TIM AKERS splits his writing time between roleplaying games and novels. He has earned credits with White Wolf, Wyrd Games, Paizo, and Kobold Press. His Knight Watch series has been described as Men in Black at the Ren Faire. His most recent novel, Wraithbound, starts a new epic flintlock fantasy adventure in an apocalyptic world of hard magic, dangerous cabals, and ancient secrets. He lives in Chicago with his indefatigable wife and a mountain of unpainted miniatures.
https://www.timakers.net/
MARY ELISE ANTOINE was born and raised in Prairie du Chien. She has worked in the museum field, including as the curator of Villa Louis State Historic Site. The early history of Prairie du Chien has been the focus of her research, resulting in many articles and several books. Three are published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, including Enslaved, Indentured, Free. A book about the women of the Dousman family will be published in 2025.
ELISA BERNICK is a writer and journalist. She is the author most recently of the 2022 Forward INDIE gold award-winning memoir Betty Crocker Made Matzoh Balls (and Other Lies). She has written many travel, how-to and parenting articles, and the travel guide The Family Sabbatical Handbook: The Budget Guide to Living Abroad with Your Family. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
https://elisabernick.com/
ANGIE BIER is a former pediatrician, mother, Wisconsinite from birth, and an accomplished amateur genealogist. She brings these sensibilities to her writing, which can be found most recently in Evening Street Review and An Accidental Archivist, a genealogical mystery memoir. She is a student of AllWriters Workplace & Workshop and a member of the Door County Published Authors Collective. She lives between Franklin and Gills Rock, Wisconsin.
ALEX BLEDSOE grew up in Tennessee an hour north of Memphis (home of Elvis) and twenty minutes from Nutbush (birthplace of Tina Turner). He’s been a reporter, photographer, legal copy editor and door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. He currently lives in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls. He has published 14 novels including his latest, Dandelion, a southern-fried tale of demonic possession and big box stores.
DANIELLE BRIDGES is a Milwaukee-based musician, educator, and writer. Her interest in the lives and art of women carries from her professional life, where she advocates for music by women composers, to her poetry, where she writes about nameless women in the Old Testament. She studies at AllWriters’ Workshop in Waukesha.
LIAM CALLANAN’s novel, When in Rome, was an Oprah magazine spring reading pick and will be published in Italian later this year. His previous novel, Paris by the Book, a national bestseller, was translated into multiple languages and won the 2019 Edna Ferber Prize. He’s taught at UWM for close to 20 years.
https://www.liamcallanan.com/
CHRISTOPHER CHAMBERS is the author of two collections of fiction, Delta 88, and Kind of Blue, and Inter/views, a book of poems. His work has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Fence, The Normal School, and The Southern Review, and has received 5 Pushcart Prize nominations. He’s lived in North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, and Wisconsin.
http://www.christopherchambers.net
PHILIP CHARD is a psychotherapist, writer, trainer and public speaker. His weekly award- winning newspaper column, “Out of My Mind,” begun in 1985, can be read in the Shepherd Express and on Chard’s website. He’s written three books, Nature’s Ways; The Healing Earth; and Beast Management, and has a few more in progress.
www.philipchard.com
BRYAN CHERRY is a poet shaped by his evolving home city, Milwaukee. His work has been featured in Return to the Gathering Place of the Waters Anthology (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press) and in South Florida Poetry Journal. In 2021 he was named an emerging poet by Saint John’s on the Lake. His new chapbook, death moan, is out on Willow Books.
DR. CAROL CORNELIUS, retired as Area Manager Oneida Cultural Heritage, continues to teach one course per semester alternating with College of Menominee Nation and University of Wisconsin Green Bay. Author of Iroquois Corn in a Culture Based Curriculum: A Framework for Respectfully Teaching about Cultures and A History in Indigenous Voices: Menominee, HoChunk, Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown Interactions in the Removal Era.
FLORENCE CHARD DACEY’s latest poetry book is The Mercy of Stone. (Midwest Villages & Voices, 2023) Her poems are grounded in her experiences as a woman, mother and grandmother and sometimes draw on her involvement in feminist, peace and justice, and environmental causes. She lives in Northfield Minnesota. To learn more about Florence’s poetry, visit her website:
www.florencedacey.com
CAMILLE E. DAVIS is a first-time author of a memoir called Time Wasted. She was the main speaker three times for the “A Day At Meta House” fundraiser, a treatment facility for women. She also was a speaker at a roundtable with Meta House executive staff and other professionals, including Senator Tammy Baldwin, that aired on the news in 2023. Camille did theatrical poetry that was the main act for “Stop The Violence” at Destiny’s High School in 2009. And she motivates people at churches and on the streets in hopes they turn their lives around for a greater purpose.
JANE DeGEORGE earned her BA in Communication and MS in Counseling. DeGeorge resigned from a 20-year non-profit management career to assist others navigate their soul journeys providing individual psychic medium readings and group workshops. DeGeorge wrote seven Soul Journey workbooks; writes about life, love and Spirit through poems, short stories, and currently, her first book.
JOHN D’EMILIO is a pioneer in the field of LGBTQ studies and the history of sexuality. He is the author or editor of almost a dozen books. His biography of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, Lost Prophet, was a finalist for the National Book Award. His book, Queer Legacies, is a collection of stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ history. Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood is his most recent book.
KURT DIETRICH is Professor Emeritus of Music at Ripon College, where he was Barbara Baldwin DeFrees Chair in the Performing Arts. He has written many articles and three books on jazz, including Wisconsin Riffs: Jazz Profiles from the Heartland from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. He earned degrees from Lawrence University, Northwestern University, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He plays trombone with various groups around Wisconsin.
https://kurtdietrich.net/
MARISA RAE DONDLINGER is the author of Gray Lines; Open; Scenes From a Bar; and Come And Get Me, set for release in April 2024. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, Marisa practiced law for several years before devoting herself to writing fiction. When not writing, she enjoys reading, exercising, and watching her daughters play sports.
KAREN CUTLER DRECHTRAH is the author of Little Ida-The Story of a Family Tree and this is her first novel. She’s also had a short story recorded and aired on Our American Stories national radio program and short stories published in Christmas anthology books. She and her husband currently live in Appleton, Wisconsin.
CAROL DUNBAR is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Net Beneath Us–winner of the Wisconsin Writers: Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wisconsin Public Radio, and more. A Winter’s Rime is her second novel.
www.caroldunbar.com
TOM MONTGOMERY FATE is a professor emeritus at College DuPage in Glen Ellyn IL, where he taught creative writing and literature courses for more than 30 years. He is the author of six books of creative nonfiction, including The Long Way Home: Detours and Discoveries, a collection of travel essays, Cabin Fever, a nature memoir, and Steady and Trembling, a spiritual memoir. A regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune, his essays have appeared in Orion, The Iowa Review, The Boston Globe, Terrain, Fourth Genre and many others. Dozens of his essays have also aired on NPR and Chicago Public Radio.
www.tomfate.com
LORI FREDRICH is a writer and avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. She is the Dining Editor at OnMilwaukee.com, host of the podcast FoodCrush and author of two books, including Wisconsin Field to Fork: Farm Fresh Recipes from the Dairy State. Her work has also been featured in Bon Appetit, Cheese Connoisseur and Cooking Light.
MOLLY FULLER is the author of the full-length collections For Girls Forged by Lightning: Prose & Other Poems (All Nations Press) and Always a Body (Cornerstone Press), as well as two chapbooks, Tender the Body (Spare Change Press) and The Neighborhood Psycho Dreams of Love (Cutty Wren Press). She is the winner of the Gris-Gris Literary Journal Summer Poetry Contest.
https://mfuller6.wixsite.com/website
PAMELA J. A. FULLERTON, author, storyteller, and speaker, was raised as one of 15 preacher’s kids. Her anthology of prize winning stories, Red Road Redemption was recently published by WWA Press. A retired lawyer, she lives near Wausau raising horses, incredible dogs, and always writing. She writes about what allows us as human beings the great privilege of dreams, laughter…or tears.
https://www.pjafullerton.com/
MAX GARLAND’s newest book is Into the Good World Again (2023). Others include The Word We Used for It (Brittingham Prize); Hunger Wide as Heaven (Cleveland State Poetry Prize); and The Postal Confessions (Juniper Prize). Awards include fellowships from the NEA, Michener Foundation, and Wisconsin Arts Commission. He’s Professor Emeritus at UW-Eau Claire, and the former Poet Laureate of Wisconsin.
BARB GEIGER lives and writes in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Her memoir, Paddle for a Purpose (eLectio Publishing, 2018) received the 2019 first place PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence. Barb’s short memoir and poetry have appeared in several anthologies and Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ calendars. Her first poetry chapbook, Mississippi Meanderings, is scheduled for release in 2024 by Finishing Line Press.
MAGGIE GINSBERG is a senior editor at Madison Magazine and author of the novel Still True, published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Still True is the honorable mention selection for the 2022 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, a 2023 Midwest Book Awards silver medal winner, and one of three finalists for the WFWA STAR Award for Outstanding Debut.
www.maggieginsberg.com
KATHIE GIORGIO is the author of seven novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry books. Awards include Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award In Fiction. Her work has been incorporated in art exhibits and performed on stage.
www.kathiegiorgio.org
LILLY J. GOREN is professor of political science at Carroll University. She teaches American government, the presidency, politics and culture, gender studies, and political theory. She is co editor of The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as co-editor of the award winning book, Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics.
https://www.carrollu.edu/faculty/goren-lilly-phd
NICHOLAS GULIG is a Thai-American poet from Wisconsin. A 2011 Fulbright Fellow, Gulig has received numerous other accolades for his work including the Rushkin Art Club Poetry Award, the Black Warrior Review Poetry Prize, the Grist ProForma Award, and the CSU Open Book Poetry Prize. The current Wisconsin Poet Laureate and a fellow at the Academy of American Poets, Gulig also works as Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and lives with his wife and two daughters in Fort Atkinson.
https://wisconsinpoetlaureate.org/profile/nicholas-gulig
KRISTINE HANSEN, Based in Milwaukee, is a journalist focused on travel, food/drink and art/design, with stories published on Vogue.com, ArchitecturalDigest.com and TravelandLeisure.com, and in Milwaukee Magazine and MKE Lifestyle Magazine. Her latest book is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wisconsin: How America’s Most Famous Architect Found Inspiration in His Home States published in June of 2023 by Globe Pequot Press.
https://www.kristineahansen.com/
ROBIN HEMLEY has published fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent books are the autofiction, Oblivion, An After-Autobiography (Gold Wake, 2022); The Art and Craft of Asian Stories: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology, co authored with Xu Xi (Bloomsbury, 2021); and Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood (Nebraska, 2020, Penguin SE Asia, 2021). He has previously published four collections of short stories, and his stories have been widely anthologized. His widely-used writing text, Turning Life into Fiction, has sold over a hundred thousand copies and has been in print for nearly thirty years. His work has been published and translated widely and he has received such awards as a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, three Pushcart Prizes in both nonfiction and fiction, The Nelson Algren Award for Fiction, The Independent Press Book Award for Memoir, among others. His short stories have been featured several times on NPR’s Selected Shorts and his essays and short stories have appeared in such journals as Creative Nonfiction, Conjunctions, Guernica, The Iowa Review, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and many others. He is the Founder of the international nonfiction conference, NonfictioNOW and was the director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at The University of Iowa for nine years, inaugural director of The Writers’ Centre at Yale-NUS, Singapore, and is a graduate of The Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is co-editor with Leila Philip of Speculative Nonfiction (Specualtivenonfiction.org) and co founder of Authors at Large with Xu Xi (aalauthors.com). His websites are Robinhemley.com and Oblvion.cafe. His substack is Turning Life into Fiction
https://robinhemley.substack.com/
RONNIE HESS is an award-winning poet and essayist who lives in Madison, WI. She is the author of six poetry collections and two culinary travel guides. Her most recent book of poems is Tripping the Light Ekphrastic (2022, Kelsay Books). Coming soon is Eggphrasis, (2024, WordTech), a collection of poems inspired by the hens in Hess’ back yard.
www.ronniehess.com
JOYCE GARDNER HURD is a novelist and former advertising executive. Growing up in Massachusetts, as the child of deaf parents, she learned to appreciate her parents’ resilience and courage. She now lives near the seacoast in New Hampshire with her cat, Kiki. A writer of historical fiction, her debut novel, Always Forward, is a tribute to her late father.
JEANETTE HURT is a culinary historian, TEDx speaker, and author of 15 books, including Dehydrating; The Unofficial ALDI Cookbook; Drink Like A Woman; and Wisconsin Cocktails. As a recipe developer, she loves delighting family and friends with her latest experiments in the woodland retreat that she shares with her architect husband, their son, and their chihuahua Great Pyrenees rescue Dot in the Wisconsin woods.
www.jeanettehurt.com
STEPHEN KANTROWITZ is Plaenert-Bascom Professor of History at UW-Madison. Citizen of A Stolen Land is his third book. He has also contributed to the 2022 “Sifting & Reckoning” exhibition, Justified Anger’s community course “Black History for a New Day,” and “Our Shared Future,” which seeks to deepen the campus’s relationship with Ho-Chunk Nation and the Native American past and present.
https://history.wisc.edu/people/kantrowitz-stephen/
JONATHAN KASPAREK is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha. He teaches courses in Wisconsin and Midwestern history and is the author of biographies of Philip La Follette and William Proxmire.
MEG KISSINGER spent more than two decades traveling across the country to report on America’s mental health system for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, she has won dozens of accolades, including two George Polk Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors, and two National Journalism Awards. Kissinger teaches investigative reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and was a visiting professor at DePauw University, her alma mater. Her stories on the abysmal living conditions for people with mental illness inspired changes to Wisconsin law and led to the creation of hundreds of new housing units. She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her husband.
www.megkissinger.com
JIM LANDWEHR has four published memoirs, At the Lake; Cretin Boy; Dirty Shirt; and The Portland House. He also has five poetry collections, Thoughts from a Line at the DMV; Genetically Speaking; On a Road; Reciting from Memory; and Written Life. Jim is a past Poet Laureate for the Village of Wales, WI.
https://sites.google.com/view/jimlandwehr/home
ELLYN LEM is a Professor of English and Gender Studies at the University of WI-Milwaukee at Waukesha where she has taught writing and literature courses since 2003. Her most recent book was Gray Matters: Finding Meaning in the Stories of Later Life.
JAMES LOWDER is a bestselling author and award-winning editor of novels, anthologies, short fiction, comic books, and tabletop RPG material. His work has received six Origins Awards and two Ennie Awards, and has been a finalist for the International Horror Guild Award and the Stoker Award. His annual holiday Games To Gift segment has aired on WUWM’s Lake Effect since 2010.
VALYA DUDYCZ LUPESCU is the author of The Silence of Trees, a magical realism novel, and the co-author of Forking Good: An Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of The Good Place and Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family. The first volume of her new graphic novel trilogy, Mother Christmas, was published by Rosarium Publishing in 2022.
www.vdlupescu.com
ROBERT MILTNER’s books include a lyric memoir, Ohio Apertures (Cornerstone Press at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point); a short story collection, And Your Bird Can Sing ( Bottom Dog Press); and three collections of prose poetry: Hotel Utopia (New Rivers Press); Orpheus & Echo (Etruscan Press); and Cicatrix Vortex Codex (MadHat Press, forthcoming). For more information visit:
https://etruscanpress.org/authors/
BARBARA MINER is a writer, photographer and multi-media artist. For four decades she worked as a reporter, writer and editor, and is the author of Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City (New York: New Press, 2013) In May 2023, she received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.
www.barbarajminer.com
ERICA RUTH NEUBAUER spent eleven years in the military, nearly two as a Maryland police officer and one as a high school English teacher before finding her way as a writer. She is the author of the Agatha-award winning Jane Wunderly series, which are set all over the world. Erica Ruth lives in Milwaukee, WI.
https://www.ericaruthneubauer.com/
MARY ANN NOE is the author of To Know Her; A Handful of Pearls; Hannah’s Eyes; and Water the Color of Slate, as well as short stories, non fiction, and poetry, found in numerous print and online publications. She taught middle and high school for 30 years. Visit www.maryannnoe.com for her blog, a collection of photos, a contact link, and more.
CRISTINA M. R. NORCROSS is the editor of Blue Heron Review and the co-founder of Random Acts of Poetry and Art Day. Author of nine poetry collections and a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, her most recent book is The Sound of a Collective Pulse (Kelsay Books, 2021). Cristina was featured in the Poem-A-Day series for the Academy of American Poets.
https://www.cristinanorcross.com
ANDREA POTOS is the author of seven full length collections of poetry, most recently Her Joy Becomes (Fernwood Press); Marrow of Summer; and Mothershell, both from Kelsay Books. Andrea’s work appears widely in print and online, most recently in The Sun, Spiritus, Portage Magazine, Poetry East, Potomac Review, Poem, and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope (Storey Publishing). She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
CHRISTY PRAHL is the author of the poetry collection We Are Reckless (Cornerstone Press, 2023), Shortlisted for the Stephen Meats Poetry Prize and a Best of the Net and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has been published in many national and international journals, including the Penn Review, Broadkill Review, and Salt Hill Journal. More can be found at:
https://christyprahl.wixsite.com/christy-prahl
KATHY RANDALL creatively brought science to life for her students as a middle school teacher. Her career includes adult education, programming for non-profit environmental organizations and writing. Her debut novel, The Listening Tree, was published in 2021. She is currently weaving real science into the magical adventure of the second book in the trilogy. Her blog can be found at:
www.kathrynrandall.com.
BLYTHE ROBERSON is a comedian, a humor writer, and author of the books America The Beautiful? and How to Date Men When You Hate Men. She has written for The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Washington Post, and for the NPR quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Blythe was raised between Illinois and Wisconsin and currently lives in Brooklyn.
www.blytheroberson.com
NIGEL ROTHFELS is the author of two books about animals and history: Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo and Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures. He is also co author (with Dick Blau) of the book Elephant House, and editor of the book series Animalibus: Of Animals and Cultures, published by Penn State UP.
ELLEN A. SCHNEIDER, a.k.a. fiction author E.A. Lawrence (she/her/hers) has been writing the blog, Technicolor Lily Pond, since 2011. Ellen has written about a variety of creative subjects and often includes her photography. A biologist, Ellen works in academia and is a published fiction writer. Ellen lives in Waukesha with multiple sclerosis and her family
R.B. SIMON is a queer, black, disabled writer whose work has found homes in multiple literary publications. Her chapbook, The Good Truth, was released in July 2021 from Finishing Line Press, and her full-length collection, Not Just the Fire, was released in March 2023 from Cornerstone Press. She is currently living in Madison, WI with her spouse and daughter.
https://www.rbsimon.com/
BRICE D. SMITH is the author of Lambda Literary finalist Lou Sullivan: Daring to Be a Man Among Men, and a contributor to PBS’s Wisconsin Pride. Dr. Smith also directs lgbt milWALKee, a free multimedia walking tour app for the city’s queer and trans history, and the House of History, a digital project devoted to Milwaukee’s Black LGBTQ+ history.
MEL SOBOLEWSKI writes animal-themed stories that feel authentic because they are. As an animal rescuer working on a ranch in Southern California, she is focused on the rehabilitation and placement of animals into homes and sanctuaries, assisting in emergency animal evacuation efforts during natural disasters, and lobbying for animal welfare laws on a state and federal level. Mel’s expertise shines through in her new middle-grade series, Moonlight Mile Ranch.
JON M. SWEENEY has been interviewed by a range of publications from the Dallas Morning News to The Irish Catholic, on radio with NPR and the BBC, and on CBS Saturday Morning and NBC’s Morning Blend in Milwaukee. He is that rare author who is reviewed in scholarly journals but also at Romper.com and in Catster Magazine. His latest book is Sit in the Sun: And Other Lessons in the Spiritual Wisdom of Cats, which sat on the Boswell Book Co. bestsellers list for ten weeks. He lives in Riverwest.
ALISON TOWNSEND is the author of a memoir, The Green Hour, and two books of poetry, Persephone in America and The Blue Dress. Her work has been recognized in Best American Poety, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Essays 2020. Professor emerita of English at UW-Whitewater, she lives in the farm country outside of Madison.
ANGIE TRUDELL VASQUEZ is the current city of Madison Poet Laureate (2020-2024) and the first Latina to hold the position. She received her MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2017. In Light, Always Light, came out in 2019, and her fourth collection of poetry, My People Redux, in 2022 both by Finishing Line Press.
angietrudellvasquez.com
CHRIS YOGERST is associate professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the author of several books on film history and his work can also be found in The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Washington Post.
https://www.chrisyogerst.com/
DAVID ZUCKER is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Associated mostly with parody comedies, Zucker is recognized as the director and writer of the critically successful 1980 film Airplane! as well as being the creator of The Naked Gun franchise and for directing Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4.
