Linda Henry
founder
Linda Henry is an essayist, storyteller, and occasional poet. She has written hundreds of articles for national magazines, including Reader's Digest, Parenting, Travel & Leisure, and Glamour, as well as regional and trade publications, websites, and newspapers. She was a co-founder of The Talking Stick, and was editor in chief of its first 8 volumes (1992?1999). From 1999 through 2001, she contributed a column to Lake Country Journal, "Of Woodstoves and Websites," about her life as a single mother in northern Minnesota. A full-time freelance writer and editor for eleven years, she is now editorial manager for Children's Home Society & Family Services. In her personal writing life, she has many works in progress.
Sharon Harris
director - editor
sharrick1@wcta.net
Sharon Harris has been writing poetry since she was 15. She has had over 170 poems published in various anthologies and magazines. She is proud to have had several poems in The Lake Country Journal and Lakes Alive and The Talking Stick, all local publications. She was born and raised near Park Rapids and currently works at First National Bank of Menahga & Sebeka as Operations Officer and Assistant Cashier. Her hobbies include photography and reading. She has published two books of her poetry, Timeless Tracks in 1984 and Life Savors in 2000. A third book is in progress.
Sharon Harris has been the co-editor for the last 5 TS books. She does proofing and editing, serves on the Editorial Board, handles the submissions, etc. and she organizes the Third Sunday of each month member meetings and prepares the minutes. She is also on the Board of directors for the JWB.
Jerry Mevissen
director
riverman@wcta.net
Jerry Mevissen emigrated from the Twin Cities to the banks of the Crow Wing River near Nimrod, MN, after a 36-year career in marketing at Honeywell. He found writing to be an effective therapy program in a class at Normandale Junior College, and continued with writing classes at The Loft in Minneapolis. Two years ago he began a column for the Sebeka Review Messenger, "The Nimrod Cronicles". Now, one hundred columns later, he has assembled the "Best Of...", a book published in September 2003. You can also find some of his short stories in Volumes 10 and 11 of the annual anthology The Talking Stick.
Cynthia J. Ekren
director
cindiee@hotmail.com
-Bio coming soon-
Marilyn Wolff
director
marilyn@fairgolf.com
Marilyn Wolff grew up on a small dairy farm south of Park Rapids. She keeps very busy at her business, the Hubbard County Abstract Company and at the family-owned golf course, Fair Havens Golf Course which was built on the farm. Her greatest joys are spending time with her kids and grandkids. She has been published in the last five Talking Sticks and is on the board of directors of the JWB.
Tarah L. Wolff
editor
eveningstorm@tarahlynn.com
The youngest in the group, she is a native to Minnesota and has been writing fiction for several years. She is the current webmaster and web designer in the group; the website you're seeing now was her doing. She has been the co-Editor of the Talking Stick since she joined the group in 2002, and since has been the Layout Designer of all of the books the Jackpine Writers' Bloc has done (The Talking Stick Volumes 12-Current and Broken Hart by Jerry Mevissen).
She offers web and print design.
Contributing Members
Florence Witkop
fwitkop@wcta.net
I've done a lot of things, from teaching school to working as a census taker to owning and operating, with my husband, a northwoods fishing and hunting resort while raising five children.
I am also, proudly, a writer. I do not write to fulfill some inner urge. I write because I think getting paid for doing something I enjoy is the best possible lifestyle. I've been writing and selling short fiction for twenty years, during which time the checks I've received have been a steady and dependable part of our income. After 150 or so stories published nationally, I stopped counting. I've been published in the 'True's' (True Story,True Romance, etc), Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and TheTalking Stick and I was picked as the Region 2 Literary Artist a while back.
I have written and published literary as well as commercial fiction but my preferred niche as a writer is romance because I believe love, whether in the form of reality, fantasy, fun or pure escapism, is one of the most basic, important and enjoyable of all human emotions.
Beth Bradley Walter
bethdiane@hotmail.com
Beth Bradley Walter is passionate about writing - but due to practical concerns, she spends her daytime hours selling employee leasing. She has a degree in mass communications and enjoys both business and creative writing. Her essays and poetry have been published in The Talking Stick, Lake Country Journal Magazine and Teenagers Today.com. She lives in Lake Park, MN with her two teenage sons and a springer spaniel.
LuAnne White
luicakes@unitelc.com
I was brought up one of those 'resorter' people on Long Lake near Park Rapids. Here for the summer and elsewhere the remainder of the year. Summers were carefree. Full of swimming, gardening, 'helping' Grandpa in the garden and Dad with all the other chores. I spent quite a bit of time with my Grandmother exchanging poems. It took another 30 years before I became serious about writing. I was published for the first time in the last Talking Stick edition. My current project is a young adult mystery novel.
Cynthia Nee Teller
baronne_cynthia@hotmail.com
Cynthia nee Teller was born in Edina, Minnesota on May 5, 1969, and has worked, mostly in California, as a professional dancer, model, and actress. Her interest in writng came about from meeting her husband, Roy, at a theatre audition in 1987 for "Noises Off" at Bemidji State University. He was cast as "Selsdon," she as "Poppie," and the two have been a couple ever since exchanging story ideas all the while. Cynthia's main interest is in writing poetry, but she has had five plays published to date in collaboration with Roy. Her other interests include Egyptology, crafting jewelry, and co-writing a saleable horror novel. Cynthia is also the proud mother of Riordan Maxim, who was born on July 3, 1999.
Roy C. Booth
roycifer@yahoo.com
Roy C. Booth was born 8/26/65 in Bemidji, MN, He graduated from Pillager High School in 1983, Brainerd Community College in 1987 (AA degree), and Bemidji State University in 1989 (BA English/Speech-Theatre) and in 1997 (MA in English). Roy is a published author, essayist, journalist, poet, and all around storyeller. He has been optioned as a screenwriter and has been published 30 times as a playwright with over 430 productions around the world in such locales as Los Angeles, New York City, Winnipeg, Montreal, Edingburgh, London, Paris, Warsaw, Bern, Durban, New Dehli, Tianjin, Jakarta, Perth, Melbourne, Wellington, Aruba, and Brasilia. He has received awards, grants, and citations from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Poland, and Indonesia from such groups as the United Nations, the McKnight Foundation, Atlanta's Center for Disease Control, and others. Roy is presently working on a non-fiction piece on Norse mythology, and collaborates voraciously, especially with his wife, Cynthia. His other interests include judo, reading, comic books, strategy games, walking, camping, movies, directing, and fatherhood, the last (and greatest) concerning his son, Riordan Maxim.
John Thornberg
jt39@comcast.net
I write poetry and short essays from my backyard window, taking notes on a world I see from both sides of the glass. I started writing not long after my first wife died in 1988. Somehow the wound that opened bleeds words. My poems and essays have been published in ByLine Magazine; Chrysanthemum; Talking Stick; Watershed; and several self-published Chapbooks. I have been rejected by: The New Yorker; Atlantic Monthly; Reader's Digest; Saturday Evening Post; Women's Home Journal; Better Homes & Gardens; Ideals; Writer's Digest; and a host of others. My fellow writers are true friends who know the angst of a writer as much as the art of writing. They are a support group that understands writing as both cause and cure of our common condition.