Writers from Wisconsin

Theodore Saloutos (August 3, 1910 – November 15, 1980) was an American historian. His areas of research included agrarian politics and reform movements, immigration studies, and Greek immigration to the United States

Donald Ray Atkinson (February 10, 1940, in Union City, Indiana–January 11, 2008, in Santa Barbara, CA) was an American counseling psychologist and professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He was known for his extensive work in multicultural counseling psychology. He was the director of training for UCSB's Counseling Psychology Program for ten years (1979-1989), and previously as Assistant Dean of the Department of Education there for four years (1975-1979). Atkinson grew up in Baraboo, Wisconsin and graduated from Baraboo High School. He served in the United States Navy for two years. He wrote a book about Baraboo: "Baraboo: A Selective History." He also wrote other books and articles about counseling. He died from pancreatic cancer in Jackson County, Oregon. He retired from the faculty of UCSB in 2002.

Lorine Faith Niedecker (English: pronounced Needecker; May 12, 1903 – December 31, 1970) was an American poet. Her poetry is known for its spareness, its focus on the natural landscapes of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest (particularly waterscapes), its philosophical materialism, its mise-en-page experimentation, and its surrealism. She is regarded as a major figure in the history of American regional poetry, the Objectivist poetic movement, and the mid-20th-century American poetic avant-garde.

Curtis William Tarr (September 18, 1924 – June 21, 2013) was an American academic best known for his role in the reform of the Selective Service System—in particular, of the draft lottery, which had been criticized for being insufficiently random. Tarr also served as the seventh dean of the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, and as the twelfth president of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Tarr earned his B.A. from Leland Stanford Jr. University, his M.B.A. from Harvard University and returned to Stanford to earn his Ph.D. in American history.
Tarr served in the United States Army during the Second World War and began his academic career as a lecturer and assistant dean of humanities at Stanford. In 1958, he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate, California 2nd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Between 1963 and 1969, he was President of Lawrence University. He negotiated Lawrence's merger with Milwaukee-Downer College, increasing the endowment from $7,000,000 to $20,000,000. Toward the end of his Lawrence presidential term, he negotiated Vietnam-era tensions, creating the Lawrence University Community Council in 1968.
Tarr returned to government service in 1969, as an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. He was subsequently promoted to director of the Selective Service System, replacing the controversial Lewis Hershey; historian David L. Schalk has referred to Tarr in this role as an "inoffensive bureaucrat".He then served as Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance and Acting Deputy Under Secretary of State for Management.
After his second phase of government service, Tarr was vice president for management development at Deere & Company, Moline, Illinois, a farm equipment manufacturer, until 1984, when he was selected to be Dean of the Johnson School, succeeding David A. Thomas.Tarr was the author of Private Soldier: Life in the Army from 1943–1946 and of numerous articles in professional journals, including Air University Review. The Curtis Tarr Scholarship of the Johnson School, a two-year merit-based award, is named in his honor.
He died in 2013.

Frederic Prokosch (May 17, 1906 – June 2, 1989) was an American writer, known for his novels, poetry, memoirs and criticism. He was also a distinguished translator.

Lawrencia Ann "Bambi" Bembenek (August 15, 1958 – November 20, 2010), known as Laurie Bembenek, was an American former police officer, convicted for the 1981 murder of her husband's ex-wife. Her story garnered national attention in 1990 after Bembenek escaped from Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Wisconsin and was recaptured in Thunder Bay, Ontario, an episode that inspired books, movies and the slogan "Run, Bambi, Run". Upon winning a new trial, Bembenek pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced to time served and 10 years' probation in December 1992. For years, she sought to have the sentence overturned.Prior to her arrest, Bembenek was fired by the Milwaukee Police Department and subsequently sued the department, claiming that its officers engaged in sexual discrimination and other illegal activities. She worked briefly as a waitress at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Playboy Club. At the time of her arrest, she was working for Marquette University's Public Safety Department in downtown Milwaukee. On November 20, 2010, Bembenek died at a hospice facility in Portland, Oregon at age 52.