Stephen Wilbers

Stephen Wilbers, Ph.D. wilbe004@umn.edu www.wilbers.com About the Author Stephen Wilbers is an award-winning author, columnist, and writing consultant who has presented seminars to more than 10,000 writers. His most recent book (published in April 2014) is "Mastering the Craft of Writing: How to Write with Clarity, Emphasis, and Style," a compilation of 52 techniques of style drawn from his free monthly writing tips that includes fun exercises and humorous commentary. His earlier book on stylistic technique, "Keys to Great Writing," has been described as "a writing class in a book" that "breaks down general advice on what to do into practical steps on how to do it." His doctoral dissertation, a history of the renowned Iowa Writers' Workshop, was published by the University of Iowa Press in 1980. He has published two collections of his columns, "Writing for Business" (winner of a 1994 Minnesota Book Award) and "Writing by Wilbers." He has also written three books about wilderness canoeing and has a fourth one on the way. The first, "This Northern Nonsense: Ernest Oberholtzer and Mallard Island," is a chapbook of poems about the legacy of the preservationist who helped save the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from development. "A Boundary Waters History: Canoeing Across Time" depicts efforts to preserve a remarkable wilderness on Minnesota's northern border while telling the story of canoeing for nearly 30 years with his father, and "Canoeing the Boundary Waters Wilderness: A Sawbill Log" continues the story of the challenges, dangers, and rewards of wilderness canoeing. With Sawbill Canoe Outfitter Bill Hansen, he is currently writing a guidebook on how to enjoy wilderness canoeing, to be published by The History Press in the spring of 2015. In addition, he has recently completed "A Grammatical Affair," a genre-breaking literary lark that offers writing instruction, memoir, and a wildly romantic love story in the form of a novel. Dr. Wilbers earned his B.A. at Vanderbilt University and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Iowa. In 1979, as Director of the University of Iowa's Undergraduate Academic Advising Center, he established the university's first campus-wide advising program, and in 1985 he was a Visiting Fulbright Fellow at the University of Essex in Colchester, England. From 1981-88 he directed the University of Minnesota's Student Academic Support Services in the College of Liberal Arts, and in 1988-90 he served as Associate Director and Acting Director of the Program in Creative and Professional writing, where he worked with the creative writing faculty members Charlie Sugnet, Michael Dennis Brown, Patricia Hampl, and Alan Burns to establish a multi-section introduction to creative writing course that is still offered today. He is currently a Senior Fellow in the University of Minnesota's Technological Leadership Institute, where he teaches both written and oral presentation skills. He has also taught in the Carlson School of Management's M.B.A. Program, the Program in American Studies, and the Program in Creative and Professional Writing. In 1995 he won an Outstanding Faculty Award in Hamline University's Graduate Public Administration Program. An avid reader, canoeist, cyclist, Nordic ski racer, and two-time skydiver, he and his wife Debbie have two grown children and a granddaughter who is the apple of Grampy's eye. They live in Minneapolis, where he is a proud member of The Loft Literary Center, serving as a member of the Loft's board of directors from 2003 to 2009 and as board chair from 2007 to 2009.