The Lake Huron Mermaid

Linda Nemec Foster is the founder of the Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College and has taught poetry workshops throughout Michigan since 1980. She is the author of more than twelve collections of poetry and served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan (2003-5). Her poems have been widely praised and awarded nationally and abroad, including first prize in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards, second prize in Ireland's Fish Publishing Poetry Prize, and Pulitzer Prize nominations for Bone Country and The Blue Divide. Anne-Marie Oomen teaches in the Solstice MFA program at Lasell University and at Interlochen College of Creative Arts and lives near Traverse City, Michigan. She has written eight books and is winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Program's Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction for As Long as I Know You: The Mom Book. She has written seven plays, and she is founding editor of Dunes Review; former president of Michigan Writers; and recipient of the Michigan Author Award for 2023-24. Meridith Ridl is an artist and art teacher with a BA in studio art from the College of Wooster and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Much of her painting and drawing work explores gestures that might suggest tenderness, humor, gentleness, loneliness--arrangements that might have a wobble, or that "aren't quite right." Her work ranges from meditative, delicate, and quiet to more tipsy and quirky. Meridith lives in West Michigan where she often wanders the woods and lakeshore. Her work is represented by LaFontsee Galleries in Grand Rapids, Michigan.