LOCAL AUTHORS DISCUSS: A Children’s Party & Story-time

Sally Collins is a librarian at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Sturgeon Bay. She’s a former Arts & Entertainment editor and writer for Peninsula Pulse and Door County Living, and is currently a regular freelance writer for both publications. Collins started Cherryland Press LLC in 2021 to publish her first book, Door County Animals. Over time she plans to publish more meaningful, high-quality books that feature and celebrate the Door Peninsula.

Thomas Davis has previously published a dozen books. He won the Edna Fiction Book Award for his novel, In the Unsettled Homeland of Dreams. The Wisconsin Library Association named Meditation on Ceremonies of Beginnings, poems about tribal colleges and universities and the World Indigenous Higher Education Consortium movement, an Outstanding Achievement in Poetry. He has also written one non-fiction book, Sustaining the Forest, the People, and the Spirit, and two epic poems, The Weirding Storm and An American Spirit. Davis has also been a long-time educator, working for American Indian tribes in Wisconsin, Northern Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, and New Mexico.

Judy DuCharme has a B.A. in Communications Arts from Michigan State University and a Teacher Certification through University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She was a 5th Grade teacher at Gibraltar School for 22 years, retiring in 2012. She has since had 9 books published with numerous awards. She spends winters in Florida with her husband and son and loves to visit daughter’s family near Washington, DC. She enjoys hiking, worship and prayer, and cheering the Packers. Her books are available in local retail outlets and on Amazon.

Anne Emerson grew up on Milwaukee’s east side, attended Lawrence University and UW—Madison, and moved to Chicago to pursue a writing career. In 1969 she took a 2-month leave from the University of Chicago Press to move to an orchard shed and open Edgewood Orchard Galleries midway between Egg Harbor and Fish Creek. She loved everything about being here in that simple and struggling time and  never left–marrying, raising children, and becoming part of the local community. A thread throughout has been a belief in the joy of a creative life, and a desire to share that joy by helping to start the artist-in-residence program at Gibraltar School (Friends of Gibraltar) in 1982, the Door Community Auditorium in 1991, and Write On, Door County in 2011. And now her young grandchildren are part of it all!

Ann Heyse is a retired English teacher who loves Door County beaches, raspberries, and birds. She believes that words have power and wishes that everyone valued kindness.

Julie House is a pastor’s wife, mother of 5, grandma of 2 and has been involved in kids ministry for over 30 years. She loves to write stories, children’s plays and songs and enjoys painting and most of all spending time with her family. She and her husband Pastor Ed House live in Door County, WI.

Sue Steckart Jarosh has a B.A. in  Elementary Education from St. Norbert College . She has taught elementary school in Appleton, Wisconsin, and Dubuque, Iowa. In 1984, she purchased a home in Jacksonport and opened Jacksonport Graft Cottage Gifts. She sold the business after 31 years and, in 2017, established Door County Polar Bear Press.

JKPalmer has written three children’s books working collaboratively with her award winning Illustrators, Karen Wilke Heyse and Scott Harding. In her books, she seeks to creatively engage children, and the adults in their lives, with delightfully captivating story lines and subtle concepts of courage, acceptance, and the power of love. Palmer’s career as a therapist and writer of the human condition has spanned over 40 years. She earned her Master’s degree in Mental Health and has worked in various settings in the field of psychology. Palmer was a featured writer with several regional newspapers throughout the Midwest, and has conducted numerous seminars and workshops around the subjects of brain science, personality, and how to just get along in this world. J.K. Palmer lives in Door County, WI with her husband in a log cabin in the woods. She enjoys all things nature.

Margaret Ann Philbrick writes to plant seeds in hearts. Her first novel, A Minor – A Novel of Love, Music and Memory (Koehler Books, 2014) garnered critical praise, “An emotional story…clear prose…delicately constructed….nuanced characters….breaks the mold.” Kirkus Reviews. Her second novel, House of Honor is forthcoming in the fall of 2023 (Ambassador International). Back to the Manger (Singing River Publications, 2009) created with her mother, an oil painter, is now a family Christmas classic with over ten years of consistent sales. She is the contributing editor of the essay and poetry collection for women, Everbloom (Paraclete Press, 2017). Margaret is a founding member of the Redbud Writers Guild. Her poems and articles have been featured in numerous anthologies and publications including Christianity Today, Relevant, Ready, Propel Women, The Redbud Post and Patheos. Her husband Charlie and their three highly dramatic, artistic children make their summer home in Baileys Harbor.