Council for Wisconsin Writers

Supporting Wisconsin writers from 1964 to 2022

ANGELA SORBY

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CWW Contest Awards Presented

Council for Wisconsin Writers contest winners of first-place awards and honorable mentions were feted Saturday, May 16, at the CWW Annual Awards Banquet at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee.

From left, front row:  Zona Gale Short Fiction Winner Margaret Benbow of Madison,  Edna Meudt Poetry Book Honorable Mention Angela Sorby of Milwaukee, Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Honorable Mention Janet Halfmann of South Milwaukee, Christopher Latham Scholes Award Recipient Daniel Goldin of Milwaukee, CWW Essay Award for Young Writers Honorable Mention Erica Howe of Viroqua, Edna Ferber Fiction Book Winner Chloe Krug Benjamin of Madison.
Back row:  Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award Winner John Hildebrand of Eau Claire, Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfictin Winner Catherine Jagoe  of Madison, Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award Winner Cathryn Cofell of Appleton, Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award Honorable Mention DeWitt Clinton of Shorewood, Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award Honorable Mention Tom Pamperin of Chippewa Falls, Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award Winner Bridget Birdsall of Madison, Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award Winner Sean Bishop of Madison, Zona Gale Short Fiction Award Honorable Mention Liam Callanan of Milwaukee, CWW Esay Award for Young Writers Winner Kade Byrand of Sheboygan.

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CWW Announces 2014 Wisconsin Writers Award Winners

The Council for Wisconsin Writers announced today the winners and honorable mentions for this year’s Wisconsin Writers Awards.

The Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award goes to Chloe Krug Benjamin of Madison for The Anatomy of Dreams, (Atria/Simon & Schuster). There was no honorable mention this year.

John Hildebrand of Eau Claire is the winner of the Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award for The Heart of Things: A Midwestern Almanac (Wisconsin Historical Society Press). Tom Pamperin of Chippewa Falls receives honorable mention for Jagular Goes Everywhere: (mis) Adventures in a $300 Sailboat (Cedar Street Press).

Sean Bishop of Madison is the winner of the Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award for his book The Night We’re Not Sleeping In (Sarabande Books). Honorable mention goes to Angela Sorby of Milwaukee for The Sleeve Waves (UW Press).

Double Exposure (Sky Pony Press) by Bridget Birdsall of Madison is winner of the Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award. Janet Halfmann of South Milwaukee receives honorable mention for Animal Teachers (Blue Apple Books).

Margaret Benbow of Madison is the winner of the Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction with “Joe Szabo and the Gypsy Bride,” (The Antioch Review). Liam Callanan of Milwaukee is the recipient of an honorable mention for “Exhibit A” (Commonweal).

Catherine Jagoe of Madison is the winner of the Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award for her essay “A Ring of Bells” (Gettysburg Review). Patti See of Chippewa Falls receives honorable mention for her essay “Hunter’s Mother” (The WayFarer).

The Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award for five individual poems goes to Cathryn Cofell of Appleton. Honorable mention goes to DeWitt Clinton of Shorewood.

The winner of the $250 CWW Essay Award for Young Writers is Kade Byrand of Sheboygan, a sophomore at IDEAS Academy in Sheboygan for his essay “Shadow Dad.” Honorable mention goes to Erica Howe of Readstown, a junior at Viroqua Area Public School, for her essay “Narrowing it Down.”

Winners of the Wisconsin Writers Awards for work published in 2014 will each receive $500 and a week-long writing residency at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point. Honorable mentions will receive $50. Out-of-state judges made the decisions for each award.

Daniel Goldin, owner of Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee is winner of the Christopher Latham Sholes Award, which recognizes a Wisconsin resident for outstanding encouragement and support of Wisconsin writers and carries a $500 prize, was announced earlier this year.

Awards will be presented at CWW’s annual Awards Banquet, May 16, at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee.

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Upcoming WFOP events

The information below, provided by Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Cathryn Cofell, lacks exact location/addresses for some events, but links to websites and email addresses are included, so that information should be easy to find.

SAT, FEB 28 at 7:00 pm:  Words on Fire, Door Community Auditorium.  Musicians pair with poets to create a real coffeehouse atmosphere. Nothing decaf here, just great music and verse presented by some of Door County’s finest and a few featured guests from the south including Cathryn Cofell with Obvious Dog (Bill Orth and Bruce Dethlefsen).  For tickets ($15) or more information, visit http://www.dcauditorium.org/coffeehouse-concertreading-words-on-fire-featuring-door-county-musicians-and-poets/#.VNfWsFXF_EI

Also, be sure to check out the great variety of writing opportunities beginning February 16 at The Mill, A Place for Writers by visiting https://www.facebook.com/TheMillAPlaceForWriters 

Sadly, we’ve received word that The Oshkosh Scene is now defunct, so do not send submissions their way anymore 🙁

Check out all the other great events coming up in Feb below!

WED, FEB 11 at 7:00 P.M. YOUTH READERS featured at the DICKINSON POETRY SERIES: On the second Wednesday of every month the Dickinson Poetry Series features a reading by a local or regional poet followed by an open mic and reception. The public is welcome, and admission is free.  7:00 p.m. at the UUF, 10341 Highway 42 in Ephraim.  For more information visit www.uufdc.org or call 920.854.7559.

MON, FEB 16, the WFOP Poetry Series at Copper Rock Café, 210 W. College Ave, Appleton features Andrew McSorley, Melissa Range, and Austin Segrest. Plan to arrive by 6:45 or earlier to get refreshments and sign up for the open reading, with the reading beginning promptly at 7. 

Melissa Range’s first book of poems, Horse and Rider (Texas Tech University Press, 2010), won the 2010 Walt McDonald Prize in Poetry. Range is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Recent poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Ecotone, Image, New England Review, Subtropics, and other journals. Originally from East Tennessee, she currently lives in Wisconsin, where she is an assistant professor of English at Lawrence University.

Originally from Alabama, Austin Segrest teaches English at Lawrence. As a PhD student at Missouri, he was poetry editor of The Missouri Review. His poems appear in The Yale Review, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, Harvard Review, and Blackbird.

Andrew McSorley is a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His poems have appeared in The Minnesota Review, Blue Earth Review, Lindenwood Review, Rougarou, and the anthology, Vision/Verse 2009-2013. He lives in Appleton where he works at the Seeley G. Mudd Library at Lawrence University. You can find him there, shuttling books across the country from the comfortable confines of the Interlibrary Loan Department.

ON DECK AT COPPER ROCK 

Mar 16: Richard Swanson and Timothy Walsh

Apr 20: Lawrence University Students

For more information contact Sarah Gilbert at pses@sbcglobal.net.

Sat., Feb. 21, Georgia Ressmeyer & Marilyn Zelke-Windau will appear at the Paradigm (coffee house and eatery), 1202 N. 8thStreet, Sheboygan, from 2-4 p.m., to read from and sign their new poetry books: Waiting to Sail by Ressmeyer and Momentary Ordinaryby Zelke-Windau.  They invite other poets to bring a poem to read during the open mic portion of the event.  For more info, contactgjressmeyer@sbcglobal.net.

TUES, FEB 24, C. KUBASTA at CARAMEL CRISP, 200 E City Center, Oshkosh at 6:15pm: In the game room beyond the cafe portion of the building. Pick up your edibles, walk on back til you see us. The section is cozy and much quieter!  Kubasta attended Wells College and received an MFA in poetry from The University of Notre Dame.  A Lovely Box was published by Finishing Line Press in 2013 and won the 2014 Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook Prize. Her poems and translations have appeared in numerous journals. Check her website: http://ckkubasta60.wix.com/ckubasta  She currently teaches English and Gender Studies at Marian University, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She lives with her beloved John, cat Cliff, and dog Ursula. For more info about this reading series, contact mandiisaacson@gmail.com

THURS, FEB 26, ANGELA SORBY, 4:30 pm in the Nathan Marsh Pusey Room of the Warch Campus Center at Lawrence University​ in Appleton. Contact melissa.h.range@lawrence.edu for more info.

THURS, FEB 26, SARAH GILBERT & MARK FALCONE, 6-8 pm:  Featured Reader(s) + Open mic at ​The Readers Loft | 2069 Central Ct, Suite 44, Green Bay.  For more info:  torigw@twc.com or call the Loft at (920) 406-0200 | www.readersloft.com.

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