Photo by Hedi LaMarr Photography

About

Here's the resume stuff. My higher education includes a bachelor's degree in English and communication with a minor in journalism and a master's degree in adult education. The few poems I slipped into my journalistic portfolio actually nabbed me my first professional writing job -- as a scriptwriter. After a long career as a journalist, public relations executive, educator, and small business owner, I rededicated myself to poetry. More than 70 of my poems have been published/honored in a variety of literary journals and anthologies including:  Atlanta Poetry Review, Bramble, McNeese Review, Midwest Quarterly, Midwest Prairie Review, New Ohio Review, Reed, Sport Literate, The Under Review and Verse Wisconsin. Places I've read my poems include Australia, Boston, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Awards include the following:

*   First place in the 2024 Wisconsin Fellowship of Poetry Muse Contest 
*   Two Pushcart Prize nominations
*   Honorable Mention with the Council of Wisconsin Writers' 2022 Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award.
*  Second place in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poetry Triad Contest.
*  First prize at the Writers' Institute of the University of Wisconsin Madison
*  Honorable mentions from the Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring Contest.

I'm an active member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poetry and volunteer in several capacities including helping to organize annual conferences, guest edit our literary publication which focused on sports and select scholarship recipients. In addition, I'm a reviewer for Awakenings Review, an award-winning literary magazine which publishes work by people who have experience with mental illness. 

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Player

Toddler me guarding the ball.

High school me, second row, far right.

Adult me in the yellow sweater behind Alexander "Sandro" Mamukelashvili.

WFOP 2025 Conference Poets' Pickup Basketball game in Madison, WI. Steven Espada Dawson (far left second row) and I (far right second row) organized the game to honor Ross Gay, our conference headliner.

fashionista 

Selected works on-line

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http://www.versewisconsin.org/Issue112/poems/keller.html

http://www.booksbywomen.org/whenwomenwaken/author/lorakeller/

http://lanternjournal.org/2013/03/please-stand-back/

ttp://original-writer.com/gettingpoetrypublished56lora.html

http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net/index.php?action=view&id=411

http://www.thenewpoet.com/2013/05/the-new-poet-5.html

http://www.blastfurnacepress.com/2012/11/blast-furnace-volume-2-issue-3.html

http://www.med-lit.vcu.edu/MLM2.2.pdf