MARILYN PERETTI

In 2000 Marilyn Peretti of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, published a book of poetry, To Love Cranes, which was carried in the gift shop of the International Crane Foundation, and in crane staging spots at Aransas Wildlife Refuge, Texas, and Bosque del Apache, New Mexico. She only became aware of the presence of cranes, their endurance, and endangerment in recent years. She makes frequent trips to ICF in Baraboo, Wisconsin, to study and observe these very tall, strong, beautiful creatures. Her involvement in the Nature Artists' Guild of the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, has been a foundation for botanical watercolors, and ink drawings. She has been led to also draw the cranes, the various species, with their specific characteristics and coloring. She soon plans to include them in watercolors.

She is a member of the Arbor Hill Poetry Group, the Arlington Poetry Project; has attended the University of Iowa's Summer Writers' Festival, The Irish Poetry Festival in Galway, Ireland, as well as other poetry writing workshops. In 2000 she won first prize in poetry from Current, cultural publication of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Retired in 2002, she has had careers in teaching young children, managing a large volunteer program, and more recently been on staff at nonprofit organizations doing desktop publishing, marketing, and organizing. She is a graduate of Purdue University, in the state of her birth, Indiana.