Presenters for adult programs
Wendy Vardaman, wendyvardaman.com, is Poet Laureate (with Sarah Busse) of Madison, WI and co-editor/webmaster of Verse Wisconsin, versewisconsin.org, and Cowfeather Press, cowfeatherpress.org. She is the author of Obstructed View (Fireweed Press 2009) and co-editor of the 2013 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar. In addition to poetry, she writes essays and interviews, which Read more…
Bill Orth is an accomplished guitarist, bassist and vocalist who has been playing and performing for more than 40 years. He also composes music and has recorded one cd of original music with the band, annaranaway and another with Cathryn Cofell and Obvious Dog. He and Bruce Dethlefsen have been Read more…
Lisa Lickel is a Wisconsin writer who lives with her husband in a hundred and sixty-year-old house built by a Great Lakes ship captain. Surrounded by books and dragons, she writes inspiring fiction. Her published novels include mystery and romance, all with a twist of grace. She edits, writes book Read more…
Jacqueline “Jackie” Maggiore was raised in Appleton, WI, where she and Sister Carla (Carol Piette) became lifelong friends. A graduate of Marquette University, she earned an MSW degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She and her late husband Anthony raised their family in Milwaukee. Grandmother of three and retired from Read more…
Tracey Devlyn writes historical romantic thrillers (translation: a slightly more grievousjourney toward the heroine’s happy ending). Tracey’s also co-founder of Romance University, a group blog dedicated to readers and writers of romance, and Lady Jane’s Salon-Naperville, Chicagoland’s exciting new reading salon devoted to romantic fiction. An Illinois native, Tracey spends her evenings Read more…
Daniel P. Coughlin was born and raised in a small town in southern Wisconsin. At the age of 19 he joined the United States Marine Corps and served four and a half years as a Machinegunner in the infantry. After being Honorably discharged, Daniel attended and graduated from California State Read more…
Tawni O’Dell is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Fragile Beasts, Sister Mine, Coal Run, and Back Roads, which was an Oprah’s Book Club pick and a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection. Her work has been published in over 40 countries. Back Roads is currently in development to Read more…
SARA RATH is a versatile, award-winning author with over a dozen books in a variety of genres, including four volumes of poetry, seven nonfiction books (including three biographies) and is currently writing her third novel. Critics have said she has a “wicked sense of humor,” and her work is sometimes “laugh Read more…
Holly McDowell lived in Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina before discovering the magical and inspiring city of Chicago. She can be spotted drinking glögg, searching for the world’s best tapas bar and writing in coffee shops all over the windy city. King Solomon’s Wives is her first novel.
Cathryn Cofell’s poetry and essays have been published in hundreds of journals and anthologies, and appear in five books, most recently Kamikaze Commotion (Parallel Press). Her latest project is Lip, her poems to the music of Obvious Dog. Cathryn is a frequent keynote, radio guest, instructor and arts advocate, including stints as Read more…