Ellen Kort served as Wisconsin’s first Poet Laureate from 2000-2004. She has traveled widely and for decades has been committed to poetry, teaching, giving public readings, and facilitating workshops and retreats. She offers poetry workshops…
Jack is the president of 800-CEO-READ, now an independent company, but longtime partner of the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops. Hired twenty-five years ago by the late David Schwartz to promote business and computer books to the…
NPR commentator Beth Finke is the author of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” (Blue Marlin Publications) a winner of the ASPCA’s Henry Bergh Award for children’s literature. Her memoir “Long Time, No See” (University of…
“I always felt I was born into the wrong century,” Patty Pfitsch says. Inspired by her favorite childhood books, Caddie Woodlawn and Little House in the Big Woods, she persuaded her husband to move to…
Picture book author Jim Aylesworth tells his stories with generous doses of loud sounds, rhythms and rhymes. His experiences as a teacher have taught him that these are the elements children like in a story,…
From 2001-2005, Dr. James J. Lorence served as Eminent Scholar of History at Gainesville State College in Gainesville, GA. Lorence is currently Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, where he taught…
Julie Bowe grew up just outside of Luck, WI, within a Danish-American community called West Denmark. As a young Dane she learned that blue plates are hung on walls, not set on tables, Christmas trees…
**Sadly, poet Todd Moore passed away unexpectedly in March. The Festival will remember and honor the work of this fine poet with a reading of some of his poems. Please watch for details in our forthcoming…
Jacqueline Houtman spent much of her life in training as a scientist, earning a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology. After leaving the lab, she began a career as a freelance science writer. She has…
Joseph J. Foy is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, Law, and Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Foy is the editor of the books Homer Simpson Goes to Washington: American…
