Biographies

 

Norman W. Bates

Hailing from Rhode Island, Norm finished high school in 1966. In 1971 he graduated from the United States Military Academy. During his service he completed his Masters Degree in English at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). After serving twenty years in the army, Norm retired to Sierra Vista in 1991. He has taught English Composition and served as faculty advisor ever since. He started as an advisor to Phi Theta Kappa in the fall of 1998. Norm also teaches American Literature II, an Honors Seminar and a Leadership/Service course in the Honors Curriculum. Poetry is part of Norm's pursuit of happiness. He and his family now live in a log cabin in Hereford.

 

Susan K. Boyle

Susan K. Boyle is an artist living in Sierra Vista. After earning a

Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University, Susan worked as a commercial artist for several years in the Midwest and in New York City. She switched to a career in human resources management, living all over the US, traveling worldwide, and finally settling in Cochise County in 2002. Known for her india ink drawings and mixed media paintings, Susan now spends all of her time working on art. Her drawings are frequently studies of Cochise County scenery or its residents whose inner lives are often revealed by their gesture or expression. 

 

Alice Chew

Alice Eastlake Chew, born in 1917 in Philadelphia, served in the Navy Waves in WWII, taught biology at Santa Monica College, California, and did high desert research at the Southwestern Research Station in Portal, Arizona. She enjoys photography, writing, art, quilting, and family history. She is the mother of three children. She and her husband retired to Portal in 1979.

 

Michael Gregory

Michael Gregory is the author of three books of poetry and numerous articles and studies on issues of environmental politics. His poems have appeared widely in periodicals. He is co-founder of the Bisbee Poetry Festival and Bisbee Press Collective. He is also a founding director of the Central School Project, an arts and ecology cooperative in Bisbee.

 

Karen Hopkins

Karen Hopkins was born in California and grew up on the San Francisco Bay. As a teenager she was fortunate to travel through Mexico and South America, living for a period of time in Chile and Argentina. After earning a degree in fashion merchandising and Spanish she worked for Pan American Airlines based out of London, where she was able to continue traveling to places as diverse as New Delhi and Beirut. She and her husband both taught English as a second language in Panama, and then for eleven years were co-owners of a successful second language program in the United States. She has taught English, Spanish, Spanish for native speakers, ESL, and reading in both public and private programs from fourth grade to the university level. She is retired from the Arizona State System. She and her husband are parents of eight children.

 

Sarah Hynes

Sarah has contemplated a pseudonym (mostly for experimentation's sake), but she couldn't find an appropriately literary last name (Eliot already being overused). So she presents herself as herself and would like to use this forum to retract all former denunciations of Stephen King, whose Dark Tower III is wonderful and not a load of mass-produced, commercialistic drivel, or at least not drivel, and to urge anyone listening to read The Old Man and the Sea.

 

Rose Johnson

Rose Johnson is a painter and a nationally recognized illustrator. Two of her most notable works are the Peace Wall at the base of Castle Rock and the Jonquil Motel Mural on Tombstone Canyon in Bisbee. She has also done murals at the Bisbee Boys and Girls Club. Johnson's public and community art has been funded with grants from The Bisbee Art Commission, Arizona Commission of the Arts, and the cities of Tempe, Mesa, Guadalupe, and Casa Grande. Her paintings are in the collection of the Tucson Airport and The Phoenix Children's Hospital. Currently, Rose is exhibiting at Belleza Gallery on Main Street in Bisbee and collaborating with Diane Freund on a series of children's books.

 

Nadine Kachur

Nadine Kachur graduated with an M.A. in English from Arizona State University. She was awarded scholarships to study with Thomas Lux at the Sarah Lawrence College Summer Seminar for Writers in both 2003 and 2004, and, in conjunction with the workshop, was also awarded a Personal Development Grant from Arizona Commission on the Arts. She's been a staff writer with Sun Tennis Magazine, a copywriter in radio, and an editor for everything from marketing research to metaphysical manuscripts. Her poems appear regularly in many southwest publications, and she is currently on an editorial board compiling a regional anthology of women's poetry.

 

Carol Lieber

Carol Lieber has lived many years near the desert, and some away. Always, though, the scent of summer storms and the openness have been an inspiration for writing. She began writing poetry and music when she was nine years old; reading, writing, and playing the piano are her sources of contentment.

 

Palmer McDonald

Palmer McDonald is a forty-three-year-old, self-absorbed loner who studies writing at Cochise College. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from Stanford University (1983), and a M. B. A. from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College (1992). He earned his Ph.D. in marketing from Florida State University (1999). He has taught at both the University of Arizona and Loyola Marymount University in LA. Palmer served as an AmeriCorps VISTA, an AmeriCorps volunteer, and a Promise Fellow. He likes to travel and enjoys living in the West.

 

Chris E. McGuire

Chris E. McGuire writes from personal experience. She loves the process of transforming something very personal into feelings anyone can relate to. Writing helps to heal from the past and grow toward the future. She goes where the muse takes her.

 

Heather Morrison

Heather Morrison is a thirty-four-year-old single mother and full-time college student. She is a migrated southerner and has lived in Arizona for three years. She is a physics major with plans to attend NAU beginning in the fall of 2005. She loves math, science, and the arts. She has been writing since she was a small child.

 

Kimberlynn Petersen

Kimberlynn Petersen is currently attending Cochise College at Sierra Vista. She is attending college to become a professional photographer and hopes to work alongside her photo journalist husband.

 

Carol Sanger

Carol Sanger began writing seriously four to five years ago. She moved to Cochise County in 2002 from Phoenix. Originally from New York, she has spent the last ten years working for the State of Arizona on a variety of infrastructure and economic development projects including the state's rural development bank, the Greater Arizona Development Authority, and the CANAMEX Trade Corridor. She is marred, has children, grandchildren, dogs, and a cat.

 

Kelly Tighe

Kelly Tighe's outdoor articles have appeared in Arizona Highways magazine, Traillazer, Sweat, Arizona Wildlife Views, The Tucson Citizen and The Dallas Morning News. She has published two trail guides. Her most recent, Best Trails In and Around Kartchner Caverns State Park, is available in local stores and from amazon.com. She is a member of the Society of Southwestern Authors. Kelly graduated from the Nursing Program at Cochise College in 1986.

 

Neal P. Willy

Neal P. Willy belongs to a writing group that has members (or did have) from Rodeo, NM and Portal, AZ. He is eighty and has been scribbling poems, essays, and stories since coming here. The poem "The Florence of Boccaccio" was inspired by the preface to The Tales of DeCameron.

 

Ashley Elaine York

Ashley Elaine York is a novelist and freelance journalist. She received her B.S. in sociology from Florida State University in 1997. She served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in New Mexico from 2000-2001. York teaches English in Iwate, Japan and will serve as Arizona 2005 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Singapore. At National University of Singapore, she will undertake an M.A. in Southeast Asian studies. York has published photo journals in magazines and newspapers. She is currently writing a novel about single thirty-somethings in Japan.

 

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