Author, educator, scientist, business and technical writer and essayist Judith Steininger has joined the Council for Wisconsin Board of Directors. Judy won last year’s Kay W. Levin Short Non-Fiction Honorable Mention for her article “The Girl(s) from Montana” published in 2018 in the Montana Quarterly. That award was one of several writing awards she has received. Among her writing credentials are more than a thousand business, technical and industrial-related articles and columns. She is Professor Emeritus at the Milwaukee School of Engineering where she continues to teach. She also teaches courses at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education. She is a former Teaching Fellow in Boston College’s Literature Department and was a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years in Kenya. CWW will benefit in many ways from Judy’s wide-range of experience, talent and service. Members of the Board extend her a warm welcome.
News from WFOP
SPECIAL NOTE
JAN. 31, 2020, IS ENTRY DEADLINE
COUNCIL FOR WISCONSIN WRITERS CONTESTfor Wisconsin writers for work published in 2019
$500 TOP PRIZE PER CATEGORY
$250 honorable mention
Book-length fiction
Book-length nonfiction
Book-length poetry
Short fiction
Short nonfiction
Children’s literature
Set of five poems, two of which were published in the contest year
1st place & honorable mention winners also receive 1-week writing residencies
$250 FOR WINNING YOUNG WRITERS ENTRY
Award recipients honored at
CWW’s Awards Banquet in May
The Christopher Latham Sholes Award will be presented to an individual or organization for outstanding encouragement of Wisconsin writers
Entries must be postmarked no later than Jan. 31, 2020. Entries must be written by Wisconsin residents. Specific guidelines, entry forms, and additional information for each category are on the CWW website.
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Now for WFOP news.
4TH ANNUAL RECITATION EVENT
Monday, February 10, 2020
The Draw, 800 S. Lawe Street, Appleton
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Calling all readers, any readers, to recite a favorite poem (not your own) by heart. This is one of our most popular events each year – we’d love for you to be a part of it!
If interested, email us at PoetryUnlockedNEW@gmail.com. Let us know what you’d like to recite. Signing up in advance helps us plan timing for the event and helps you commit to making the memorization happen!
Our traditional open mike will follow.
ON DECK FOR 2020:
March 9: Abby Frucht and Thom Singleton
April 13: Angela Voras-Hills and Andrew McSorley
May 11: Callista Buchen and Annette Langlois Grunseth
This event is brought to you, in part, by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP), an organization founded for the creation, promotion and enjoyment of poetry throughout the state of Wisconsin. To learn more, visit www.wfop.org.
OTHER READINGS & EVENTS IN THE AREA
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THEME NIGHT: ANIMALS
Tuesday, January 28, 6:30 pm
Evergreen Manor, Fireside Room
1125 N. Westfield Drive, Oshkosh
6:30 pm
Theme Night: Animals! Everyone bring an animal poem or two. Leading off: Mandi Isaacson, Frankie Mengeling, Kay Sanders, Bill Urbrock. For further information you may contact Mandi Isaacson at mandiisaacson@gmail.com or Frankie Mengeling at mengeling.frankie23@gmail.com.
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MARK WUNDERLICH
Thursday, February 6
Wriston Art Center Galleries
Lawrence University
10341 Water Street (Hwy 42), Ephraim
7:00 pm
Wunderlich’s first book, The Anchorage, was published in 1999 by the University of Massachusetts Press, and received the Lambda Literary Award. His second book, Voluntary Servitude, was published by Graywolf Press in 2004. A third volume of poems titled The Earth Avails, was published in 2014 and received the 2015 Rilke Prize from the University of North Texas. The book is currently a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award. He has published individual poems in The Paris Review, Yale Review, Slate, Tin House, Poetry, Ploughshares, Boston Review and elsewhere. His work has been included in over thirty anthologies and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. His work has been translated into Italian, Bulgarian and Swedish.
Reception and Book Signing to follow – Free and open to the public
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NANCY RAFAL
Wednesday, February 12 – Student Readers
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County
10341 Water Street (Hwy 42), Ephraim
7:00 pm
Poems from accomplished young poets. Open mic follows featured readers. For more information email contact @uufdc.org.
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CALLISTA BUCHEN
Thursday, February 20
Lion’s Mouth Bookstore
401 N. Washington Street, Green Bay
5:30 pm
Callista holds an MA from the University of Oregon, an MFA from Bowling Green State University, and a PhD from the University of Kansas. She is an assistant professor at Franklin College in Indiana, where she directs the creative writing program, advising the student literary magazine, The Apogee, and curating the visiting writers reading series. The winner of DIAGRAM’s essay contest and the Lawrence Arts Center’s Langston Hughes Award, she is the author of the full-length collection Look Look Look (Black Lawrence Press, October 2019), the chapbooks The Bloody Planet (Black Lawrence Press, October 2015) and Double-Mouthed (dancing girl press, October 2017). Her poetry appears in Harpur Palate, Puerto del Sol, Fourteen Hills, Salamander, and others, while her reviews have been published in journals like Prick of the Spindle, The Literary Review, and The Collagist. She also writes frequently with the poet Amy Ash. Their collaborative work has appeared in journals like BOOAT and Poetry South, as well as been featured in the Inflectionist Review and in They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing.
Evening includes an open mic. If you have questions, contact Torigw@twc.com or visit the new website at https://poetryatlarge.com/
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ABBY FRUCHT
Tuesday, February 25
Evergreen Manor, Fireside Room
1125 N. Westfield Drive, Oshkosh
6:30 pm
Abby Frucht’s first collection of stories, Fruit of the Month, won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize for 1987. She has since published a second collection of stories and 6 novels. Maids, her first book of poetry, which was a finalist or semifinalist for the Slope Editions Book Prize, the Marie Alexander Poetry Book Prize, the Robert C. Jones Short Prose book prize, the 42 Miles Poetry book prize, and the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay book prize, tells the story of Abby’s efforts to speak to and about the women employed by her parents to clean house when she was a girl on Long Island in the 1960’s and 70’s. Abby teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts and has lived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for nearly thirty years.
An open mic will follow where participants may read a poem of their own or one that they love. For further information you may contact Mandi Isaacson at mandiisaacson@gmail.com or Frankie Mengeling at mengeling.frankie23@gmail.com.
DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS
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DEADLINE: JANUARY 31, 2020 – COUNCIL FOR WISCONSIN WRITERS 55TH ANNUAL WI WRITERS CONTEST.
First-place and honorable mention winners will be recognized and celebrated at CWW’s Awards Banquet in May. Wisconsin writers may submit work published during the 2019 calendar year in the following categories:
- Book-length fiction,
- Book-length nonfiction,
- Book-length poetry,
- Short fiction,
- Short nonfiction,
- Children’s literature,
- A set of five poems, two of which must have been published in the contest year,
- Young Writers Award.
- The Christopher Latham Sholes Award, which is presented biennially, honors an individual or organization for outstanding encouragement of Wisconsin writers.
First-place winners in all categories except the Young Writers Award, will receive $500 and a one-week writer’s residency at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point WI. Honorable mention recipients will receive $50 and a one-week writer’s residency at the Painted Forest Study Center in Valton WI.
Entries for all categories must be postmarked no later than Jan. 31, 2020. Writers who enter must be current Wisconsin residents. Specific guidelines, entry forms, and important additional information for each award category are on the CWW website.
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DEADLINE: JANUARY 31, 2020 to submit to the 2021 Wisconsin Poets Calendar. Theme is “Home.” Guest editors are Keesie Hyzer, Nancy Jesse, & Gillian Nevers. Follow this link for more details: https://www.wfop.org/annual-contests
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DEADLINE FEBRUARY 1, 2020: The Tenth Annual WFOP Chapbook Contest is now open! Submit your poetry chapbook of 16-47 pages published during 2019 by the deadline of February 1, 2020. This year’s Judge is Taneum Bambrick. Find guidelines and entry form on the WFOP website (contests). If you have questions, contact Annette Grunseth at annettegrunseth@gmail.com
Wisconsin Writers Contest Now Open for Entries
Wisconsin writers are invited to enter the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ 55th annual Wisconsin writers contest. First-place and honorable-mention winners will be recognized and celebrated at CWW’s Awards Banquet in May.
Wisconsin writers may submit work published during the 2019 calendar year in the following categories:
- Book-length fiction,
- Book-length nonfiction,
- Book-length poetry,
- Short fiction,
- Short nonfiction,
- Children’s literature,
- A set of five poems, two of which must have been published in the contest year,
- Young Writers Award.
First-place winners in all categories except the Young Writers Award, will receive $500 and a one-week writer’s residency at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point WI. Honorable mention recipients will receive $50 and a one-week writer’s residency at the Painted Forest Study Center in Valton WI.
The Young Writers Award includes poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, journalism, humor and drama. This award recognizes Wisconsin high school students who excel at the craft of creative writing. The first-place award includes $250. Honorable-mention winner will receive $50.
Entries for all categories must be postmarked no later than Jan. 31, 2020. Writers who enter must be current Wisconsin residents.
The entry fee for all contests except the Young Writers Award is $25. There is no fee for Young Writers Award entries. CWW membership is not required to enter, but members are entitled to one free entry. Out-of-state judges will make the selections, except for the Young Writers contest. That category will be judged by the CWW Board of Directors.
The Christopher Latham Sholes Award, which is presented biennially, honors an individual or organization for outstanding encouragement of Wisconsin writers. The award is named for Christopher Latham Sholes who is credited with inventing the first practical typewriter. The Sholes Award recipient, who will be selected by the CWW Board of Directors, will receive $500.
Awards will be presented at the Council’s Annual Awards Banquet on May 9, 2020, at The Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee.
Specific guidelines, entry forms, and important additional information for each award category are on the CWW website.
Please address general questions about the contest to CWW Publicity/Blog Manager Jerrianne Hayslett at jerrianneh@gmail.com. Questions about individual contest categories should be addressed to the category co-chair. Co-chairs are listed with their contact information on the 2019 Entry Forms section of the CWW website.
WFOP News
Updates from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Cathryn Cofell-Mutschler:
Poetry reading:
SHEBOYGAN POETS
Tuesday, September 24
Evergreen Manor, Fireside Room
1125 N. Westfield Drive, Oshkosh
6:30 pm
An open mic will follow where participants may read a poem of their own or one that they love.
For further information you may contact Mandi Isaacson at mandiisaacson@gmail.com or Frankie Mengeling at mengeling.frankie23@gmail.com.
DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS
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The WFOP Poetry Chapbook Contest is now open for Submissions
Prizes awarded for chapbooks published in 2019.
Learn more here: https://www.wfop.org/annual-contests
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Collaboration with the NEW Zoo & Adventure Park
Animal Poetry Contest for Kids
The animal poetry contest for kids is open for submissions through September 29.
Invite your kids, grandkids and neighbor kids to submit!
Learn more here: https://www.wfop.org/animal-poetry-contest-for-kids
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Submissions for the Mill Prizes are now open.
Click Poetry or Short Fiction for more details.
WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES
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Mark your calendar for the WI Fellowship of Poets’ Fall Conference on October 25 – 26! The theme is “The Magic of Poetry” with featured guests Cynthia Marie Hoffman and a real live magician (we’re told). Other fab conference features include the book fair (sell em or buy em), roll call (introduce yourself to the fellowship via a short poem), Triad contest winners and on Friday night, the open mic or fellowship in the bar! It’s a great opportunity to learn and grow and gain some new poet friends! Non-members welcome! More information and registration will be open soon on the WFOP website, here: https://www.wfop.org/conferences
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The Mill has five new classes this fall:
READING FOR WRITERS with Steve Polansky
MEMOIR WRITING WORKSHOP with Jill Swenson
THE CHAPBOOK with Karla Huston
WRITING THE SMALLTOWN POEM with Tom Montag
FICTION WORKSHOP With Steve Polansky
Learn and participate with published teachers in a safe and nurturing environment. Visit https://millwriters.org/ for more details, or to register.
‘Hand-Me-Downs’ Wins Young Writers Award
Ripon High School student Elizabeth Stanfield won the Young Writers Award for her poem “Hand-Me-Downs. At the Awards Banquet in May she thanked the Council for Wisconsin Writers for the award and that she would like to return to the banquet in later years as a published author. Here’s her winning poem:
Hand-Me-Downs
First published in The Ricochet Review
A friend of mine asked me to write a poem
about myself, and for the first time, I was left
without words. I realized that I can churn out
pages upon pages about lovers and the sea
and holy places and music floating through
the night, but I can’t write a single line about
myself. I don’t know how to weave my grocery
list of redeemable qualities into the tapestry of
Earth’s most beautiful things.
See, I grew up playing in the mud and I
don’t think I ever got the dirt out from
underneath my fingernails. When somebody
says you look good today I can’t tell if
they are reaching out to shake my hand or
slap me. Modesty claws its way out of my throat
every time anyone says something kind and
chokes me until I’m gasping for disinterest
like it’s air. I am a collection of hand-me-downs.
My confidence doesn’t quite fit me yet;
it still hangs off the ends of my hands like I’m a
child playing dress up in my father’s sportcoat. I
have to cuff the hems of my integrity. I wear thick
socks so that my feet fill my compassion. My
honesty falls into my eyes.
But I am still learning, and I am still growing
into this body. My eyes and my smile are tailor made,
and my heart has my initials stitched into it between
its coronary veins. They are mine and only mine,
and I am theirs, and someday they’ll fit me like a glove.
I’ll radiate confidence and integrity and
compassion and honesty and be soft like rose
petals and babies’ dozing breaths but strong like
iron and women’s hands and the ground I skinned
my knees upon in childhood and someday, some
glorious someday, I’ll be unwavering in my love
of myself.
I have been with me every second of my life.
I am the best friend I’ve ever had.
Slowly, I will learn to see myself as such.
Poetry Quarterly Accepting Submissions Until June 15
Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets quarterly magazine, Brambles, submissions window closes on Saturday:
Bramble Open Submission Period: May 1 – June 15, 2019
Guest Editor: B.J. Best
Bramble welcomes unsolicited submissions of 1-3 poems from Wisconsin poets & WI Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) members.
Bramble is open to all poems & forms, however our Guest Editor offers the following entreaty: Give us your odd, your strange, your weird, your uncanny, your unnerving, your curious, your peculiar. Give us your oddly shaped, oddly formed, oddly numbered, oddly lined, oddly rhymed. Give us your apocrypha, your opera, your anaphora.
For more submission guidelines visit https://www.wfop.org/bramble-how-to-submit