Mary Jo Balistreri

Mary Jo has two books of poems published by Bellowing Ark Press, a chapbook by Tiger's Eye Press, and a third book of poetry released this past September by Future Cycle Press. Participating in readings, writing haiku and haibun, and meeting fellow poets are a few of her favorite activities. She is delighted to have a poem in this first issue of Wallop. For more information, please visit maryjobalistreripoet.com  

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R. Chesney

R. Chesney is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and a 2018 Kay Saunders Emerging Poet Award Winner.  His poems have appeared in The Blue Heron Review, Creative Wisconsin, the WFOP Museletter, and the recent 50th Anniversary publication Where I Want to Live: Poems for Fair and Affordable Housing, Milwaukee, 2018. He volunteers as a teacher naturalist at Riveredge Nature Center in Saukville. He lives in Cedarburg with his wife and mixed-breed dog Pippin.

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Katie Chicquette Adams

Katie is an educator and writer in Appleton, WI.  Her work has appeared in River + Bay, Mothers Always Write, Heavy Feather Review, The New Verse News, Riggwelter, Poets Reading the News, and on the regional blog, Storycatchers. She is a live storyteller with Storycatchers, Inc. and works as an English teacher for at-risk young adults at a public alternative high school, with hopes they will remake their own stories, and become friendly with at least one poem. She can be reached at k.chicquette.adams@gmail.com.   

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Chris Daleiden

Chris Daleiden lives in Fond du Lac with her husband Jim.  She enjoys writing poetry, painting, and spending time in the wild outdoors.

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Emma David

Emma David is a 20-something Appletonite, currently spending her time studying Sustainable Agriculture at NWTC and managing art and community events at Zuzu's Petals LLC in Neenah. She's always considered herself a writer, being highly inspired by her sci-fi father whose stories of alternate realities and mystical beings fueled her imagination, and her mother whose passion for gardening, ballet and literature taught her to remember the importance of being still. 

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Kathryn Gahl

Kathryn Gahl is a storyteller, ballroom dancer, cook, and friend to many. A former registered nurse and mother of two/Oma of one, her works appear in over fifty journals. She believes in dark chocolate, deep sleep, and red lipstick. 

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David Gansen

David grew up and lives in Appleton, works as a barista, and doesn't care that all of his photos are overexposed to the point of graininess.

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Emma Kiel

Emma is a writer and theatre maker from Neenah, Wisconsin.  This is her first time writing for a zine, and she's thrilled to engage with the community in such a visceral, down-to-earth medium. She recently graduated from UW-Stevens Point and keeps herself busy writing, hiking, and drinking whiskey.

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Jon McMahon

Waterfall guitar

flowing shimmer trance August.

This is where I’m from.

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Jess L. Parker

Jess L Parker lives in Madison, WI where she works as a Sales Strategist. She studied English and Spanish Literature at Northern Michigan University where she was awarded the VandeZande Short Fiction Award in 2010. Jess holds an M.A. in Spanish Literature from the University of Madison-Wisconsin.

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Wendy L. Schmidt

Wendy Schmidt has been writing short stories, essays and poetry for the last ten years.   Pieces have been published in Chicago Literati, City Lake Poets, Literary Hatchet, Moon Magazine, Rebelle Society and a number of other poetry and fiction anthologies. You can read one of her stories, The Curse Now Lifted, in the anthology Shifts. She also has a published children’s chapter book, The Fairy Tree. It can be found at the Appleton Public Library. 

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Patricia Smith

The Fox River Valley was Patricia’s home until she graduated from Lawrence University in 1962.  She and her husband moved to the Madison area and then to the Milwaukee area where they taught until retirement in 1997. As a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, her poems occasionally appear in Museletter and the Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar.  She and her husband spend winters in Fairhope, Alabama, where she is a member of the Pensters writing group. 

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