So many great opportunities for readings, workshops, deadlines and more in October! Plus, November 1 is an amazing two-fer day, with former US Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway in the morning and former WI Poet Laureate Marilyn Taylor in the evening! Check out these great events below and attend if you can!
ROBERT NORDSTROM AND WENDY SCHMIDT
Monday, October 17, Poetry Rocks! Reading Series Copper Rock Café, 210 W. College Ave, Appleton, 7 pm, featured readers followed by open mike.
Robert Nordstrom, who for six-plus years drove a school bus teaching high schoolers how to respond when an adult says good morning and first graders that it’s probably best they not lick the seat in front of them, has published poetry, fiction and essays in numerous publications, including Upstreet, Main Street Rag, The Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review and others. His poetry has placed in WFOP’s Triad Contests and his poem “Old Lovers” won the 2014 Hal Prize. His poetry collection The Sacred Monotony of Breath (Prolific Press, 2015) was awarded Honorable Mention by the Council for Wisconsin Writers.
Wendy Schmidt has been writing short stories, essays and poetry for the last ten years. Pieces have been published in Verse Wisconsin, Chicago Literati, City Lake Poets, Literary Hatchet, Moon Magazine, Rebelle Society and a number of other poetry and fiction anthologies. You can read one of her stories, The Curse Now Lifted, in the award winning Anthology, Shifts. She has also had her first children’s chapter book published, The Fairy Tree. You’ll find her on any given day sitting at her antique library table, cat in lap, working on her novel or poetry. She regularly adds posts to all the media sites including three personal websites, she’s got a short fuse, bumpy night publications and her new children’s site, Sprogs and Frogs and Fairytales Too. Besides, poetry readings, she performs at Story catchers and this year she’ll be giving a spooky presentation at The Hearthstone Museum. October is her favorite month, Halloween her favorite holiday.
ON DECK AT COPPER ROCK:
Nov 21 , Mary Jo Balesteri and Maryann Hurtt, Dec 5, WFOP 2017 Calendar Poets
For more information on the Poetry Rocks series contact Sarah Gilbert at pses@sbcglobal.net.
MELISSA RANGE
Tuesday, October 18, Half Price Books, 281 N. Casaloma Dr., Appleton, 7 pm, Book Signing + Q&A
Come out to help celebrate the release of Melissa Range’s new book of poems, Scriptorium. There will be a reading, with Q&A and book signing after. Melissa Range is an award-winning poet with notable accolades from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Antiquarian Society, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA) and the Rona Jaffe Foundation. She currently lives in Wisconsin and teaches at Lawrence University.https://melissarange.com
LINDA VOIT
Tuesday, October 25, Caramel Crisp, 200 E City Center, Oshkosh, 6:15 – 7:30 pm featured reader, followed by an open mic.
Linda Voit’s poetry has appeared at/on/in Wisconsin Poet’s Calendar, Whispering Shade, An Ariel Anthology 2014, NOTA, Alaska Public Radio’s “A Poem A Day Won’t Kill You,” Lyrical Iowa, Country Mouse, finchandrose.org and Strange Cage. Her poem “First Slow Dance” won 2nd place in Lyrical Iowa’s 2010 adult general category. She grew up in the Fox Valley and now calls Madison Home. She believes poetry is the breakfast of champions.
The reading is located in the game room beyond the cafe portion of the building. Please come early and treat yourself to coffee, dessert or other goodies to enjoy during the reading. For further information contact Kay Sanders at rksanders42@gmail.com or Mandi Isaacson atmandiisaacson@gmail.com.
On deck at Caramel Crisp:
November 22 – Annette Grunseth
WI POET LAUREATE KIMBERLY BLAESER!
Thursday, October 27, The Readers Loft | 2069 Central Ct, Suite 44, Green Bay, 5:30 – 7:30 pm featured readers, followed by an open mic.
House of the Tomato Poetry Reading Series presents featured readers the fourth Thursday of most months, followed by an Open Mic.
On deck at Reader’s Loft:
November 17, Kathryn Gahl and Laurel Mills
For more info: torigw@twc.com or call the Loft at (920) 406-0200 | www.readersloft.com.
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING POET NATASHA TRETHEWEY
Tuesday, November 1, Lawrence University Convocation Series, Lawrence Memorial Chapel, Appleton, 11:20 am – 12:20 pm.
Trethewey presents “The Muse of History: On Poetry and Social Justice.” The Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, Trethewey was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 2007 for her third book, “Native Guard,” one of the works on the 2016-17 Freshman Studies reading list. Other works include 2012’s “Thrall,” a poetry collection that examines representations of mixed-race families, and 2010’s creative non-fiction “Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.” Trethewey has been recognized with numerous awards, including being named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2012, induction in the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame and Mississippi’s Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
MARILYN TAYLOR
Tuesday, November 1, Cafe 1906, THELMA Center for the Arts, 51 Sheboygan Street, Fond du Lac. Part of THELMA’s Foot of the Lake Reading Series, 7 pm, open mic to follow. Doors and Cash Bar open at 6:30 pm.
Marilyn L. Taylor, Ph.D., former Poet Laureate of Wisconsin and of the city of Milwaukee, is the author of six collections of poetry.
Her poems and essays have appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Poetry, Able Muse, Measure, Light, Rhino, Aesthetica, Mezzo Cammin, and the Random House anthology titled Villanelles. She has been awarded First Place in a number of national and international poetry contests, and recently received the 2015 Margaret Reid Award for verse in forms. Her own widely-read “Poet to Poet” column on craft appeared bi-monthly for five years in The Writer magazine.
WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES
October 14 & 15
LORINE NIEDECKER POETRY FESTIVAL
Fort Atkinson, WI
Among many other activities, two regional favorites – Kathryn Gahl and John Walser – will appear. The Poetry Festival celebrates Wisconsin poetry from all over the state, and the legacy of Fort Atkinson’s own renowned poet Lorine Niedecker. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule, event descriptions and list of presenters visit www.lorineniedecker.org or contact Dot Kent 262-495-8867 or Amy Lutzke 920-563-7790.
October 14 & 15
WISDOM SITS IN PLACES: CREATIVE WRITING ABOUT THE NATURAL WORLD
WITH KIMBERLY BLAESER
UW Milwaukee Field Station, Milwaukee
More info here: http://www.wfop.org/workshops-and-writing-groups/
October 28 & 29
WISCONSIN FELLOWSHIP OF POETS FALL CONFERENCE
Theme: “Birds,” “Bees,” “Birds and Bees”
Holiday Inn, Stevens Point”
Agenda, presenter info and registration all available on the website:
http://www.wfop.org/conferences/
November 5, 12 and 19
CONVERSATIONS ON WRITING , 3 pm , Neenah Public Library.
The region’s writing community will gather on three November Saturdays for conversations on poetry, fiction and memoir. The conversations, led by writing instructors from The Mill: A Place for Writers, are free and open to the public through the generosity of the Neenah Public Library.
Each conversation will begin at 3 p.m. with an hour-long presentation, followed by a 30-minute Q&A. Featured speakers are widely published and award-winning writers in their genre.
Nov. 5
On Poetry: By Karla Huston
William Carlos Willams wrote, “It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” Poet Karla Huston will lead a conversation about why poetry is important, why reading poetry will fill you, and why learning to write poetry will make you a better writer of almost anything else. Winner of a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Small Presses award in 2011, Karla Huston earned a master’s in English/creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She is the author of a full collection of poems A Theory of Lipstick (Main Street Rag Publications: 2013) and seven chapbooks, most recently, Outside of a Dog (dancinggirlpress: 2013).
Nov. 12
On Fiction: By Steven Polansky
Novelist and short story writer Steven Polansky believes that, as writers, we search for, hope to catch a glimpse of, and, with the odds stacked against us, try to bring back the news, or a piece thereof, of what it means to be human. His talk will explore the forces that make this task challenging, and yet utterly compelling, to so many of us. Steven Polansky taught at Princeton, St. Olaf College, Macalester, and the University of Minnesota. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Glimmer Train, Best American Stories, New England Review, and Minnesota Monthly. His collection of stories, Dating Miss Universe, won the Sandstone Prize for Fiction, and the 2000 Minnesota Book Award. His novel, The Bradbury Report, was published in 2010 by Weinstein Books.
Nov. 19
On Memoir: By Jill Swenson
Agent and developmental editor Jill Swenson will discuss the popularity of memoir, turning your memories into a manuscript, and some of the literary conventions used in the genre. Whether you’re an avid reader of true life stories or writing your own, this session will explore the reasons why some memoirs get published and the benefits of writing a memoir, whether published or not. Jill recently moved from New York to Appleton. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has taught, edited and coached writers for 30 years. Jill won the first Muskeg and Spruce Writing Contest for her piece “If We Were Good” and has previously taught at the Loft Literary Center, Ithaca College, and the University of Georgia-Athens.
For more information on the series, or on The Mill: A Place for Writers, contact Michael Hopkins (michaelhopkins363@gmail.com) or Steven Polansky (smpolansky@hotmail.com or 920-284-7370).
DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS
DEADLINE EXTENDED: The call for Wisconsin’s next Poet Laureate is now open! Nominations and application process open through October 14, 2016. Visit the Commission’s website for details: http://www.wisconsinpoetlaureate.org/application-information
Lisa Vihos of Sheboygan is working on putting together an anthology of poems about, connected to, jumping off from, or otherwise inspired by the art and life of Vincent Van Gogh. She doesn’t have a publisher yet, but she is collecting poems. If you are interested in having a poem included, please contact her or just send her your poem(s) by October 31, 2016 for consideration at lisavihos@gmail.com.
WI People & Ideas New Poetry & Short Story Contests are NOW OPEN