Friday, January 16, 1998

Miriam Mathews Weinbender

Miriam Mathews Weinbender earned a masters in Public Health from Oregon State University; an MA in English from the University of Illinois and a BA in Philosophy from Willamette University in Salem.

She’s had training in HIV sensitivity and for the Oregon Alcohol/Drug Addiction Program. She was an instructor of Communications and Related Technology at Portland Community College from 1964 to 1976, and a part-time Creative Writing Instructor at Clatsop Community College in 1976 and ‘77; then at Tillamook Bay Community College in ’88 and ’89. She is an American Red Cross HIV/AIDS I Instructor and a volunteer teacher of the HIV/AIDS class for Work Release Clients at Marion County Corrections Dept. and for Tillamook County.

Her book, Waterseed is a gathering of poems about the Nestucca River Valley. She is preparing a collection of poems of grief called Mourning at the Brown Brink. She is also working on fiction, a little novel, and essays of social criticism from a liberal point of view.

Sally Ann Stevens

Sally Ann Stevens is a poet and writer who lives in Gleneden Beach. She earned her BA in English Literature/Creative Writing from Agnes Scott College, Georgia, and her MA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in Ohio. She studied history and folklore in England and Ireland.

Her poems, essays, and stories have appeared in Pebbles, Oregon Writers Colony Anthology, and several literary journals, including all three issues of Talus & Scree. In November, she was awarded first place prize in non-fiction for her story "What’s Water" by New Millennium Writings. She is the author of two books and is currently working on a collection of poetry.

Sally Ann records books on tape for the Oregon State Library for the Blind. She teaches poetry and writing for Oregon Coast Community College, Lincoln City, and at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Otis. She is also coordinating Salon readings at Salmon River Café in Lincoln City the second Saturday of each month through March, then on Thursday nights through the summer.

Her credo, she states, is "I believe in God, myself, family, my lover and best friend, the sanctity of life and nature, and lifelong education — probably in that order."