Our Workshop Hosts
Paul Beaulieu – Songwriting Workshop
…goes by the stage name A Montreal Paul, is a singer-songwriter and versifier- his musical output can be heard at https://amontrealpaul.bandcamp.com/, among other places. For him, this workshop is an opportunity to encourage people in the strange alchemy of combining words with music.
Dennis Bouldin – Creative Nonfiction Workshop
…has been involved with the BWW since 2013, including co-leader of biweekly creative non-fiction workshops for the past several years. He has participated with the BWW leadership team, including a 2 year stint on the board of directors.
Dennis writes as the spirit moves him, mainly essays on various aspects of his life, ranging from his love of okra, to walks with his dog, to travel experiences, to family, to memories of losing a close friend as an adolescent.
Dennis lives in Essex Junction with his wife and life mate, Elizabeth (Betty), and their poodle Theo. In the summer he enjoys time at their camp on Metcalf Pond in Fletcher. Long ago, Dennis worked as an engineer and engineering manager for IBM. and longer ago than that received a PhD in nuclear physics theory from Brown University.
Andrea Chesman – Middlebury Workshop
…developed her writing chops as a food writer and cookbook author living in Ripton. For the past several years she has been writing short stories, a few of which have been published. All of these stories were workshopped with the Middlebury Chapter of the Burlington Writers Workshop and much improved by the feedback given. You can read more about her publications at andreachesman.com.
Diane Fenner – Writingscapes Workshop and Editing Workshop
…I absolutely love creative writing and started a writing club while studying at The University of Vermont. After graduation, several UVM alums who were part of the club and I decided to continue our writing ventures together in a remote continuation of the club, geared a little more towards serious writing. In November 2021, I was just becoming familiar with BWW and when the opportunity to start a workshop here became available, it just made sense to continue running a writing group in a new and slightly different way. Writingscapes has been a lot of fun so far, filled with some great people and amazing writers. It’s always great to see how different people interpret and twist various prompts to their own designs, and the wonderful comments they have about each others’ writing! Along with writing, I love art, gardening, spending active time outside, reading, gaming, and spending time with friends and family.
(Diane and a very curious Lyssi (short for Allysum), 4 week old bantam chick)
Ken Fifer – A Workshop for Published Poets
…is a former canoe guide, tarot reader, PSU English professor and Humanities Division Head, translator (of contemporary Turkish poetry), journal editor, book reviewer and worse, who grew up in a public housing project on a small island between Europe and the United States . My family used to call me the Yankee because I was the first to be born in the New World. I’m trying to lead a quiet life in eastern Pennsylvania, and make it new, with my beloved wife of fifty-odd years, six dogs, two cats, and assorted smaller critters, together with extended family. I’m a widely published poet who has led many many poetry-writing workshops on many many levels, and have a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. Lately I’m interested in Umwelt. You can catch my professional bio and workshop description elsewhere on this site, but there’s no telling where any of us have been.
Masha Harris – Middlebury Workshop
…is a native Vermonter who loves telling stories about the characters she knew growing up on the Canadian border. She is forever striving to capture their accents. Her work has appeared in Cold Lake Anthology, Potash Hill, and Chrysalis: The Journal of Transformative Language Arts. Masha has been a member of the Middlebury Chapter of the Burlington Writers Workshop since early 2020 and began co-facilitating the group in Fall 2022.
Gill Israeli – Short Story Workshop
……his fiction has appeared and is forthcoming in The Writers Rock Anthology, Inkburns, Connections, The Airgonaut, The Eunoia Review, The Spry Literary Review, and will be anthologized by The Journal Of Experimental Fiction. His white papers and articles have appeared in online nonfiction venues. In storytelling, the element of ‘Voice’ is primary to him. Not just that we find our voice for writing any one particular piece of fiction (etc), but that as individuals we grow and open up the free expression of the voices within ourselves, thus being a journey: as we grow as individuals, our Art and Craft grow as well. Decades ago, he earned the Bachelor’s degree in the Writing Seminars Program at The Johns Hopkins University, writing under the kind eyes of John Barth, Stephen Dixon, and Jean McGarry. He also holds advanced degrees from Columbia University (NYC) and The University of Virginia. He has attended the South Porch Artists Residency and the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony.
Nancy Hayes Kilgore – Writing With Spirit Workshop
…is the author of three novels, Wild Mountain (Green Writers Press, 2017), Sea Level (RCWMS, 2011), and Bitter Magic (2021). She is winner of the Vermont Writers Prize 2016 and a ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award. She has published in a She Writes Press Anthology, in literary journals including Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Vermont Magazine, The Bottle Imp, and on Vermont Public Radio. Nancy, a former parish pastor, is a psychotherapist, a writing coach, and leads workshops on creative writing and spirituality. She lives with her husband, dog, and cat in Burlington’s Old North End.
Karen Kish – Creative Nonfiction Workshop
…I taught high school English for 25 years in Essex Junction, Vermont. My husband Sandy and I also spent 15 years teaching high school overseas in Poland, Egypt, and Hungary. Currently retired, I now enjoy cross-country skiing, traveling, biking, tennis, gardening (especially blueberries and raspberries!), fun time with family, and am writing a memoir about our international teaching adventures.
Stephen Leslie – Haiku 101 Workshop
…has been writing Haiku for over twenty-five years. His haiku’s have been published in journals in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and Japan. In 2009 Stephen placed second in the International Kusamakura Haiku Competition in Kumamoto Japan. Stephen is a retired mental health counselor and hospice chaplain. He has an M.S. from Loyola College and an M.S. from Johns Hopkins University. He has meditated daily for 49 years.
Sharon Lopez-Mooney – Burlington Poetry Workshop
…began writing in 1978. She writes in an uncommonly common voice of age and experience about challenges of aging, death, and cultural biases, as a witness for change and hope. Mooney was given a California Arts Council Grant to produce a rural poetry series. She also co-published a local anthology; co-owned an alternative literature service, own a used bookstore/writer’s center. She retired from Interfaith Chaplaincy in the death & dying field, now lives in Sonora, Mexico writing full time.
Dick Matheson – Book Length Fiction Workshop
…is a lifelong writer, UVM English major, Masters in Management, novelist, poet, and songwriter among a lot of other things. He started the Fiction Book workshop about four years ago and co-hosts it with Mike Magluilo and about a dozen amazing writers. He is also the Treasurer for BWW.
Janet McKeehan-Medina – Rejuvenating Wild Writing Circles
…grew up in Los Angeles and currently lives in New York with her husband. She is a trained psychotherapist and special education consultant. She has always harbored a passion for poetry and has incorporated it into her professional and personal life.
In her free time, she enjoys trying out new teas, spending time in nature, perusing through a used book store, creating poetry collages, or spending quality time with loved ones. She is described as having a quirky sense of humor and loves to let her inner child play.
During the pandemic, she kept herself centered through the practice of Wild Writing. It allowed her space to process and heal. She is a certified Wild Writing teacher and hosts classes at BWW. To find out more about the therapeutic benefits of Wild Writing, you may email her at janetmckeehanmedina@gmail.com or go to her website www.janetmckeehanmedina.com.
Lorraine Ryan – Short Story Workshop
…My husband, young daughter and I moved to Vermont from Boston years ago for adventure. We bought a circa 1798 colonial in Guilford, VT, opened a bed and breakfast and met some wonderful guests. In between guests I was a real estate broker, travel agent and non-credit program developer for UVM’s satellite office in southern Vermont (in a renovated barn with fields all around us). When my husband retired in his 40’s we bought our first motorhome, a converted 1963 35 ft Greyhound bus and went south and southwest for more adventures. We decided to work seasonally for Disneyworld where I worked (more like played) in Entertainment as many different iconic characters, always creating magic.
Writing is another way of creating magic and having adventures. I’ve written in most of the genres but right now I’m focused on short stories. I’ve been part of BWW for about seven years and they have helped me hone my skills, motivate me, and allow me to keep company with some great writers.
