REDBIRD WRITING CENTER NAMED "BEST OF"

Milwaukee Magazine named Redbird Studio, the writing center located in Bay View, as "BEST OF" in its annual listing of greater metro area favorites.

Redbird has been helping writers achieve their goals since the founder, Judy Bridges, welcomed the first writer/students to her studio in 1993. Since then, over 6,000 adults and children from Wisconsin and surrounding states have attended Redbird programs.

"Our primary goal is to help Wisconsin writers," says Bridges. "From the day I returned here after living in Washington DC, Chicago and San Francisco, I've been impressed with the talent and potential in this state. All I do is shine a light on that - try to energize the desire people have to say what's deep in their hearts, to write well enough to see their words in print."

Bridges is aided in this mission by her husband David Blank - who lists books by Redbird-connected writers on their web site - and award winning writer/teachers Elaine Bergstrom, Shauna Singh Baldwin, Marilyn Taylor, Robert Vaughan, Ken Brosky and many others who lead Redbird workshops.

Bridges earned her living writing for 15 years prior to founding Redbird. She wrote magazine articles, short stories, plays, speeches and corporate communications. She thinks the broad experience, plus her education (bachelor's and master's degrees in writing and adult ed.) and a heavy dose of intuition, is what enables her to tune into students' potential.

"She has a uncanny way zeroing-in on the problem and giving you just the right option to fix it," says novelist Doug Jacobson, whose 2007 release, NIGHT OF FLAMES, was polished in a Redbird roundtable group.

A new development at Redbird is what Bridges refers to as a "cell division" - the takeover of the Young Author programs by Director Kim Suhr, who will continue offering classes at the studio and add some at Ten Chimneys, under the new name of Red Oak Young Writers. Both women are excited about this change since it allows continued growth for young author programs and continued quality for adults.

In April, 2007, Bridges was honored as "A Woman Who Put Her Stamp on Milwaukee." Of this and the "BEST OF" award, she says, "I love the awards, but what I love best is the acknowledgments in books by our authors. Southern writers had their day. Iowa's been big for a long time. Now it's time for Wisconsin."

Bridges is a long term member of the CWW board and active supporter of writers at Woodland Patterns, The Clearing, University of Wisconsin, Marquette, Alverno, Fox Valley Tech, WRWA, WFOP and many other organizations.