Chris Carpenter is an award-winning music and advanced learning educator who taught in the Chewelah School District in Eastern Washington for thirty years. She has directed choirs, accompanied musicals, and created guitar clubs. Over the years she has organized science fairs, creative arts festivals, and inspired countless students. She continues to bring her love of music and the arts to her community and is honored to share some of the poetry that she has been writing--in notebooks, on napkins, and over scraps of paper-- to a wider audience through the publication of When a Poem Meets a Pencil. Readers will note humor, wit, reflection, and charm in her whimsical style. Chris is the daughter of a career military officer and spent her childhood in five states and one foreign country. Her summers were spent in Chewelah where she enjoyed the poetry and inspiration of her grandfather. Chris and her husband, Walt, enjoy retirement celebrating their three children and their spouses, and their three awe-inspiring grandchildren.Rob Hedges was born in 1952, in Waterville, Washington, and spent his childhood exploring the wide open spaces between Wenatchee and Leavenworth where he also spent time fishing for trout and drawing. After two years of college, he took a job as a junior illustrator for Battelle Northwest Research Labs in Richland, Washington, working on the Hanford Project . After proving his illustrating skills for 23 years, Rob advanced to the Art Director's position. During this time, he also helped raise his two brilliant, beautiful daughters. In 1997, Rob left Hanford to pursue a career as a para educator for the Richland School District and later for the Chewelah School District. Since retiring in 2015, Rob has enjoyed a happy, peaceful life with his wife, Kim, and long days drawing at his table.
