chapbooks. He lived in Milwaukee in the 1970s and maintains contact with his friends there while living in Oak Park, IL.
Meg Rothstein’s work has been included in Wisconsin Woman Magazine, Feminist Collections, The Madison Review, and Blood and Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard (an anthology).
Mary C. Rowin writes poems from her home in Middleton. Her poems have been published in Verse Wisconsin, Stoneboat, Artella and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Calendar and Museletter. She is a docent at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison and an ESL tutor. Mary lives with her husband and their cat, Rio. This poem references Colored Paper Image XIV (Yellow Curve), 1976, in the title and in the poem.
Margaret (Peggy) Rozga has published two books of poetry, the award-winning volume about Milwaukee’s fair housing marches, Two Hundred Nights and One Day and a collection responding to her Army Reservist son’s deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Though I Haven’t Been to Baghdad. Inspired by her small garden, she is currently completing work on a new manuscript, Justice Freedom Herbs.
G. A. Scheinoha never imagined he’d follow in his father’s tracks; a series of blue collar jobs. Where their lives differed was instead of marriage and family, he wrote a million words over thirty years, some of which have recently appeared in Avocet, Bellowing Ark, Bracelet Charm, Echoes, Floyd County Moonshine and Verse Wisconsin.
Robert Schuler has been writing for fifty years. His fifteenth collection of poems, The Book of Jeweled Visions, has recently been published by Tom Montag’s MWPH Books, PO Box 8, Fairwater, WI 53931. Price: $12.50 plus $1.50 postage.
Nancy Scott is an artist and author of five books of poetry, as well as the managing editor of U.S.1 Worksheets, the journal of the U.S.1 Poets' Cooperative in New Jersey. Raised in Illinois, Nancy has had ties to Wisconsin from summer camp to college to lakefront property, which her family owned until recently and which has been the focus of numerous poems. Visit www.nancyscott.net.
A lifelong resident of Wisconsin, Kathleen Serley enjoys all of our seasons: spring gardening, summer beach combing, fall hiking and winter snow shoeing. She teaches English.
Sharon Lee Shaffi's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1994.
Margaret Sherman is a retired teacher. She’s lived and worked in Wisconsin all her life. Her poetry has appeared in a few publications including the 2012 edition of the Wisconsin Poets' Calendar.
Danny Earl Simmons’ work has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals such as Naugatuck River Review, Avatar Review, Summerset Review, The Smoking Poet, Burningword, and Pirene’s Fountain. dannyearlsimmons.blogspot.com.
Thomas R. Smith is a Master Track instructor in poetry at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. His most recent collections are Kinnickinnic (Parallel Press), and The Foot of the Rainbow from Red Dragonfly Press. www.thomasrsmithpoet.com.
J.R.Solonche is coauthor of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). His work has been appearing in magazines and journals since the 1970s. He teaches at SUNY Orange in Middletown, New York.
Susan Spear is an affiliate professor of English at Colorado Christian University. She earned an MFA in the Verse forms of Poetry from Western State Colorado University. Her poems have appeared in Academic Questions, The Lyric, Mezzo Cammin, and Relief. She also loves music and serves as a choir accompanist and church organist. She lives on the eastern plains of Colorado with her husband. They have three grown children.
Robert Spiess's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1994.
“Hola, Tortuga” is Trish Stachelski’s CD of original songs in English and Spanish. Her poems have appeared in Hummingbird and Exposure: Words from Images at The Pump House in La Crosse, WI.Visit longfellowfarmer.com.
Sandy Stark, Madison, is the author of Counting on Birds, published by Wisconsin’s Fireweed Press in 2010. Her poems have appeared in the Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar, the Texas Poetry Calendar, the former Wisconsin Academy Review, and Verse Wisconsin. This is her third time participating in one of MMoCA’s collaborations with the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.
Born in central Wisconsin, Robin Stuebbe moved to the eastern side of Lake Winnebago when she got her first teaching job. In 2006, she first heard Ellen Kort read her work at an art studio in Hilbert, Wisconsin.
Heather Swan is a Ph.D. candidate in Literary and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison whose research examines the human relationship with honeybees through time. Her poetry has appeared (or is forthcoming) in The Cream City Review, Poet Lore, Iris, Basalt, Wisconsin People and Ideas, and others. Her short collection, The Edge of Damage won first prize from the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets in 2009. She is also a visual art and a beekeeper.
Judy Swann lives in gorgeous Ithaca, NY in a small house painted in Frida Kahlo colors. Her poetry has appeared in Lilliput Review, Verse Wisconsin, Soundzine and other places both in print and online. She is an Iowan who often visited Wisconsin in her youth.
Richard Swanson is the author of two collections Men in the Nude in Socks and Not Quite Eden and a forthcoming chapbook (Paparazzi Moments), from Fireweed Press. A frequent reviewer for Verse Wisconsin, he is also the Secretary of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.
Margaret Swedish hails from Wisconsin and is currently working on a multi-generational memoir about our immigrant roots and the unsustainable American Dream. She lived and worked in theWashington, DC area for24 years as director of the Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico, anational office in the days of the solidarity movement (1981-2005). She returned to Milwaukee in 2007, creating a project called 'Spirituality and Ecological Hope,' which addresses the challenges of our ecological crises to the U.S. culture and our way of life. She is co-author with Marie Dennis of Like Grains of Wheat: A Spirituality of Hope (2004), chronicling the story of U.S. Americans who encountered the reality of Central America during the time of civil war, and author of, Living Beyond the 'End of theWorld': A Spirituality of Hope (2008), which challenges the values and belief systems that have helped bring about the crisis, while offering a spirituality that can help us live through and beyond it. Both are published by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Marilyn L. Taylor, former Poet Laureate of the state of Wisconsin (2009 and 2010) and of Milwaukee (2004 and 2005), is the author of six collections of poetry. Her award-winning poems and essays have appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Poetry, The American Scholar, Able Muse, Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” online column, and a new collection from Random House titled Villanelles. Marilyn taught poetry and poetics for fifteen years at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and currently serves as a board member for several writers’ organizations.
Jeanie Tomasko is the author of Sharp as Want (Little Eagle Press) a poetry / artworks collaboration with Sharon Auberle, and Tricks of Light (Parallel Press). She lives in Middleton where she and her husband, Steve, grow garlic, eat garlic, give away lots of garlic, and are in an exquisitely pungent poetry group called Garlic. Her chapbook, The Collect of the Day, is forthcoming from Centennial Press. (Parallel Press, 2011).
Elizabeth Tornes’ Snowbound won the First Prize in the 2012 WFOP Chapbook Contest. Her second chapbook, New Moon, an Honorable Mention Winner in the New Women’s Voices contest, will be published by Finishing Line Press in 2013.
Charles Trimberger takes advanced poetry courses at the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee and is an assistant editor for the Cream City Review, the UWM literary magazine.
vincent tripi's poem appeared in Hummingbird, Magazine of the Short Poem in 1991.
Diane Unterweger’s poems have appeared in Sugar House Review, Luna Creciente, Verse Wisconsin, and the 2012 Wisconsin Poets Calendar.
Wendy Vardaman (wendyvardaman.com) is the author of Obstructed View (Fireweed Press), co-editor/webmaster of Verse Wisconsin and co-founder/co-editor of Cowfeather Press. She is one of Madison, Wisconsin's two Poets Laureate (2012-2015).
Carolyn Vargo is a Regional Vice President for WFOP, a substitute teacher in West Allis-West Milwaukee, a retired teacher from Milwaukee Public Schools, an organizer of readings at People’s Book Cooperative, teacher of the Urban Echo Poets at the Urban Ecology Center, a bird watcher and a grandmother.
Lisa Vihos has two chapbooks, A Brief History of Mail (Pebblebrook Press, 2011) and The Accidental Present (Finishing Line Press, 2012). She is an associate editor of Stoneboat and an occasional guest blogger for The Best American Poetry digital.
Moisés Villavicencio Barras, Mexican poet, fiction writer and co-founder of Cantera Verde, one of the most significant literary publications in Mexico for the last twenty years. His first book of poetry May among Voices was published 2001. Luz de Todos los Tiempos / Light of All Times (bilingual edition) will be published June 2013 by Cowfeather Press.
Angela Voras-Hills earned her MFA at UMass-Boston and was a Fellow at the Writers’ Room of Boston. She currently lives in Madison where she teaches writing workshops through The Writers in Prison Project, UW-Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies, and Madison Public Library. Her work has recently appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Cimarron Review, and Linebreak, among others.
Phyllis Walsh was the creator and founding editor of Hummingbird: Magazine of the Short Poem, which is in its twenty-third year.
Timothy Walsh’s poems and short stories have appeared in The North American Review, Arts & Letters, Cutthroat, New Millennium Writings, and others. His awards include the Grand Prize in the Atlanta Review International Poetry Competition, the Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize from North American Review, and the Wisconsin Academy Fiction Prize. He is the author of a book of literary criticism, The Dark Matter of Words: Absence, Unknowing, and Emptiness in Literature (Southern Illinois University Press).
Ed Werstein spent 22 years in manufacturing and union activity before his muse awoke and dragged herself out of bed. His sympathies lie with poor and working people. He advocates for peace and against corporate power. His poetry has appeared in Verse Wisconsin, Blue Collar Review, Mobius Magazine and a few other publications.
Marilyn Zelke-Windau recently retired from teaching art to elementary school children. Her poems have appeared in several literary journals.
Fran Zell writes fiction, poetry, and drama. She is the author of The Marcy Stories, which won the Banta Award for literary achievement from the Wisconsin Library Association. She is a freelance journalist and a former feature writer for the Chicago Tribune. She is also a member of Midwest New Musicals, a Chicago area workshop for writers of musical theatre.
