Our Workshop Hosts
Paul Beaulieu – Songwriting Workshop
…goes by the stage name A Montreal Paul, is a singer-songwriter and versifier- his musical output can be heard at https://amontrealpaul.bandcamp.com/, among other places. For him, this workshop is an opportunity to encourage people in the strange alchemy of combining words with music.
Dennis Bouldin – Creative Nonfiction Workshop
…has been involved with the BWW since 2013, including co-leader of biweekly creative non-fiction workshops for the past several years. He has participated with the BWW leadership team, including a 2 year stint on the board of directors.
Dennis writes as the spirit moves him, mainly essays on various aspects of his life, ranging from his love of okra, to walks with his dog, to travel experiences, to family, to memories of losing a close friend as an adolescent.
Dennis lives in Essex Junction with his wife and life mate, Elizabeth (Betty), and their poodle Theo. In the summer he enjoys time at their camp on Metcalf Pond in Fletcher. Long ago, Dennis worked as an engineer and engineering manager for IBM. and longer ago than that received a PhD in nuclear physics theory from Brown University.
Anne Bower – Poetry Feedback Workshop
…looks forward to hosting the monthly Poetry Feedback workshops (second Thursday of each month). Her own work has led to publication of three chapbooks: Poems for Tai Chi Players, The Space Between Us, and, co-authored with Pamela Ahlen, Getting it Down on Paper. Her poems have appeared in literary journals such as The Raven’s Perch, The Bluebird Word, Gemini Magazine, and others, along with a few anthologies. She continues to work on poetry but is now also attempted novels.
Andrea Chesman – Middlebury Workshop
…developed her writing chops as a food writer and cookbook author living in Ripton. For the past several years she has been writing short stories, a few of which have been published. All of these stories were workshopped with the Middlebury Chapter of the Burlington Writers Workshop and much improved by the feedback given. You can read more about her publications at andreachesman.com.
Diane Fenner – Writingscapes Workshop and Editing Workshop
…I absolutely love creative writing and started a writing club while studying at The University of Vermont. After graduation, several UVM alums who were part of the club and I decided to continue our writing ventures together in a remote continuation of the club, geared a little more towards serious writing. In November 2021, I was just becoming familiar with BWW and when the opportunity to start a workshop here became available, it just made sense to continue running a writing group in a new and slightly different way. Writingscapes has been a lot of fun so far, filled with some great people and amazing writers. It’s always great to see how different people interpret and twist various prompts to their own designs, and the wonderful comments they have about each others’ writing! Along with writing, I love art, gardening, spending active time outside, reading, gaming, and spending time with friends and family.
(Diane and a very curious Lyssi (short for Allysum), 4 week old bantam chick)
Karen Kish – Creative Nonfiction Workshop
…I taught high school English for 25 years in Essex Junction, Vermont. My husband Sandy and I also spent 15 years teaching high school overseas in Poland, Egypt, and Hungary. Currently retired, I now enjoy cross-country skiing, traveling, biking, tennis, gardening (especially blueberries and raspberries!), fun time with family, and am writing a memoir about our international teaching adventures.
Stephen Leslie – Haiku 101 Workshop
…has been writing Haiku for over twenty-five years. His haiku’s have been published in journals in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and Japan. In 2009 Stephen placed second in the International Kusamakura Haiku Competition in Kumamoto Japan. Stephen is a retired mental health counselor and hospice chaplain. He has an M.S. from Loyola College and an M.S. from Johns Hopkins University. He has meditated daily for 49 years.
Brian Macleod – Novelists’ Workshop
…I was born in Rome, New York, and loved playing in the woods along the creek that eventually dumped into the headwaters of the Mohawk River. I’ve always been interesting in creating art of many types. For me that means communicating something true about life in a unique way. My family moved from Rome, and we lived in Montgomery, Alabama, and Kettering, Ohio. I came to Texas for college (SMU in Dallas) and stayed in Texas ever since. I’ve lived primarily in Austin but spent a year in Houston teaching English and two in Dallas doing everything from making sandwiches to working for a finance company before going to Law School in Austin, where I lived for over 30 years. I retired from a legal career and have been living in New Braunfels, Texas, for eight years. I also am a performing bandleader and singer/songwriter. My style has been described as Americana Jazz. After retiring I decided that I wanted to write novels more than anything else. I completed my first Novel, The Black Wall, in August 2024.
Michael Scholtes – Novelists’ Workshop
… I’m an unpublished writer, mostly science fiction, but I read widely, have a technical background in astronomy and software engineering, and I live in the mountains of southern Oregon with my wife and two bengal cats.
Kimberly Renoylds and Rob Rosen – Mad River Valley Workshop
…Rob Rosen spent the better part of a life as a technologist and applied AI mathematician with a front row seat to the technology revolutions of our time — and the resulting social convulsions. He’s written a dozen short stories that have appeared in Cold Lake Anthology, Dark Horses, Metaworker Literary Magazine, Syncopation Literary Journal, Roi Faineaint Press, Mania Magazine, Interwoven, and is currently working on his first novel, a story of our times as told from twenty-five hundred years ago.
Kim Reynolds is a content managing editor at American Health Specialty. She has a BA in English from UVM with a minor in French, an MFA from Emerson, and was a finalist in the Story Magazine Short Story competition. Kim taught English at Norwich University and is currently focused on writing poetry which has appeared in the Cold Lake Anthology.
