From the Directory of Writers

Robert Fromberg

Fiction Writer
Chicago, IL

Cynthia Gallaher

Poet
Chicago, IL

Since I've started writing, I've come out with three published poetry collections: Earth Elegance (March Abrazo Press, Chicago, 2000) poems on animals and the environment; Swimmer’s Prayer (Missing Spoke Press, Seattle, 1999), poems about Chicago, favorably reviewed in the American Library Association Booklist magazine; and Night Ribbons (Polar Bear Press, Chicago, 1990). I appear on the Chicago Public Library’s list of “Top Ten Requested Chicago Poets,” and was named one of “100 Women Making a Difference” by Today’s Chicago Woman magazine. I have received five CAAP/NAP grants from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs for both poetry and theater writing, and have been honored by the Illinois Library Association and the Illinois State Library. I lead creative writing workshops for adults and children throughout the Midwest at libraries, schools and cultural centers. For example, as part the CityVerse program sponsored by the City of Chicago, I presented a workshop on food poetry at the Logan Square Library in Chicago. The Illinois Alliance Library System placed me on its recommended list for workshop programming. I am an instructor with the University of Illinois at Chicago Writers Series, and teach an online course in journal writing. Other universities where I have taught include DePaul University, Columbia College Chicago, Eureka College in Eureka, Ill., and Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wis. My poems are featured in Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Up the Jams (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 2010), Stand Up Poetry: An Expanded Anthology (University of Iowa Press, 2002) and Boomer Girls: Poems by Women from the Baby Boom Generation (University of Iowa Press, 1999). Pearson/Scott Foresman recently published three of my short plays, which appear in its middle school textbooks. In 2007, I won Grand Prize, Poem for Chicago, through chicagopoetry.com, and I was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by the same organization in 2011. More than 100 of my poems have been published in small press magazines and anthologies. My most recent publication is a poetry chapbook, "Omnivore Odes: Poems About Food, Herbs and Spices" (Finishing Line Press, 2013)