Deborah Wenzler Farris

Author

Deborah Farris is a writer born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is a former equity actor and singer who performed extensively in New York City and throughout the United States. She has served on the adjunct faculties of Tulane University, the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, and the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.

After a career spanning twenty years, she returned home to Milwaukee after marrying her brother’s best friend from high school. Beginning in 2002, Farris served as Executive Director of the nonprofit arts organization Danceworks Inc., providing dance and other arts to central city children and people of all ages and backgrounds. She received the Woman of Influence Award for Nonprofit Leadership from the Milwaukee Business Journal. In 2020, she stepped down as CEO to step out and into new endeavors.

Farris is the author of the nonfiction book, Conversations with Dad, and recently completed her first novel, Not According to Plan–a Story of Grace. She holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and writes weekly on her blog, to encourage hope in the hard places. She has one very tall son and two step daughters, lives in the house she grew up in with her very tall, red-haired husband, one very large red-haired dog, and a sassy feral, all of which she loves like crazy.