Words on Wednesday Night authors

Milena Banks is a professional artist who was born in Serbia and has lived in Japan, China, and the UK. "Riding the Tiger" was inspired both by her life in Hong Kong in the time leading up to the historic 1997 handover and by the shared colonial history between the British and Chinese people – the interaction of cultures and religions as well as friendships, animosities, views on government, race, and manners, all in the shadow of war. She now lives on a horse farm in Maine with her husband.

Janis Bolster (editor; excerpt from The Lost Daughters). Her first novel (Murder in Two Tenses) was published by Reck House in 2010. The second novel in the series (The Lost Daughters) is currently in production with us and scheduled to appear in 2011.

Jeanette K. Cakouros ("Keiko's Vacation," "White Gold," "Lightning Strikes Twice," and "Tiptoeing through the Tulips") has been a freelance writer of essays, reviews, news articles, and features published nationally. She also wrote and delivered personal essays and prepared reports for Maine Public Radio. She is switching to fiction, which she used to write in childhood. Her first novel in that era was Molly Fly and the Seven Little Flies Take the Train, but the only copy blew away from the backyard.

Johanna Fox ("My Grandfather's Trunk"). Her first novel, Landscape with Trees, will be published by Reck House Press in 2011. Learning to Drown will follow in 2012.

Rosemary Gerard ("A Pact, a Bond, Almost a Vow" and "The Troglodyte of Apartment Eight, Fourth Floor, Front"). A novella by Gerard, with several of her short stories, was published by Reck House in 2010 as The Woman, the Elm, Contrition, & Knowledge.

Deborah Gould (excerpt from Household and "Fishing") grew up and lives in Maine. Reck House is publishing her first novel, Household, in April.

A memoir-in-progress about her parents was prompted by the response Judy Maloney ("Class Heartbreaker," and "Even Doctor Dolittle Gets a Date") recieved one of her essays in the New York Times Magazine . Judy has lived on an ashram, driven an eighteen-foot flatbed recycling truck, meditated on Kolkata rooftops, and danced the salsa in Old Havana. Now, when she's not writing or practicing as a psychotherapist/clinical social worker, she's at home on the coast of Maine.

Raised in a military family on the East Coast and in Japan and St. Louis, Robin Hansen ("Please Sell Ezekial" and "Mosquito Wanted to Sing") is best known for her books and articles on traditional knitting (Knit Mittens and Favorite Mittens are currently in print). After decades of writing on traditional handcraft, she writes children's fiction under the name Robin Lynn Scott, honoring her father's contribution to her comfortable knowledge of birds and insects and a desire that they should prosper on our planet.

Lisa Schinhofen (excerpt from "A Thousand Harmonies," "Flatlander: The Garden," and "Iris and Chloe Go to School") has been a freelance writer and journalist for over twenty years. In the course of her career, she has interviewed poetry-writing cab drivers, the mayor of New York City, and hedge fund managers and other criminals. She lives in beautiful midcoast Maine with one adorable puppy (more to come) and one adorable husband (one is plenty). She is working on her first novel, A Thousand Harmonies, in which any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. Except for you, Dad.

June Adler Vail ("Nicky 1963") grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and fell in love with the New England coast as a teenager. She earned a BA in English and French at Connecticut College and an MALS in Dance and Culture at Wesleyan University. She lived for extended periods in France, Uganda, and Tanzania and founded the dance program at Bowdoin College in 1971, the year women were first admitted. A former performer and choreographer, she is a professor of dance, teaching dance history, choreography, and dance ethnography. Her current writing projects include short stories and an extended piece of creative nonfiction.

Amy E. Waterman ("Four Star" and "Once More unto the Breech") has spent most of her career in the museum world. In 2007 she moved from New York City to Maine, where, among other projects, she is working on her first novel.

Bonnie Wheeler ("Four Large Eggs," "Sewing," "Open the Door," and "Trash"), an Okie turned Yankee, has been featured on the cover of the National Spiritualist Summit magazine and has published selections in Muses and Memories: An Anthology of Prose Poetry, People Plus News, and multiple Oklahoma and Maine newspapers.