Local Authors Discuss: Writing and Publishing Poetry

Write On’s Door County Published Authors Collective (DCPAC) presents the on-going series, Local Authors Discuss, in which writers address a specific genre or theme. Today’s program focuses on writing and publishing poetry. Kevin James Hess, Barb Loeb, and Margaret Ann Philbrick will discuss their creative processes and their paths to publication. The program is free and open to all ages. No registration is required. Light refreshments will be available.

Kevin James Hess was born in the South, raised in the West, and has now settled in Wisconsin with his psychic kitty and her star kitten. He is an English major, lifelong writer of fiction and poetry, and a graduate of the Indigo Lotus School of Intuitive Arts. After his “too-long” career in IT, Kevin is now in Door County, where he belongs among nature, auroras, water, and words. His debut poetry collection On Love and Light in a World of Loss was released October 2024 and in March 2025 won an International Impact Book Award for Contemporary Poetry.

Kevin will talk about creative writing (poetry and fiction), traveling to England where he studied English and the Irish poets, writing poetry on the side for years, and how a tragedy brought him back to the meditative and spiritual practice of writing poetry.

Dr. Barbara Loeb is a physician and healthcare leader who had an independent practice for over 30 years. She leads healthcare groups and is passionate about promoting well-being by cultivating awareness, connection, and creativity through reflection and writing. During the pandemic, Dr. Loeb published her first book, How to Save a Life: Healing Power of Poetry (2021) and went on to co-edit and contribute to two collections that came out of a physician narrative writing group she co-founded within the MAVEN Project; Reflections on Medicine and Humanity (2022) & Medicine and Humanity: Narratives of Many Colors (2024.)

Dr. Loeb will talk about how someone from any discipline can be inspired to write poetry. She will share her own journey. She knows the writing process to be healing and will encourage the audience to explore this path regardless of education or current advocation.

Margaret Ann Philbrick is an award-winning poet and novelist. John Ruskin’s view that the “greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way,” is a core motivation of her work. Margaret’s poems have been published in newspapers and anthologies, including Everbloom – Living Deeply Rooted and Transformed Lives and Between Midnight and Dawn. Her novels all begin with a poem that is the reference point for where the story is going and even ending, although the reader doesn’t know this. Herpoetry and photography can be experienced on Instagram @seasonedpoetess and on TikTok. Her poetry dream is to write a photo/poetry essay entirely about moss.

Margaret will share how her photography inspires her poetry. She grabs an image and lets it roll around in her mind for a while and then a poem happens. This sounds very simplistic and it is. However, the poems can become larger works as well. She will also talk about her love of paying tribute to someone with a poem.