William Tecku

                    Influenced by the poetry of Carl Sandburg, e.e. cummings, W. H. Auden, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William Tecku wrote his first poem in 1970.  His interest in creative writing, performing, and broadcasting evolved over the next few years until, midway through college, he enrolled in the University of Wisconsin's Foreign Studies Program.  He spent the following year studying, traveling, and writing in Denmark and throughout much of Europe.  "In Copenhagen," he recalls, "being a student in Dr. David Light's literature classes proved to be a keystone academic experience for me."  After returning to the United States, he completed his undergraduate studies in communicating arts and English at the University of Wisconsin - Superior.  He earned his MA Ed. at the University of Phoenix in 1998. 

                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 and television broadcasts of American literature in the Upper Midwest.  In 1980, they became the first independent radio producers in the Lake Superior region to syndicate their work to a national audience.  For the next two years, they aired their “Inner Ear American Literature Series” on seventy-seven NPR stations from WGBH in Boston to KQED in San Francisco.

                The recession of the early '80s ultimately forced Tecku and his wife Kathy to leave northern Wisconsin and relocate to Arizona's then booming economy.  It was during this time that he decided to leave radio broadcasting and begin teaching high school English in Mesa, Arizona.  Since then, Tecku's students have won numerous awards for their creative writing, literary magazines, and public speaking, and he has continued writing, publishing, and, when possible, sharing his work with bookstore, coffeehouse, and public radio audiences.

                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, Tecku has received radio production and syndication grants from the Wisconsin 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 for his poetry and short story writing. In 2009, he won First Place for Staff Short Story Writing in Voices, the annual literary anthology of Mesa Public Schools. In 2010, he won First Place for Staff Personal Narrative Writing in Voices. Apart from his ten chapbooks of poetry and short stories, Tecku’s writing has been published in the Wisconsin Academy Review; Lake Superior Magazine; Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar; Arizona English Bulletin; Maverick, Skylights, and Voices. 

                 In 1996, he founded the Usual Suspects Writers Group. With the support of Barnes and Noble Booksellers of Scottsdale, Arizona, he founded the Arizona Poets and Writers Workshop in 2003.  In June 2004, under the direction of Dr. Lynn Nelson, he completed the Greater Phoenix Area Writing Project, sponsored by the National Writing Project.  Each summer he still shares his quixotic work with words on WOBJ-FM’s “Local Morning Edition” hosted by Eric Schubring.