White Fence Biographies

Photographer

PAULA SIWEK

My photography often navigates visual realms, exploring the relationship between the visible and the imaginable, looking for poetry in the juxtaposition, the balance of ghosts dancing on pavement, figures floating on a belly, Icarus falling. I am influenced by Classical Greek art, texture, time, and how I represent the female figure and its lifelong complexity, transformation of shape, traces of age, gesture of poise, and wisdom.

Paula's work has been exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally, most recently at the Damyang International Photography Festival in South Korea. She has shown her photographic series "Homeboy," taken at a Correctional Facility in Staten Island, and performed at multiple theater venues in New York City in collaboration with the writer. Early in her career, she received an Emerging Artist grant, exhibited and curated faculty exhibits, and taught workshops at theDurham Arts Council.

Currently, Paula is working with film-based photography, encaustic, collage, and mixed media photography.

Poets

ALAN BASTING

Alan Basting was born in Detroit in 1949. He graduated from Maumee High School in northwest Ohio. He attended Earlham College and received an undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati. He earned graduate degrees from Colorado State University (MA) and Bowling Green State University (MFA), and taught creative writing, composition and literature at University of Cincinnati and Owens Community College in Toledo. His books and chapbooks include: Singing from the Abdomen, Stone-Marrow Press, 1976; What the Barns Breathe, Window Press, 1982;

Suddenly, Herons, The Writer's Cooperative of Toledo, 1986; Deep Time, Daily Habits and Events, sponsored by The Arts Commission of Toledo,

1992; Nothing Very Sudden Happens Here, Lynx House Press, 2013; Home and Away, Finishing Line Press, 2019; Apples and Grows, Kelsay Books, 2023.

Two additional manuscripts are under consideration. Alan and his wife, Cassie, currently reside in Lilley, Michigan, in the middle of the Manistee National Forest near the village of Bitely. More information regarding Alan and his poetry can be found at www.alanbastingpoetry.com

MARILYN T. HEDGPETH

A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Marilyn earned a BA in English from Salem College in Winston-Salem and an MDiv from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. She recently retired as a PC(USA) Minister of Word and Sacrament after preaching/teaching/lead-ing/loving life through the church for 24 years. She has published sermons, adult curriculum, and articles for the Presbyterian Church, but this is her first venture into poetry. Marilyn and husband, Hedge, have three talented children (and spouses) and two grandchildren whom they adore. Having lived in Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Atlanta and Durham for most of her life, she refers to I-85 as her home street, although she now calls Winston-Salem home.

BRUCE METGE

Bruce Metge grew up in the Midwest. From there, he attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, graduating with a degree in public policy. At Duke, he studied French and Italian poetry, taking several classes from Wallace Fowlie. He also spent a session at Oxford studying British poets and writers. He then abandoned his interest in poetry for a few decades, and practiced law in Boston and Washington DC before settling back in Durham.

He is profoundly grateful to Paul, Marilyn, and Alan for their friendships and wonderful working spirit.

PAUL DEBLINGER

Paul Deblinger was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. He earned an MA in English and creative writing from Hollins College and an MFA in creative writing from Bowling Green State Univer-sity. He co-founded Window Press in 1975 with Dan Johnson. He worked in Thoroughbred racing for many years as editor/publisher of Minnesota Thoroughbred Journal; writer/columnist/handicapper for The Racing Times; and marketing director for The Blood-Horse Publications. His book Culpepper's Minneapolis and Saint Paul: The Essential Guide to the Twin Cities was published in 1990. Paul has published stories, poems, reviews, articles and essays in many journals, magazines and anthologies. His story "Kafka's Team" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018. He has won awards and received grants from The Academy of American Poets, B Dalton, The National Endowment for the Arts, Bowling Green State University, and The Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines. He has taught writing and literature at Bowling Green State University, The Loft, and OLLI/Duke. He has been running Zoom workshops in poetry and prose since 2020. He and Ian Bowa-ter have been producing and performing in "Paul and Ian's One-Man Show" since 2019. He resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.