Nearly life long writer, reader, and celebrant of poetry. Sporadic cycles of absence and return more regular in last five years. Workshop experience as English major 20 years ago. Seeking connections with a greater community to enhance skills, practice, awareness and meaning. 

Mature encouraging well-read writer looking for a friendly online group to share poems or short texts.  Some favorite poets: Charlie Smith, Louise Gluck, Henri Cole. I was a poetry reader for Tin House for a long time. My recent published poem is here:   https://agradecidassenas.com/mother-at-e....

Fiction and literature favorites are European, English and American. (see my essay The German crowd about growing up (partly) at an international School.) I love the NYRB Classics.  

Story is important, but for me the writing is the MOST important.

What else?-- A few highlights: I am the 

Winner of the James Jones First Novel Award for my first novel Since You Ask, (Akashic Books, NY) 

Subject of an essay in the LARB for my third novel 52 Men (Red Hen Press, Pasadena)

Recently wrote a contemporary fairytale, Fiery World, and put it up as an Amazon Kindle. 

Was first published way back in the day in Poetry.

Hi, I'm looking for an organized, critique group working with poetry.  Some experimental.  But, not foresaking some kind of thread. A supportive group, not a tear-apart group.  Interested in the craft of poetry.  

I'm old.  71.  I live with many animals out in the sage brush at the base of a mountain.  My horse is 17 hands tall.  Born in my barn.  She's 7 now.  I have an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard.  Most recently have been taking classes with Xavier Cavasos.  I have published in many small press journals off and on since the 1980s.  I used to do Slams in Seattle.  Now, it's all I can do to keep my geriatric goat alive.

These days I am writing modified prose poems with stanzas for breathing room to unpack the energy.  I'm looking at sentence structure to increase the energy.  Right now I live in the snow.  In summer wild fires smoke us out.  I want to write pieces without excessive lineation.  Pieces where the writing carries its own.  

I am a novice poetry writer. I recently attending a poetry workshop at my local university. I was hooked.

My favorite poet is Zachary Schomburg. I also like Jill Alexander Essbaum, William Carlos Williams, and Mary Oliver.

At the time of writing this draft of this biography, Jan. 2023, I am in my first year of a Master of Social Work program. I am on track to become a therapist as that is my calling. I love psychology and mental health in addition to poetry.

That is all. Thanks for reading.

Madeleine (DeCoste) Sterkowicz grew up in Chicago, Illinois’ northwest suburbs, where she developed a penchant for storytelling as she delighted in relatives recounting incidents bent by their own points of view.  Madeleine’s poetry and writing style reflects her love for the word-filled richness of family coffee-klatches, kitchen-table conversations, and front porch tales.  Communication is Madeleine’s mantra: if people refuse to communicate, I drag the words out of them.

Madeleine has utilized her ability to hear event details, and nine years of interpersonal communication training, in her varied careers, including office management, employee training, human resources, business consultant, and Subway restaurant owner.  She instituted participative-management principles within the companies she served. 

Prior to poetry, her primary writing endeavors included technical manuals, business letters, and short stories; and wrote and directed children’s programs and plays.  She has contributed twenty-seven prose articles in the Daily Lenten Journeys of 2008 Walking the Jesus Way, 2009 Stop! Look! Listen!, and 2010 Life’s Cross Roads, published by Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Sun City West, Arizona, where she also facilitated writers’ workshops.  Madeleine attended Arizona State University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Academy classes at Grand Learning in Surprise, Arizona (an ASU Osher affiliate); the classes, as well as writing workshops, had been conducted under the tutelage of teacher and published poet, James Masao Mitsui, through whom am published in the anthology, Measuring Twine: Poetry With Strings Attached.

Besides the Chicago suburbs, Madeleine has resided in Flushing and Battle Creek, Michigan, Sylvania, Maumee, and Toledo, Ohio; migrated to Tacoma, Washington, in 2002; and from Sun City Grand, Surprise, Arizona in 2017 to now live in Puyallup, Washington with her husband of 57 years, Leo, and rescue MaltiPoo, AJ.

I am looking for a group that would hear my poetry and prose and offers helpful criticism for improvement.

I have an MFA from Goddard College. I am an author, editor and avid reader. My family is multi-cultural. I am liberal. I am a lover of poetry, outsider art and vintage typewriters and I am passionate about hybrid writing that refuses to commit to traditional genres and labels. Stories that boldly trespasses into unfamiliar territory & pieces that naturally blend with other art forms light me up. I enjoy turning the lens both inward and outward.
My other passions are The Divine Feminine, Eastern & Yogic Studies, not just the Asanas, but the continual and connected dance between our inner & outer landscapes.