Constance Hanstedt

Constance Hanstedt was born and raised in Wisconsin, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and Secondary Education. She was a substitute teacher in Milwaukee area high schools, followed by working in the graphic arts industry as a proofreader. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, raised two children, and became the co-owner and CFO of GH GROUP, INC, a general contracting business in Pleasanton. She has called Livermore her home for 18 years. Constance is most proud of her accomplishments as an active member of California Writers Club Tri-Valley Branch. Since 2016, she has served as Vice President, Treasurer (in addition to being the Treasurer of the California Writers Club, from which she received the Jack London Award for outstanding service), facilitator of the Poetry Critique Group (which she formed in 2016), and is one of the poetry judges for the annual High School Writing Contest. Constance is also an award-winning poet, and her poetry has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including 1 in 8: An Anthology for Those Affected by Breast Cancer, California Quarterly, California Writers Club Literary Review, Calyx, The Comstock Review, The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop (edited by Diane Lockward), Naugatuck River Review, Porter Gulch Review, Rattle, and Saving Ourselves. In addition, she is the author of the poetry chapbook, Treading Water (Finishing Line Press, 2022), and the memoir, Don’t Leave Yet, How My Mother’s Alzheimer’s Opened My Heart (She Writes Press, 2015), which was named a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards.