Angela Wang has always enjoyed writing, whether it be fantasy stories in unknown worlds or short stories with bitter realities. No matter what, each piece will always contain a small part of her heart: the good, the bad, the beautiful, or the ugly. For Angela, writing is not only for self-expression, it’s a form of advocacy for those in need. As an accomplished debater, youth advocate, and math and science scholar, Angela hopes to use her various experiences to form deeper connections with her peers and inspire them to find their voices.

A lifelong poet and communications professional, Virginia Small was senior editor of Fine Gardening and director of public relations for Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. A theatrical production based on her poetry, “Voices in Three-Part Harmony,” was staged at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota. Her poems and articles have appeared in national and regional publications and she authored Great Gardens of the Berkshires. She earned a B.A. in communications from Dominican College in Racine, where she studied with poet Sister Therese Lentfoehr. Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ragdale Foundation have awarded her writing residencies.

Dawn Tefft's first full-length poetry book, Once Upon a Riot, is available through Match Factory Editions (June 2025).  Her chapbooks include Gosling (Anhinga Press), Fist (Dancing Girl Press), and Field Trip to My Mother and Other Exotic Locations (Mudlark).  Her poems appear in Fence, Denver Quarterly, and Witness.  She earned a PhD in English at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, volunteers as an editor for Packingtown Review, and works as a union representative in Chicago.

Paul Martinez Pompa's first book, My Kill Adore Him, was selected for the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize. His most recent book, Domestic Corpse, is slated for publication on Match Factory Editions. His work has been widely anthologized, including in What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Trump Era, and in The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. His poetry was commissioned for a Chicago Public Radio project called In Verse, which aimed to explore the emotional weight of gun violence. He is currently edits for Packingtown Review and teaches at Triton College.

Darlene “Lolly” Wesenberg Rzezotarski calls Wisconsin home—for better or worse, though mostly better. A lifelong lover of words, she knew by age 13 that writing would always be a central part of her life. Her journey with clay began unexpectedly on Groundhog Day in 1982, when she first placed her hands in clay, sparking a passion for ceramic sculpture that would come to complement her poetry. 

Lolly’s poetry is deeply personal, often exploring themes from her experiences in teaching, spiritual contemplation, human connection, and the natural world. She frequently draws inspiration from mythology and folklore to craft narrative-rich stories. Narrative is at the heart of both her writing and her sculpture. 

In Spring 2023, she was honored with a retrospective show at Woodland Pattern, “Everything Has a Story,” featuring both poetry and sculpture. A 2023-2024 ARTservancy in Estabrook Park provided the opportunity to create poetry and ceramic/mosaic works relating to the natural environment. Her local history column, “Ripples in Time,” is a monthly feature in Riverwest Currents. In recent years, encouraged by the Wednesday Writers group of Woodland Pattern, Lolly has begun sharing her poems at local readings. You will find her every third Sunday afternoon at County Clare.

Ed Werstein served for 11 years on the board of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets as the East Region VP. He was the 2018 winner of the Lorine Niedecker prize from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. Ed has published four books of poetry, and will be reading some poems from a new manuscript, along with some old reliables today. One of life's greatest blessings has been his four grandchildren.

Stephen Anderson is a Milwaukee poet and writer whose work has appeared in Southwest Review, Latin American Literature Today, Amsterdam Quarterly, Verse Wisconsin, Foundling Review, Twist In Time, Tipton Poetry Journal, New Purlieu Review, Free Verse, Poetica Review, Life And Legends, Blue Heron Speaks, Blue Heron Review, Moss Piglet and in numerous other print and online journals. He was the recipient of the First Place Award in the Wisconsin Fellowship Of Poets 2005 Triad Contest, and he received an Honorable Mention in the WFOP’s 2016 Chapbook Contest. Many of his poems have been featured on the Milwaukee NPR affiliate WUWM Lake Effect Program. Anderson is the author of three chapbooks, as well as four full length collections, In the Garden of Angels and Demons (2017), The Dream Angel Plays The Cello (2019), High Wire (late 2021) and On the Third Planet from the Sun: New and Selected Poems published in August, 2024 by Kelsay Books. Owing to his Peace Corps experiences in Chile (1967-69) and other experiences living abroad in London, much of his writing reflects a global perspective. In the summer of 2013, six of his poems formed the text for a chamber music song cycle entitled The Privileged Secrets of the Arch performed by some musicians from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and an opera singer. Anderson’s work is being archived in the Stephen Anderson Collection in the Special Collections Section of the Raynor Libraries at Marquette University. 

Pepe Oulahan was born in Mexico City and spent much of his youth in Madrid Spain. He and his wife now live in MIlwaukee. Pepe is a retired foundry worker, union representative and labor/community organizer. 

Pepe has been interested in word-smithing his entire life, often incorporating poems, songs and lyrical skits into his organizing work. In his retirement he is pursuing his life-long hobby and love of poetry through active membership in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and Woodland Pattern Book Center.

Milwaukee native, Shelly Conley, has always had a Love for words. As a skilled writer, poet and all around creative, she’s known by her listeners as “gifted", "inspirational", “illustrator" and "amazing", to quote a few. Her writing is reflective, forgiving and creates a call to action for the listeners. Shelly is the current Milwaukee Poet Laureate and a 7 -time member of Milwaukee’s National Poetry Slam Team. Her talent has led her to many features, shows and collaborations with local and national talent. She recently released REWIND-A CATHARTIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY, a magical blend of childhood journal pages, poetry, an amazing soundtrack and more, available at shellyconley.com.

Bio coming soon…

Poet Roberto Harrison was born in Oregon to Panamanian parents; he and his family moved to Panama when he was a year old, and then to Delaware in 1969. Harrison pursued studies in mathematics and computer science as an undergraduate; after a year of graduate work in mathematics at Indiana University in Bloomington, he traveled in the United States, Europe, and North Africa.

Harrison's collections of poetry include Os (subpress, 2006), Counter Daemons (Litmus Press, 2006), bicycle (Noemi Press, 2015), culebra (Green Lantern Press, 2016), Bridge of the World (Litmus Press, 2017), Yaviza (Atelos, 2017), as well as many chapbooks.
 
Harrison edited the poetry journal Crayon with Andrew Levy from 1997 to 2008, and he is also the editor of the Bronze Skull Press Chapbook series and coeditor for the Resist Much/Obey Little anthology. In 2008 a show of his drawings and journal entries, entitled Ineffable Isthmus, was featured at the Woodland Pattern Book Center gallery.

Harrison is the Milwaukee Poet Laureate for 2017-2019, where he lives with his wife, poet Brenda Cárdenas.

Richard Hedderman’s latest book of poems is Choosing a Stone, (Finishing Line Press). His work has been published in dozens of journals in the U.S. and abroad including The Stockholm Review of Literature, The American Journal of Poetry, Rattle, Chicago Quarterly Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, and the anthology In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare. A multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, he has been a Guest Poet at the Library of Congress, performed his writing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and is formerly Writer-in-Residence at the Milwaukee Public Museum. More about Richard and his work can found at richardheddermanpoetry.com.

Robin Christie was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has been writing poetry her whole life. She has recently published a collection of poetry and has 2 grown daughters. After beginning her professional career as a social worker, she later pursued the field of psychotherapy and has been working as a psychotherapist in private practice for 19 years.

Jessica Drake-Thomas is a gothic horror poet and novelist. She's a PhD student at UWM Milwaukee. She's a poetry editor at Coffin Bell Journal. She's the author of two poetry collections, Burials and Bad Omens, and one novel, Hollow Girls. 

Born in South Korea and raised in Peru, Ae Hee Lee is the author of ASTERISM, selected by John Murillo for the 2022 Dorset Prize and forthcoming from Tupelo Press, and the poetry chapbooks Bedtime || Riverbed, Dear bear, and Connotary. Her poetry can be found at Poetry Northwest, The Georgia Review, New England Review, The Southern Review, among others.

William Lawlor, also known as Bill or Liam, is a recipient of a Literary Arts Fellowship from the Wisconsin Arts Board and a summer study grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. His original poems and his translations of four Caribbean poets appear in his book Let's Go Down to the Beach (Poetry Harbor). Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, he lives in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Rosalie Robison is a feelance writer and former co-editor of For the Reader-in-Residence Newsletter and Word Gazing. She edited a memoir called “A Blade of Grass” and her work has been published widely. She reside in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have been writing since dawn, explore varying venues and studied at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado where she earned a B. A. in poetics. Sheh also holds a Master’s in Library Science in librarianship and information studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She enjoys the challenges of submitting to publications, entering contests or bantering with other writers.

Maria Elena Tormey Scott is a Mexican American, Chicana bilingual writer and poet. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin- Madison. Former bilingual educator for 25 years. Her works can be found in the following:

Woodland Pattern’s Creativity and Aging Anthology: Come Be a Memoirist, 2010.

The Wednesday Writer’s Anthology: Each Ear Hears A Different Meaning, 2013

Great: Poems of Resistance and Fortitude, Devoted to November 9, 2016, 2017

Yellow Medicine Review-A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought, Spring 2019 and Fall 2019 editions.

Her panel-reading proposal was accepted for the 2020 Split This Rock Poetry Festival:

Poems of Provocation & Witness. (Due to Covid-19 unable to present.)

An excerpt of her hybrid memoir: English Only Has Twenty-Six Letters was published in South Florida Poetry Journal, Feb. 2021

“Love Letter To My Brother Juan” A Memoir In Prose, Poems and Found Text, 2022

“Sparks Of Light Fly” Finishing Line Press. Released April 2023

Kavon Cortez Jones or Kj was born on September 26th, 1994 the same year as Bucks forward, Giannis in a city he calls, Paris of the Midwest. He is a Milwaukee homegrown poet, avid biker, and storyteller who was born and grew up in Milwaukee. Young Kj was inspired to write poetry in 7th grade while attending Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. K-8 School thanks to local mentors Kwabena Nixon and Muhibb Dyer. Kwabena & Muhibb visited  his school when he was 13-years-old, and wowed a gymnasium full of angsty-teenagers with poetic storytelling. Their stories talked about everything from losing loved ones to gun violence, to how jump rope, particularly Double-Dutch, is a lost art form. Muhibb wore an orange jumpsuit and Kwabena brought a jump rope which made the visual performance more intense and tear-jerking. Lupe Fiasco's Superstar, a 2007 hit song around the time was another catalyst to indulge him into the scribe culture.

Born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Ed Block earned his Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from Stanford University. He is now Emeritus Professor of English at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, where, until his retirement in 2012, he taught a variety of literature courses, concluding his career with capstone courses on Denise Levertov and Czeslaw Milosz and workshops in creative writing. His poems have appeared in Plainsongs, Nebraska Life, Lake Country Journal, Bramble, CrossCurrents, and a variety of other venues. Besides publishing or editing books and numerous literary articles, he is the author of four poetry collections: Anno Domini (2016), Seasons of Change (2017) Shell Dreams (2022), and Banners of Longing (2023).

Ann Steinbach’s passion for writing began at age ten and has continued for five+ decades. While earning a BFA degree, holding positions of art educator, visual merchandising executive, and special events director, wordsmithing has been constant.

Major influences have been Sylvia Plath and Rhoda Morgenstern resulting in poems serious, poems light.

Nicholas Gulig is a Thai-American poet from Wisconsin. A 2011 Fulbright Fellow, Gulig has received numerous other accolades for his work including the Rushkin Art Club Poetry Award, the Black Warrior Review Poetry Prize, the Grist ProForma Award, and the CSU Open Book Poetry Prize. Currently, he works as Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and lives with his wife and two daughters in Fort Atkinson.

Mauricio Kilwein Guevara was born in Boyacá, Colombia and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has published four collections of poetry and a book of translations in Spain. His magical realist comedy, The Last Bridge/El último puente, received a fully staged reading Off-Broadway. He taught fiction writing, poetry, and comedy for many years in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee. Mauricio will be performing new poetry as well as a few selections from earlier books.

Scott Lowery is a poet, musician and teaching artist who grew up in Minneapolis, and later lived nearly thirty years in the Driftless area of SE Minnesota. His brand-new chapbook, Mutual Life (2023, Finishing Line), spotlights everyday life against a backdrop of climate crisis, pandemic anxiety and at-risk democracy. These poems ask what holds us together when everything feels torn apart. Naomi Cohn calls them “fierce, funny, tender and ultimately hopeful”. Scott’s earlier collection, Empty-Handed (2013 Emergence Chapbook Prize, Red Dragonfly Press) is also newly out in an expanded second edition. His poems appear currently in Nimrod, River Styx, Ocotillo Review, Portage Magazine, and Sky Island Journal. Lowery and his wife Connie Blackburn moved to Milwaukee in 2019 to be near their young grandchildren. Find more, including workshops with young poets: www.scottlowery.org

Jessica Drake-Thomas is a gothic horror poet and fiction writer. She's a PhD student at UWM Milwaukee. She's a poetry editor at Coffin Bell Journal. She's the author of two poetry collections, Burials and Bad Omens. 

Jim Landwehr has four published memoirs, At the Lake, Cretin Boy, Dirty Shirt: and The Portland House. He also has five poetry collections, Thoughts From a Line at the DMV, Genetically Speaking, Reciting from Memory, Written Life and On a Road. His nonfiction has been published in Main Street Rag, The Sun Magazine, and others. His poetry has been featured in Orchard Poetry Journal, Blue Heron Review and many others. He lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin with his wife and was the 2018-2019 poet laureate for the Village of Wales, Wisconsin.

Join us Sunday, October 15th at 3pm at County Clare Irish Pub for another Tabi Po! Poetry Series event! Our featured poet is Ed Werstein.

Ed Werstein is the East Region VP of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. He was nearly 60 years old when his muse awoke and dragged herself out of bed. He advocates for peace and against corporate power. His poems have appeared in over 50 different journals including Rosebud, Blue Collar Review, Stoneboat, and Gyroscope Review, as well as in several anthologies. In 2018 he received the Council of Wisconsin Writers Lorine Niedecker award. His latest collection, Communique: Poems from the Headlines, was published by Waters Edge Press and will be available here after the reading, along with other books. Find out more on his website: edwerstein.com

Join us for another Tabi Po! Poetry Series and Open Mic featuring Rick Ollman!

Performance of poetry and music are the twin foci of Rick Ollman's artistic efforts. His music is freely improvised on multiple instruments, while his poetry is always pre-composed and recited from memory. These two very different approaches to performance share the goal of heightened expression combining both structure and spontaneity.

Stephen Anderson is a Milwaukee poet and translator whose work has appeared in Southwest Review, Latin American Literature Today, Verse Wisconsin, Foundling Review, Twist In Time, Tipton Poetry Journal, New Purlieu Review, Free Verse, POETiCA,REViEW, Life And Legends, Blue Heron Speaks, as well as in numerous other print and online journals. He was the recipient of the First Place Award in the Wisconsin Fellowship Of Poets 2005 Triad Contest, and he received an Honorable Mention in the WFOP’s 2016 Chapbook Contest. Many of his poems have been featured on the Milwaukee NPR affiliate WUWM Lake Effect Program. Anderson is the author of three chapbooks, as well as three full length collections, In the Garden of Angels and Demons (2017) and The Dream Angel Plays The Cello (2019,) and High Wire (2021.) In the summer of 2013, six of his poems formed the text for a chamber music song cycle entitled The Privileged Secrets of the Arch performed by some musicians from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and an opera singer. Anderson’s work is being archived in the Stephen Anderson Collection in the Special Collections Section of the Raynor Libraries at Marquette University.

Join us for another Tabi Po! Poetry Reading and Open Mic. July featured Tom Erickson!

Thomas J. Erickson is a poet with four chapbooks and one collection called The Biology of Consciousness (Pebblebrook Press). A past Pushcart Prize nominee, he is an attorney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he is a member of the Hartford Avenue Poets. His most recent chapbook is Cutting the Dusk in Half (2022) from Bent Paddle Press.

Susie Conway, a regular at County Clare Irish Pub, presents the work of James Liddy.

From Susie:

James Liddy (1934-2008) taught Advanced Poetry (part of the Celtic studies Dept) and I was lucky enough to have taken a few of those classes. I learned so much more of the Irish writers: Yeats, Cavannaugh, Seamus Heaney and others, all thanks to James Liddy.

He had a great sense of humor and if you asked could explain much Irish History and how it related to many writers and poets. A very kind man, I was delighted to see him often, as well as John Gleason on the Milwaukee Public Transit. He made time for his students and his humor was a great gift to us all.

Liddy is best known for his collections "In a Blue Smoke" (1964) and "Blue Mountain" (1968). Come hear his friends and former students read his work on June 25th at 3pm at County Clare Irish Pub (Michael Joyce room).