The Council for Wisconsin Writers is led by a Board of Directors, a group of volunteers drawn from the organization’s greater membership.
Current Board Members
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Sylvia Cavanaugh, Sheboygan
Co-President
Email | Website
Sylvia Cavanaugh teaches high school cultural studies and has advised breakdancers and poets. She and her students are actively involved in the Sheboygan chapter of 100,000 Poets for Change. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she has published three chapbooks and her poems have appeared in various periodicals and anthologies. She is a Contributing Editor for Verse-Virtual: An Online Community Journal of Poetry and is the editor of English language poetry for Poetry Hall: A Chinese and English Bilingual Journal. Her work has received awards from The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Wisconsin People and Ideas, The Poetry Society of Michigan, Milwaukee Irish Fest, Peninsula Pulse, and others. -
Ron Czerwien, Madison
Co-President
Email | Website
Ron Czerwien operated Avol’s Bookstore in Madison for almost 20 years. These days he sells used and rare books on the Internet under the name of Avol’s Books LLC. His poems have appeared in a number of online and print journals. -
Jerrianne Hayslett, South Milwaukee
PR Director, Blogger, Banquet Chair
Jerrianne writes adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction and poetry. Her work has appeared in numerous literary and mass media publications, including The Times Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, Mosaics, and Nostalgia. Her award-winning book, Anatomy of a Trial: Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O.J. Simpson, was published in 2009 by the University of Missouri Press. She served as a court-media liaison and information officer in Los Angeles for more than a decade, has worked abroad as a communications consultant and court-media relations trainer, is a former newspaper reporter and editor, and has edited and published business-related newsletters.
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Nathan Reid, Madison
Board Member
Nathan J. Reid is a poet & actor whose work has appeared in several publications, including Bramble Lit Magazine, Wisconsin People & Ideas, and GREAT: Poems of Resistance & Fortitude poetry anthology. He is a former senior editor for the Wisconsin Review, member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, and host of The Reid Poetry Hour, an annual show on WORT 89.9 FM. He’s also been the featured spoken word performer for fashion shows, art markets, dance concerts, workshops, and various other events throughout Wisconsin. His chapbook, Thoughts on Tonight, was published in 2017 and his first full-length collection, Persistence of Perception, will be released in 2020, both by Finishing Line Press. nathanjreid.com.
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Judy Steininger, Milwaukee
Board Member
Email
Judy is a Professor Emeritus of Milwaukee School of Engineering where she taught chemistry, technical communication and literature. While there she published academically and became Editor-in-Chief of Pathways, a STEM publication. She has also done consulting work with international companies in the area of technical communication. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years in Kenya where she taught chemistry and physics at a boys’ secondary school is one of her proudest achievements.She has published hundreds of articles on a variety of topics. She has had works in local magazines, the New York Times, Montana Magazine, Montana Quarterly and numerous literature essays for EBSCO Press. Her article “Montana Girl(s)” published in the Quarterly was awarded an Honorable Mention in CWW’s Kay Levin Prize for Short Non-Fiction in 2019. She has also won two first place Milwaukee Press Club awards. In 2020, she was a judge for the High Plains Book Festival (Billings, MT).
She admires CWW’s mission of honoring the hard work writers do and is delighted to be a part of that effort.
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Matthew Guenette, Madison
Board Member
Email
Matthew Guenette teaches composition and creative writing at Madison College. He is the author of three poetry collections, including Vasectomania, winner of the 2017 Edna Meudt Poetry Prize.
Former Board Members (since 1990)
The CWW thanks our past board members for their service.
Abbe, Elfriede, Milwaukee
Anderson, Merry, Columbus
Archer, Leonard, Middleton
Armstrong, Doug, Shorewood
Baldwin, Shauna Singh, Milwaukee
Bast, Kate, Madison
Blinkhorn, Lois, Milwaukee
Bontly, Thomas, Bayside
Bowen, Michael, Fox Point
Bridges, Judy, Milwaukee
Chapman, Robin, Madison
Clancy, Christi, Madison
D’Alessio, Alice, Middleton
Elbe, Susan, Madison
* Gilpin, Geoff, Waunakee
Greene, Laura, Whitefish Bay
Hanson, Erica, Madison
Helminiak, Jon, Milwaukee
Helminiak, Raymond, Mequon
Hertel, Ted, Mequon
Huston, Karla, Appleton
Huston, Kate, Milwaukee
King, Russell, Madison
Ley, Maggie, Mequon
Lehman, John, Rockdale
Morales, Jennifer, Viroqua
Perkins, Elizabeth, Eau Claire
Salsini, Paul, Milwaukee
Schillbach, Jane Archer, Whitefish Bay
Schultz, Edward, Viroqua
Schwartz, Harold, Shorewood
Sternig, Larry, Wauwatosa
Swanson, Richard, Madison
Taylor, Marilyn, Madison
Treu, Robert, La Crosse
Vardaman, Wendy, Madison
Vihos, Lisa, Oshkosh
Washburn, Carolyn Kott, Milwaukee
Weaver, Gordon, Cedarburg
Wehner, Mary, Fond du Lac
Winkler, Kathleen, Brookfield
Zell, Fran, Madison
Zeinert, Karen, Neenah
* past president of CWW