William Tecku

                  William Tecku attended the University of Wisconsin's Foreign Studies Program in Copenhagen, completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin - Superior, and earned his MA Ed. degree at the University of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona.  
                From the mid '70s until the early '80s, Tecku collaborated with musician John Harris and poet William Olson to write, perform, and produce award-winning, radio broadcasts of American literature in the Lake Superior region.  From 1980 - 1982, they aired their “Inner Ear American Literature Series” on seventy-seven NPR stations from WGBH in Boston to KQED in San Francisco.  
                In the early 1980s, he left radio broadcasting and began teaching high school English in Arizona.  From then, until his retirement in 2010, his students won numerous creative writing and literary magazine awards, and he continued writing.   
                He was the first writer to win awards for poetry as well as for fiction in the Lake Superior Writers Series sponsored by the Minnesota State Arts Board.  In addition, he received radio production and syndication grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Burlington Northern Foundation, and the Witter Bynner Poetry Foundation.  
                William Tecku is a six-time, Arizona English Teachers Association "Teachers As Writers" award winner and twice received the Mesa Public Schools Staff Writing Award.  In 2004, under the direction of Dr. Lynn Nelson, he completed the Greater Phoenix Area Writing Project.  Beyond his chapbooks, Tecku’s writing has been published in the Wisconsin Academy Review; Lake Superior Magazine; Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar; Arizona English Bulletin; Maverick; Skylights; and, Voices. 
                  It's Only a Dry Heat, published in June 2011, is his most recent collection of poetry and short fiction.  To read Ms. Casey Martin's column "Poems and Prompts" that reviews Tecku's tenth chapbook visit   http://point.scenenewspaper.com/  and go to the "Arts & Entertainment" section.  Although Tecku now divides his time between residing in Arizona and northwest Wisconsin, he can be reached via his e-mail billtecku@gmail.com