Portals and Piers, Blurbs and Biographs.

The portal might be the door to a palace. Or the entrance to a mine shaft. It might invite you in. Or warn you away from danger - or diamonds.  One door might open to another. Or it might open to the familiar blue gray of a great lake.

The pier is where journeys by water begin and end. It offers posts to which you can tie your boat. Suspended over the surface of the lake, you might decide to sit at the pier’s edge, skimming your feet along the surface. Or you might dive in and swim. A portal may open.

For several years, the five writers whose poems appear in Portals and Piers have spent a series of Sunday mornings reading and discussing each other’s work. This book is a product of those meetings.

The poets are:

Stephen Anderson was the First Place winner of the Kay Saunders Memorial New Poet Award in the 2005 Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Triad Contest. His work has appeared in Southwest Review, Verse Wisconsin, Tipton Poetry Journal, Harvests of New Millennium, Free Verse, Foundling Review, Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar (2002 & 2008), Fox Cry Review, and in other print and online publications. His chapbook, The Silent Tango of Dreams, was published by Pudding House Publications in June, 2006. He lives with his wife inMilwaukee, Wisconsin.

Chris Austin is first and foremost a family man. Married, with two college-age children, most of his work comes from the experiences, good and bad, which that life has wrought. He considers himself lucky to have fallen in with such an accommodating and nurturing group of poets who have helped him develop his own voice. He has been published in the online journal Burning Word and Verse Wisconsin magazine.

Paul Joseph Enea was born and raised on Milwaukee’s east side, where he continues to reside in spite of the increased traffic and exponential proliferation of mean-spirited or irresponsible drivers. His poetry has appeared in Blue Canary Press, Verse Wisconsin, and Porcupine. He has recently returned, after an extended hiatus, to taking long walks in which he contemplates how lucky he’s been at discovering new friends while keeping old ones close.

Elliot O. Lipchik was born, raised and educated in New York. He moved to Milwaukee as Professor of Radiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. After early retirement, he studied "poetry" at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He hasnumerous publications in magazines such as Porcupine, Chiron Review (3rd place contest winner), Borderlands Texas Poetry Review and in the Mizmor L’David Anthology. Tethered To These Stones is his chapbook about family and the years in New York City.

Steve Pump was born and raised in Milwaukee and learned most of what he knows about poetry from the great poets of that city. His poems have appeared in The Salmon, Bratting (Blue Canary Press), Soup, Crux (Dead Art Limited), The Shepherd-Express and expressmilwaukee.com. He lives in Chicago.