Bios

         Richard Bell

I began writing when I was young, before computers, on a typewriter. I learned early that if you type fast and make mistakes, you get some hilarious results. My current writing began as therapy when my wife and I were both laid off from our jobs at the same time she became ill. The stories are designed for people dealing with stress. My ebook is titled Life Seemed Good, But…. and is a collection of short, interrelated fairy tales for adults. Many are taken from my monthly column for Wassup Local magazine, published from Milwaukee to Chicago, which I have been writing for over 5 years now. The stories are about me, people in general, and talking animals, all taking place in and around the Mystee Forest. You can find the book at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/46287 . I was also published in Pandora’s Box, Southport Press, 2011.

       Darleen Coleman

Darleen Coleman is a writer, artist, and junker—not necessarily in that order. Her short fiction has been published in Great Lakes Review; Bird’s Thumb; and Undertow, the Guild’s 2017 anthology. One of her stories was in the top 25 of Glimmer Train’s 2009 short fiction contest.

Her characters tend toward the bruised and broken, those seeking a sense of family and struggling to find their place in the world. She writes without a plan, letting her characters dictate where the story goes.

Born and raised in Chicago, she did time in the suburbs before fleeing north across the cheddar border nearly three decades ago. A member of the Guild since 2009, she now lives in a vintage bungalow in Kenosha with the two lovely dogs who rescued her.

                     Chris DeGuire

Chris DeGuire has been a member of the Kenosha Writers Guild since 2008. He teaches writing and rhetoric at Triton College in River Grove, IL and fiction workshops at Columbia College Chicago. He has been published in Hair Trigger and F-Magazine. He still makes the meetings in spirit from Forest Park, IL

               Joe Engel

Joe flits between poetry and fiction, a moth between two porch lights.  He has been lucky enough to have his work appear in “Harpur Palate“, “Cold Mountain Review“, “Other Poetry” and some others.  He has made many new friends and colleagues in the KWG who have offered valuable insight into his writing. You should join if you haven’t already.  If you would like to read one of Joe’s poems try “A Sense of Truth” at PrickoftheSpindle.com.

                  Dave Gourdoux
Dave Gourdoux suffers from angoraphobia (the abnormal fear of leaving one’s house while wearing a wool sweater). He has had his work published in the Midwest Prairie Review and Left of the Lake magazine. He is searching for a publisher for his first novel, Ojibway Valley, and is about 70% complete with the first draft of a second novel. He is a staff contributor to 2nd First Look, (2ndfirstlook.com), an arts oriented web site, writing articles celebrating films, music and literature. He also hosts his own website, “Drivel by Dave“ (djgourdoux.wordpress.com). He leads a local Parkinson’s disease support group and volunteers as a tutor for adult literacy. His goal is that someday, after he dies, someone will hire him as a ghost writer.

                     TJ Morris
TJ Morris is a talented artist, who graduated from Columbia College of Chicago. She has a love for painting, photography, writing, storytelling and genealogy. TJ loves a good tale, short or tall. She spends as much of her time as possible, writing historical fiction stories for performing arts, poetry and publications. TJ Morris has published two books The True Heart (Poetry) and Blood is Thicker Than Color (Novella). She currently has two more books in the mix. She loves to talk about African American History, whether it’s by the way of performing arts, writing or round table discussion. For more information on TJ Morris, please visit http://www.tjmorris.info

                  Jim Payne     

Jim Payne is a retired psychotherapist who continues to facilitate cancer support groups and counsel individuals. He writes about the tangled motives in his characters as they delve into their avoidance of fears, especially fear of success. He follows them as they come to understand themselves struggling with the crises and crossroads in their lives.
Jim facilitates the Kenosha Writers Guild’s Character Analysis Workshops once or twice a year and serves on the Guild’s Steering Committee. He participates in producing Speaking Of Our Words, the Guild’s video interviews with writers, and is published in the Guild’s anthology, Undertow.
He gets support, guidance, and critiquing from fellow members of the Kenosha Writer’s Guild — friends who share their experience to help him become a writer.

                  Marshall Smith

I am retired (and recovering 😀) from a career in executive management in the healthcare industry. I’m a published poet, love poetry, and learned this craft at the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop MFA Program where I was lucky enough to meet and be under the tutelage of some of the last century’s most esteemed poets. It is currently my honor to conduct our KWG poetry workshop. I am married with 2 kids, one of whom is a veterinarian which means, my wife says, we will always have a dog whether we want to or not. I also volunteer as a career advisor at the Career Resource Center in Lake Forest, Illinois.

      Ron Larson

Ronald Paul Larson, a Kenosha native, received a BA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in History and Communication Arts. 1994: head text researcher for a documentary on the Revolutionary War for the Learning Channel. It won the cable Ace Award for “Best Documentary Series” in 1996. 1996 to 1999: Researcher/Writer for educational CD-ROMS. 2004: won the Third Place Certificate from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for “First Person Experience Column Writing for Newspapers.” The column was a reflection on his experiences as an embedded reporter during the invasion of Iraq from March to May 2003.
2004: contributed “Anatomy of a Bonding: An Embedded Reporter’s Account of the Bonding Process with the Soldiers” in War, Media, and Propaganda. A Global Perspective. 2005, he received an MA in history from California State University–Fullerton. In 2017 he contributed to Undertow, published by the Kenosha Writer’s Guild. In November 2017 his book Wisconsin and the Civil War was published by The History Press.

             Bob Katzman

Robert M. Katzman, 68, is a writer & poet born on the South Side of Chicago, a now lost civilization. He began writing poetry in 1958, had no formal education in writing which may be evident. Self-employed since 1962, he started a range of businesses: Bob’s Newsstands (which became a five store chain); Deli-Dali Delicatessen; Gulliver’s Periodicals, the first distributor (1975) of gay magazines in America; Grand Tour-a world travel foreign language bookstore; Magazine Memories-a back-issue store, inventory starting in 1576 (for 31 years) and Fighting Words Publishing Co.
He published four books between 2004-2008, sold 6,000+, then published a two-volume autobiography in March 2018. (Contacts) Facebook: Don’t Go Quietly Press; http://www.DifferentSlants.com (stories/poetry) http://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
Bob married Joyce in 1978, is now a widower, has four smart children 22 to 43 and one old dog, Max. He plans to publish more books and can be hired as a speaker.

            Lori Pohlman

Rachel “Lori” Pohlman is a semi-retired English teacher with a passion for writing, nature, travel, and family. She misses her children, grandchildren, and friends, and her mountain home in California, but she is a native Wisconsinite with a deep appreciation for the Midwest as well. Teaching, reading, working on her own writing projects, walking, kayaking, enjoying good wine, good music, and good company, along with always knowing she has at least one future trip written in ink on her calendar, lift her up and keep her moving. Lori currently lives in Kenosha with her husband and their two cats, Jack and London.

      Christine Schultz

Christine is at work completing an historic non-fiction book about two mysterious murders with eerie similarities that occurred decades apart and over a century ago, rocking the small Wisconsin community in which she resides. She writes short fiction, essays, and poetry to practice her craft and pursue her publication goals. Christine received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and has been a ghost writer for over twenty years.

 

           Christy Hoff

Christy Hoff has spent her entire life in her birthplace. Kenosha has forged her and left its mark on her writer’s soul. Don’t be fooled, she has traveled extensively inside the country and taken several forays outside of it. Previous publication includes contributing to and working on the team producing “The Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage.” She leads a small local writer’s workshop and teaches a whole lot of elementary students how to use technology.