Poetry On Air

Michael Rothenberg passed away after a long bout with cancer on November 21, 2022. He was born on February 17, 1951 in Miami Beach, Florida. He became a highly published poet, prolific artist, songwriter, editor, and was a lifelong activist and lover of nature. Michael lived in Northern California for many years where he cultivated orchids and bromeliads in Pacifica, at his plant nursery, Shelldance. He founded Big Bridge Magazine, one of the first online literary journals, and helped create Poets in Need, a group providing emergency funds to poets in crisis. In 2011, he and his spouse Terri Carrion founded the international organization 100 Thousand Poets for Change and the "Read A Poem To A Child" Initiative. In 2016 they moved to Tallahassee and found their home on the shores of Lake Jackson, where Michael became an inspiring force in the creative community of Tallahassee. He will be missed by many who considered him a mentor and a friend.

Heather Hanlon's poems have appeared in journals, zines, and art exhibitions throughout Wisconsin. As a graduate student at UW-Milwaukee, she has also published articles that focus on functional and contemporary art practice. She is currently working as a museum professional at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, and is interested in how the practice of art and engagement with art can be a form of social healing.

Charm Joy Der has a Masters in Education. She is a wife, a mother to two inquisitive and energetic young sons, an entrepreneur, and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategist. Through her work, she aims to provide a space where all children see themselves in literature. Her debut book, My Happiness Counts, takes readers on a joyful counting adventure to happiness.

Marilyn Zelke Windau is a poet, born in Chicago, who lives in Sheboygan Falls. She has a degree in art education from UW-Madison and taught art at the elementary, middle, and high school levels for many years. She has published four books of poetry with over 180 poems in various journals. She and her husband have three daughters, three grandchildren, and she loves to travel.

Janet Ross was born in 1924 in Evanston, Illinois. She was an only child who spent her time reading and drawing, until her mother told her to go outside to play. She came to Sheboygan in the mid 1950s and raised her family here. For forty years, she was a docent at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. She is a painter, a weaver, a lover of poetry, and a dedicated peace activist. She was also, for more than two decades, a Partner in Reading through the Sheboygan Area School District.

An east coast native, Georgia Ressmeyer has lived in Wisconsin since 1974, first as a lawyer in Milwaukee, now as a poet in Sheboygan. She has published two poetry chapbooks and two full-length collections. Her most recent chapbook is Leading a Life (Water’s Edge Press, 2021). See georgiaressmeyer.com for more information.

Maryann Hurtt is a poet and former hospice nurse who lives in Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine. She is a dedicated world traveler and is passionate about environmental issues. She has published two books of poetry, the latest being Once Upon a Tar Creek: Mining for Voices (Turning Plow Press, 2021). 

Scott Allen Schmidt is an Afro-Bahamian/Irish American writer, poet, actor, lyricist, former rock-and-roll front man, construction recruiter, and wayward son of a Northwoods preacher. His writing can be found in Stoneboat Literary Journal and in From Everywhere a Little: A Migration Anthology from Water’s Edge Press.

Deb Sabol-Williams spent her career as the founder and artistic director of Sheboygan's Theater for Young Audiences. Bringing popular and award-winning children's literature to life in classrooms, libraries and on stages has been Deb’s life's calling.