Meet Our Board
& other volunteers
We are grateful for our hard-working volunteers and board members who generously give of themselves to serve our guild
Deb Sutton
president
Deb is a self-published author of over thirty novels. Her screenplay of Broken Sidewalks won Honorable Mention in the 80th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition.
A veteran of the Air Force, she has a degree in psychology from Truman University and an MSW from the University of Missouri. She used to be a social worker for the Children’s Division and is now a full-time author. She is also involved in her local United Methodist Church.
Virginia (Annie) Lee
vice president
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Cortney Daniels
treasurer
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Barbara Leonhard
secretary
Barbara Leonhard is an internationally known prize-winning poet and Pushcart nominee.
Her debut poetry collection, Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (Experiments in Fiction, 2022) about her relationship with her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, is a best seller on Amazon.
Her first book was Discoveries in Academic Writing (Heinle ELT, 2002). Barbara is also Editor for MasticadoresUSA.
Bonnie Zelenak
Membership chair
Bonnie Zelenak was raised in New Jersey and lived in Iowa, California, and Kansas before settling in Missouri. She lives on the outskirts of town with her husband, has two grown children and four grandchildren who live nearby and provide much joy.
She took up writing after taking early retirement from MU and is pleased about both choices. Traveling and painting are regular past times.
Sharon SingingMoon Feltman
Marketing Chair
Sharon SingingMoon is a poet and award-winning visual artist living in mid-Missouri. She draws inspiration from the natural world and our human struggle to balance mind/body/spirit in the face of our own hubris.
Sharon’s work has been published in Interpretations, several volumes of Well Versed anthology, Anti-Heroin Chic, Masticadores USA, Spillwords, Silver Birch Press, Sidhe Press and others. Her poetry books, The Weight of One Hummingbird Feather (Spartan Press) and Random Seed (Compass Flower Press) can be found at independent bookshops across the mid-west as well as Barnes & Nobel and Amazon.
Anne Gifford
Flash Fiction Coordinator
Anne has been a writer for years in academic research and curriculum as well as sharing her experiences as an ICU nurse and interfaith hospital chaplain. She’s published in Physician magazine, Fort Worth Star Telegram, and Thanks for the Memories – an Anthology. Her doctoral dissertation on “Family Reunification and Reentry” is the basis of her current work and writing under a US Dept. of Justice grant in the TX prison system.
Now semi-retired, Anne is working on two novels; often deciding which one to tackle depending on the mood or character she is in when she sits down.
Debbie Cutler
Quarterly newsletter editor
Debbie Cutler, a writer of more than 30 years, has been published in numerous mainstream and literary magazines, including Cirque, Wingless Dreamer, Journal of Expressive Writing, The Dewdrop, Pure Slush, Shanti Arts (Still Point Arts Quarterly), Sweetycat Press, The MockingOwl Roost, Prime, Of Rust and Glass, Paddler Press, Red Wolf Journal, Columbia Business Times, Editor and Publisher, Independent Living, Wanderlust, IHRAF Publishes, among others.
She is the former managing editor of Alaska Business magazine and former editor of Alaska magazine.
Writer Wisdom
“I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.”
― Françoise Sagan