Speakers
Poets & Patrons
Poets & Patrons was founded in 1954. It is dedicated to supporting poetry development in the Chicagoland area. It does this through sponsoring and hosting congenial, professional workshops at The Harold Washington Library; running an annual Chicagoland Poetry Contest with modest cash awards for multiple categories; facilitating free writing workshops at local museums and outdoor venues (Write! Chicago); and an annual awards banquet. Poets & Patrons is an excellent vehicle for defining your work, meeting with other fine poets for unique critiques, and exploring with others the power of well-crafted verse. For more information, visit their website.
Maggie Capettini, poet and artist
Maggie Capettini is a Downers Grove artist who recently began writing poems. She feels the inverse of Georgia O’Keeffe: that she can say with words what she cannot say with color and shapes. Her creative works are strongly inspired by the experience of being present in the natural environment.
Sheila Elliott, poet and writer
Sheila Elliott writes both prose and poetry and has active affiliations with several area writing organizations, including the Oak Park Writers Group, which she co-facilitates, Illinois State Poetry Society, Poets & Patrons, Off Campus Writers Workshop, and Highland Park Poetry. Elliott’s work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and, in 2024, she was awarded the Prairie State Poetry Prize for the latest collection of her poems, which is forthcoming in 2025.
Cynthia Gallaher, poet and writer
Cynthia Gallaher, a Chicago-based poet, is the author of four poetry collections, including Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs and Spices, and three chapbooks, including Drenched. Her award-winning nonfiction/memoir/creativity guide is Frugal Poets’ Guide to Life: How to Live a Poetic Life, Even If You Aren’t a Poet. One of her poems will be sent on NASA’s manned flight to the south pole of the moon later this decade.
Kathryn P. Haydon, poet
Kathryn P. Haydon is an award-winning poet and the current poet-in-residence at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods. Her haiku and poetry have been published internationally in leading journals. Kathryn’s most recent poetry collection, Unsalted Blue Sunrise, was written on the bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan over the course of 365 daily walks to the shore, and her latest book, A Love Letter to Deep Souls, is currently being released serially on her Substack, Deep Soul Strengths.
Melissa Huff, poet
Melissa Huff feeds her poetry from the power and mystery of the natural world and the ways in which body, nature, and spirit intertwine. A Pushcart Prize nominee and two-time award winner in the BlackBerry Peach Prizes for Poetry, Melissa has seen her work published in many journals and anthologies, including Blue Heron Review, Gyroscope Review, RockPaperPoem, and The Orchards Poetry Journal. Her first full-length book is expected in 2025 from Kelsay Books, which you can learn more about on her website.
Caroline Johnson, poet
Caroline Johnson has two poetry chapbooks and more than 400 poems in print. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, her first full-length poetry book, The Caregiver, published by HolyCow! Press in 2018, was inspired by years of family caregiving. Her second poetry collection, The Language of Cancer, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in 2025. She is a member of the P2Collective, a Chicago-based group of poets and photographers who present at galleries and other venues. Visit her at her website.
Pauline Kochanski, poet, artist, and writer
Pauline Kochanski is a Chicago area multi-disciplinary artist, writer, independent curator, and more. Pauline has received numerous awards for her visual art and poetry and has poems published in East on Central, Highland Park Poetry, and Inkwell. A newly-minted poet, rising from her visual art, Pauline carries this thought with her into her life and art: “There is strength in the circle of life’s connections, letting go of expectations, and sitting in the beauty of imperfection.”
Patricia McMillen, poet
A proud former student of Barry Silesky, Maureen Seaton, and Luis Urrea, among others, Patricia McMillen is an Illinois musician, activist, and retired lawyer. Her first full-length poetry collection, Running Wild, was published in 2024 by Finishing Line Press; a previous chapbook, Knife Lake Anthology, published by Puddinghouse Press in 2006, is out of print.
Carole Novak, poet
Carole Novak is a member of the Illinois State Poetry Society, the Oak Park Writers Group, and Poets & Patrons. Her work has been published in the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park as well as on the Highland Park Poetry Facebook page.
Judy SooHoo, poet and writer
Judy SooHoo returned to her childhood interest of creative writing after retirement from the corporate world and while caregiving. She is honored that her prose and poetry have been published in a number of anthologies, her poetry recognized, and that she has been a featured reader for the Chicago Public Library, Illinois State Poetry Society, TallGrass Writers Guild, and others.
