Writing Room staff, 2011-12

	Sara Butterfass Sara Butterfass is a senior English major with Italian and history minors. She spent the first 18 years of her life working on her family’s dairy farm, which resulted in a love for cows and the perpetual need to stay busy. Over the past four years she has become enthralled with the Anglo-Saxons, Old English, and Old Norse-Icelandic sagas. After graduation she hopes to attend a graduate school to pursue these interests. She spent the summer studying abroad in England and then working at the Library of Congress. Most of her spare time is devoted to playing volleyball with friends. She knows writing can be a frustrating process and is excited to work in the writing room in order to help others work through the frustration and write papers they are actually proud to turn in.
	Julie Drennen Julie Drennen is a senior political science major with an area of emphasis in environmental studies (well, the second part of that will be true once she gets the proper paperwork to the registrar's office). Specifically, Julie likes to study political theory and political philosophy. She has written science labs, English papers, and sociology papers, but the majority of her work has been in writing political science papers and philosophy papers. Most significantly, she loves cats and horses more than any other being or cause in the world. However, she will gladly take time out of her cat-and-horse-loving schedule to work with people who come to the writing room!
	Attina Earl Attina is a senior majoring in Sociology and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. One of her own writing projects includes analyzing advertisements with Abercombie and Fitch models. When she is not hard at work studying models, Attina enjoys online shopping and reading books on issues related to masculinity and gender. Some of her guilty pleasures include Gossip Girl, Katy Perry, and crocheting scarves. On an unrelated note, Attina is excited to work in the Writing Room because she wants to show everyone how fun the writing process can be!
	Chris Ferrin A long time ago, Chris Ferrin was born. The details after this event are, like pipe cleaners, fuzzy at best. Although he is focused on completing his English major, his experience in community college has granted him a general background in philosophy, sociology, and creative writing. In his free time, he enjoys telling people that he is an English major, dancing angrily, and dreaming about space. His favorite Peanuts character is the girl with naturally curly hair, and his favorite pretentious music genre classification is post-dubstep. He is also quite well aware that the writing process can be a real drag sometimes, and wants to dedicate his life to helping people through it.
	Holly Gruntner Holly Gruntner created Harry Potter in early 1992, and was rather put out to find, years later, that a British woman had stolen her idea and written a book series worth billions of dollars. The lawsuit is pending. When not plotting revenge, Holly is usually writing something or other, ranging from blog posts to hangman clues to analytical theses. Though an English major, she is happy to talk about papers from any field.
	Aaron Jansen At the age of six, Aaron decided he wanted to be a writer when he grew up, a decision that has haunted him ever since. Then at the age of seventeen he decided to become an English major; it is currently unknown whether he will ever recover. Now a senior, he can be found huddling in the corner of the writing room when not suffering from crippling existential dread. His favorite album is The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus, and his favorite movie scene is the end of Chinatown.
	Kristina Lahr Becoming an English major seemed like an obvious choice to Kristina when the majority of her free-time began to be consumed by a fatal writing and grammar obsession. When she's not combating her inner critic in her own writing, she can be found reading fantasy novels, drawing, or out for an adventure. Her favorite movies are the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and her current TV show obsession is Castle . She believes that the writing process need not be as mysterious as it seems and that everyone can overcome their writing fears.
	Hannah Lindquist Hannah is a junior from Plymouth, MN, majoring in Environmental Studies, English, and Anthropology. In the non-academic world, though not particularly fond of pickle relish, she pursues with relish activities such as knitting, walking outside, baking, and playing German-style board games. Included among her favorite children's books are Winnie-the-Pooh and Freight Train. Hannah is excited about working in the Writing Room, which has nothing to do with her second-favorite garden vegetable being asparagus.
	Anne Meyers-Welsh Bio coming soon!
	Annie Morphew Bio coming soon!
	Sarah Ranney Sarah is a senior French major with minors in Anthropology and English. Although the bulk of her writing experience comes from courses in the humanities and social sciences, she enjoys helping students with all types of assignments. (Et bien sûr, elle aimerait beaucoup vous aider avec vos devoirs français! ) Tragically, she has studied enough Latin, German, and Arabic to know when people are making fun of her, but not enough to mock them in return. She has a geeky passion for translation and grammar, a sedate academic curiosity about Francophone literature, and no idea what to do with her life. Until she figures it out, she'll be at your service in the Writing Room.
	Tisha Turk, Writing Room Director Tisha teaches English courses at UMM. She likes writing a lot, and has gotten pretty good at it over the years, but she also knows it can be a pain, so she's happy to commiserate with people who are feeling frustrated or stuck. Her PhD is in English literature, but she has experience working with writers in lots of different fields in the sciences and social sciences as well as humanities and education. She's the person to talk to for help with personal statements for graduate school and application letters for jobs and internships.
	Meaghan Young-Stephens Meaghan is a senior from Lino Lakes, Minnesota. When not actively pursuing her English and political science double major, Meaghan can often be found baking yummy fruit pies or moseying around Morris on her bicycle. Her greatest loves are musicals, bumper stickers, and people playing guitar on the mall.