There are currently about fifty members in the Monadnock Writers' Group. You can read about some of them on this page, and visit their Web sites and blogs.

Laura Bloch Bourque has come to love writing in her second life, in Peterborough, NH. The life it followed, where she was a graphic designer and NYC nightclub owner (Wetlands Preserve 1989-2001), is the topic of an emerging memoir.

Since earning a BA in Journalism in '04, Laura has published features in local newspapers and international magazines while working on the ever-present BOOK. Laura's favorite thing to research and write is a profile – she never met someone without a good story to tell, but through the short-lived New England growing season, you'll most likely find her with her hands in the dirt.

Email lauraqb@myfairpoint.net

George Duncan is a veteran, award-winning marketing copywriter and consultant in Peterborough, New Hampshire and the current president of Monadnock Writer' Group.
His book, Streetwise Direct Marketing, was published in January 2001. Democracy Held Hostage, his collection of Letters to the Editor 2004-2008, was published in 2009. He writes a monthly column for the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript and has had numerous articles published in marketing and trade publications and on leading Web sites.

George’s Website is at: www.duncandirect.com.

Kathy Fortin received a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College (MALS ’07). During her studies, she concentrated on creative writing: nonfiction narrative, personal essay and oral history. Her graduate thesis was an oral history of the MacDowell Colony, a one hundred year old artists’ residence colony located in Peterborough New Hampshire.

While writing and pursuing publication of her work, Kathy continues in her long time career in the legal field, Currently, she is working on a book: part memoir, biography of her Italian grandmother and oral history of her mother, which explores the origins and influence of her Italian heritage.

Erin L George is a freelance writer and editor from Southern New Hampshire. An award-winning journalist, George's work has been published in national anthologies and magazines since 1995. She is author of the poetry chapbooks Dandelion Dance and Insideout. She's also edited the poetry anthologies Cafe Musings, Under the Willow Tree and No Apologies.

George is also author of Maxine the Rainbow Cow and Maxine and Ben for kids! She is currently editing her memoirs, 99 Bottles of Beer on my Counter: Diary of an Alcoholic's Wife, coming in 2011. A regular contributor to www.writerscafe.org, George serves as a mentor to younger writers. More of her work and regular blogs can be found at www.erinlgeorge.com.

Pat Henderson's writing for work in the corporate environment morphed into something more serious at the encouragement of colleagues. Task manuals and interoffice newsletters then took a backseat to exploring avenues for publication.

Her short essay "Observations from the Saddle" was published in the 2007 fall issue of Biker Ally, a motorcycle magazine for women.  More recently Pat’s story "ICEolation" was selected and published along with other contributors in Black Ice, stories and photos about the December 2008 ice storm that devastated most of New Hampshire.

Pat works at her craft daily and maintains an on-line blog Pat Henderson’s Life and Motorcycle Travels Blog at http://patnwilton.blogspot.com with a focus on motorcycling, her other passion. Other projects include dabbling in fiction, with finishing touches just completed on her whodunit Operation Joint Endeavor. You can write Pat at pahenderson@tds.net.

J. Kates is a poet, literary translator and the president and co-director of Zephyr Press, a non-profit press that focuses on contemporary works in translation from Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia. He received a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry in 1984 and a Translation Project Fellowship in 2006, as well as an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts in 1995.

He is the translator of The Score of the Game and An Offshoot of Sense by Tatiana Shcherbina, Say Thank You and Level with Us by Mikhail Aizenberg, Live by Fire by Aleksey Porvin, When a Poet Sees a Chestnut Tree and Secret Wars by Jean-Pierre Rosnay, and Corinthian Copper by Regina Derieva; the translation editor of Contemporary Russian Poetry, and the editor of In the Grip of Strange Thoughts: Russian Poetry in a New Era. A former president of the American Literary Translators Association, he is also the co-translator of three books of Latin American poetry, and has three chapbooks of his own poems, Mappemonde (Oyster River) The Old Testament (Cold Hub) and Metes and Bounds (Accents Publishing).

Linda Tiernan Kepner was born in Chase Mills, New York, and now lives in Bennington, New Hampshire.  She writes genre fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and romance).  Linda has been published in Dreams of Decadence, Absolute Magnitude (magazine and Tor anthology), Reality’s Escape, and Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  She has attended the Viable Paradise, Wilton Writers Forum, and Kate Phillips writers’ workshops, and is a member of MWG and Broad Universe.  She can be reached by email at LTK01 [at] AOL.COM.

Leigh Marthe lives in Brattleboro, Vermont and spends most of her early mornings deeply connected to the creative process through meditation, yoga, and using that path to let poems arrive peacefully in this world. Leigh's first chapbook of poetry, This Exact Life, was published spring 2008 by Wind in the Timothy Press.

Leigh completed her doctoral studies in the summer of 2009 in Higher Educational Leadership. Her dissertation focused on the topic of the lives and careers of female college and university presidents in New England.  She works as an administrator and teaches writing and reading at River Valley Community College in Claremont and Keene, New Hampshire.

You can find some of Leigh's most current writing at her blog at http://leigh-marthe.blogspot.com/ and can contact her at leigh_marthe2000@yahoo.com.

Patricia Martin lives in Rindge, NH with her husband, Danny, and two cats, PK and Spike. Originally from Malden, MA, Pat has a diverse background that includes serving in the Air Force, a career as an electrical engineer, and another career as a nurse. Her favorite stress reliever and reviver is dancing. She studies tap, ballet, modern, and Irish dance. She's the proud mom of Liese Chavez, an emerging Colorado artist.

Pat has always loved writing and has kept a journal for years.  She joined MWG almost 10 years ago when she first moved to the area from Groton, MA. After years of being a self-described "writer-groupie," Pat has started a blog that deals with the issues she faces as she moves toward 60. You can read about the "Dancing Fool" at: http://patmartin2894.blogspot.com/.

Rodger Martin is the Managing Editor of The Worcester Review. Read samples of his work at The Monadnock School of Poetry.
Rodger Martin
Goosebrook
54 Sargent Camp Rd.
Harrisville, NH 03450.
Note new e-mail: rodgerwriter@netzero.net.

Tina Rapp lives in Peterborough with her daughter Emily. She is a Web content producer, project manager, and marketing writer for technology companies. In her spare time, she works on essays, short stories, and a novel that she threatens to complete some day. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal (Student Edition). National Business Employment Weekly, Executive Recruiter News, Consultants News, Post, Indie Slate, Digital Content Producer, TV Technology, Millimeter and ProSoundWeb. She was a contributing writer to Yankee Magazine’s Vinegar, Duct Tape, Milk Jugs, and More and has published creative work in Ad Hoc Monadnock, Monadnock Ledger magazine, and Concrete Wolf. She has also been an essayist on New Hampshire Public Radio. She is currently the President of the Monadnock Writers' Group.

At Ann Robinson's website, www.annsrobinson.com, you can:
1) become acquainted with her professional background and career objectives,
2) purchase her short story collection, Ordinary Perils,
3) learn about her lecture, "A Fine High Gleefulness: The Art of Shirley Jackson,"
4) enjoy a plot summary of her comic novel, Witch,
5) read samples of her work,
6) listen to her interview on New Hampshire Public Radio,
7) respond with comments
... or just have fun browsing the site!
Ann's e-mail: annrob@ne.rr.com.

Becky Dennison Sakellariou was born and raised in New England and has lived in Greece for most of her adult life. Much of her poetry demonstrates a creative tension between her two "worlds." She has published poems in the Beloit Poetry Journal, White Pelican Review, Common Ground Review, Comstock Review, Passager and several anthologies. She now spends at least 3-4 months in New Hampshire every year.

"The Importance of Bone" won first prize in the Blue Light Press Chapbook Contest of 2005. The press is a cooperative press which runs out of San Fransisco and Iowa. Blue Light published the book in early 2006. The book can be purchased for $8.00 plus postage from Becky herself at becky@hol.gr.  Hobblebush Books in Brookline, NH accepted and published her newest book, "Earth Listening" this fall (2010).  She will be doing readings across the state this fall and winter.  Information and ordering from www.hobblebush.org.

"Becky Sakellariou's work shimmers not just with the light of Greece, where she has spent her adult years, but with the radiance words emit when miraculously placed together. Wise, quiet, mysterious and real, her poems honor both language and life." — Nancy J. Wiegel, Editor, The White Pelican Review

Linda J. Thomas is a business communications writer with Master’s degrees in writing and education. Also a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at UCLA Extension, she writes personal essays and poetry. She lives and works in view of Pack Monadnock Mountain and its neighbor, North Pack Monadnock.

Linda is the editor of the Monadnock Writers’ Group newsletter, Web site, and literary magazine, Ad Hoc Monadnock Online. She is currently the Vice President and Communications Chair of the Monadnock Writers' Group.

Roberta Visser is a contributing writer for the Monadnock Living section of the daily Keene Sentinel, leader of creative writing workshops for students ages 17-87, a student in an advanced poetry workshop with Patricia Fargnoli, and has served as program chair for the Monadnock Writers' Group.