Supporting Wisconsin writers from 1964 to 2022
by jhayslett
Ellen Kort opened this century as Wisconsin inaugural Poet Laureate. Here’s a flyer about The Fox Cities Book Festival’s special event, which takes place next Tuesday evening:
http://www.foxcitiesbookfestival.org/sites/foxcitiesbookfestival.org/files/EveningForEllen_0.png
by jhayslett
Posted on CWW Facebook by CWW board member Vihos:
“Today, we mourn the passing of a wonderful writer and Wisconsin’s very first poet laureate, Ellen Kort. Her vision, her caring for others, her inspiration; all will be sorely missed.”
Here’s the link included in Lisa’s post:
http://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2013/09/ellen-kort-walking-on-water.html
by jhayslett
News from WFOP VP Cathryn Cofell:
The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) Fox Valley Poetry Series meets at Harmony Cafe in Appleton (233 E. College Ave) on the third Monday of most months. Each evening begins at 6:30 p.m. with the featured reader(s), followed by an open mic open to anyone who wishes to read 1-2 poems.
Monday, November 19, 6:30 p.m. – Ellen Kort, Ralph Murre
Ellen Kort was Wisconsin’s first Poet Laureate, serving from 2000-2004. She is the author of 11 books and 8 collections of poetry. Ellen’s work has been featured in a variety of anthologies and incorporated architecturally in downtown Milwaukee’s Midwest Express Center, the Green Bay Botanical Gardens and the Fox River Mall. Her poetry has been performed by the New York City Dance Theatre and recorded on audio by Ellen Burstyn, Ed Asner and Alfre Woodard. Ellen uses her skills as a poet and teacher to reach out to the community in numerous ways, teaching at local universities and schools and conducting writing workshops for at-risk teens, nurses, physicians and for survivors of cancer, AIDS and domestic abuse. Ellen has been a guest on Wisconsin and National Public Radio and has traveled widely as a poet, speaker, and poetry workshop facilitator throughout the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, the Bahamas, and Japan.
Ralph Murre, a wanderer, has been most often sighted in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin in recent years, where he reportedly does a little writing and drawing when he isn’t sailing or simply daydreaming. He’s published a few thin books of poetry and his readings have usually been tolerated and sometimes even warmly received by audiences in several states.
by jhayslett
Here’s the month of November’s missive from the WFOP:
The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) Fox Valley Poetry Series meets at Harmony Cafe in Appleton (233 E. College Ave) on the third Monday of most months. Each evening begins at 6:30 p.m. with the featured reader(s), followed by an open mic open to anyone who wishes to read 1-2 poems.
Monday, November 19, 6:30 p.m. – Ellen Kort, Ralph Murre
Ellen Kort was Wisconsin’s first Poet Laureate, serving from 2000-2004. She is the author of 11 books and 8 collections of poetry. Ellen’s work has been featured in a variety of anthologies and incorporated architecturally in downtown Milwaukee’s Midwest Express Center, the Green Bay Botanical Gardens and the Fox River Mall. Her poetry has been performed by the New York City Dance Theatre and recorded on audio by Ellen Burstyn, Ed Asner and Alfre Woodard. Ellen uses her skills as a poet and teacher to reach out to the community in numerous ways, teaching at local universities and schools and conducting writing workshops for at-risk teens, nurses, physicians and for survivors of cancer, AIDS and domestic abuse. Ellen has been a guest on Wisconsin and National Public Radio and has traveled widely as a poet, speaker, and poetry workshop facilitator throughout the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, the Bahamas, and Japan.
Ralph Murre, a wanderer, has been most often sighted in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin in recent years, where he reportedly does a little writing and drawing when he isn’t sailing or simply daydreaming. He’s published a few thin books of poetry and his readings have usually been tolerated and sometimes even warmly received by audiences in several states. Here’s a sample of his work:
As If
It’s almost as if this Grand Canyon
was opened by my Colorado
flowing through your Arizona,
as if busloads would come to see,
as if they’d fly in from Asia
with cameras.
It’s as if your Sierra watered
my Truckee, your Smokies
generated the power of my Tennessee,
as if my Kitty Hawk meant something
to your sky, your salmon
to my sea, my unparted sea.
It’s as if our waters, in their mingling,
defied laws of nature and physics,
as if we’d be running
through each other forever,
your Jupiter reflected in my dark surface,
my hands cupping a little drink of you.
ON DECK AT HARMONY – 2012
Dec 3 Sarah Busse & Wendy Vardaman + 2013 WFOP
Poets’ Calendar Reading
Want more opportunities to share your craft at Harmony? Consider Harmony’s Open Mind Program every Friday night!
READINGS AT OTHER VENUES
MIKE MAGNUSON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13: The Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective is thrilled with this season’s Fiction Feature, Mike Magnuson. Mike is the author of two novels, The Right Man for the Job (HarperCollins) and The Fire Gospels (HarperCollins), and three books of nonfiction, Lummox: The Evolution of a Man (HarperCollins), Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180 (Crown) and Bike Tribes: A Field Guide to North American Cyclists (Rodale). His short fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Esquire, Gentleman’s Quarterly, The Massachusetts Review, Men’s Health, Backpacker, and other publications. He lives in Appleton, where he is finishing a long novel about working people in Wisconsin’s Fox Valley region. He also teaches prose writing in Pacific University’s Low Residency MFA Program in Forest Grove, Oregon. The reading starts promptly at 7 p.m. with an open mic following the featured reader. The Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective holds literary events on the second Tuesday of the month, September through May, at the Windhover Center for the Arts, 51 Sheboygan Street, Fond du Lac. For more info call 920-921-5410.
CHUCK SULLY, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14: Chuck Sully will be the featured reader in the Dickinson Poetry Series on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County, 10341 Water Street, Hwy 42, Ephraim (On the south end of the Shops of Green Gables). After his reading, there will be an open mic for other poets to read. New poets and listeners are welcome. Chuck began to write poetry when he was 15, and the love of poetry has continued to inform his work. Two other passions are reflected in his writing: sailing and baking bread. Sailing represents a way of life for him. He has traveled 44,000 miles on the water. Catch him selling his bread at some of the farmers’ markets in Door County, and you may get him to recite a poem or two. He has published a book of poems.
KARLA HUSTON & CATHRYN COFELL, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27: Appleblossom Books, 200 E City Center in Oshkosh, hosts a featured reader on the 4th Tuesday of most months. Come early and enjoy a meal or grab a cup of coffee at Caramel Crisp and Café whose inner doors connect directly with Apple Blossom Books. An open mic will followwhere participants may read one or two of their own poems or poems by others that they love. In Split Personality, a new release by Sunnyoutside Press, Cathryn and Karla blend their voices into one glorious, giggly and sometimes jiggly exploration of the trappings that often define and defy today’s woman. Cathryn and Karla have been collaborators since 2000, with poems in Rhino, Indiana Review, and Quiddity, among others. The duo has been anthologized in Saints of Hysteria and exercised inWingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry and in many workshop settings. Between them, they have published twelve books of poems, two broadsides, one music/poetry cd, and oodles of reviews, interviews and essays. They’ve won many writing awards and received a boatload of Pushcart nominations including one win for Karla for “Theory of Lipstick,” the title poem for her forthcoming collection from Main Street Rag.
Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Green Bay on South Oneida holds open mic readings on the 2nd Thursday of each month. Registration begins at 6:45 p.m. and the reading begins at 7:00 p.m. There is no featured reader.
CONTESTS
WFOP 2013 CHAPBOOK PRIZE: The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets is dedicated to promoting poetry in Wisconsin and seeks to expand its contest offerings by honoring the best chapbook published in the previous year by a Wisconsin resident. DEADLINE: 2/1/13. Visit http://wfop.org/contests.html for details.
WFOP MUSE PRIZE FOR POETRY: Open to any Wisconsin resident (you don’t need to be a member of the WFOP). DEADLINE: 2/1/13. Visit http://wfop.org/contests.html for details.
by jhayslett
Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission Announces Open Application/Nomination Call for 2013–2014 Wisconsin Poet Laureate MADISON, WI—The Poet Laureate Commission of Wisconsin announces the opening of the application/nomination process for selection of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate for 2013–2014. Submissions are welcome from individual poets who are seeking the position. Application packages may also be submitted by a person who is nominating a poet for the position of Poet Laureate.
The deadline for application is 4:00 pm on Friday, October 5, 2012. Application materials are available by clicking this link or atwisconsinacademy.org/poetry/poet-laureate-application.
The Poet Laureate enriches the lives of Wisconsin citizens by sharing and encouraging poetry through statewide literary events or educational programs. Charged with contributing to the recognition, enjoyment and growth of poetry in this state, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate serves as a standard-bearer for Wisconsin’s poets and their work.
Poet Laureates demonstrate an admirable and proven level of skill in writing poetry, a history of having published individual poems and/or books, and excellence in promoting awareness or enjoyment of poetry in Wisconsin. A Poet Laureate must be at least 18 years of age and a resident of Wisconsin for at least one year.
Wisconsin’s Poet Laureate serves a two-year term. Bruce Dethlefsen, a retired educator from Westfield, is Wisconsin’s fourth Poet Laureate and will complete his tenure at the end of 2012. Other Wisconsin Poet Laureates include Ellen Kort, Denise Sweet, and Marilyn Taylor.About the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission
In May of 2011 the Wisconsin Academy announced their stewardship of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate program to ensure the survival of the Commission and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate program after Governor Scott Walker eliminated state support for the program. Created by Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson on July 31, 2000, and continued by Governor Jim Doyle through 2010, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission conducts the selection process, assigns responsibilites and provides support to the Poet Laureate. Charged with contributing to the growth of poetry in this state, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate arranges and/or attends at least eight statewide literary events each year as requested by the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission or the Wisconsin Academy. For more information about the Wisconsin Poet Laureate and Commission, visit < href=”http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=51841841&msgid=636093&act=GBGI&c=479042&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisconsinacademy.org%2Fpoetlaureate“>wisconsinacademy.org/poetlaureate.# # #
Be sure to visit CWW’s website at www.wiswriters.ore for more information about and for Wisconsin writers.
by jhayslett
The Fox Cities Book Festival could more aptly be called a Book Feastival. The lineup of authors and events for the April 11-18 bibliotheque-esque banquet runs deep and wide.
Some, such as UW-Madison Professor Emeritus and author of three-dozen books Jerry Apps, poet and Verse Wisconsin co-editor Sarah Busse and prolific mystery and children’s book author Kathleen Ernst, are current or former CWW award winners.
Some, such as Redbird Studio writing center founder and author/writing mentor Judy Bridges, poet and writer Karla Huston, short-story writer and book reviewer Ted Hertel, and journalist and award-winner novelist Paul Salsini, are current or former CWW board members.
Some, such as poet and retired educator/public library director Bruce Dethlefsen and poet and author Ellen Kort, are current or former Wisconsin poets laureate.
Some, such as The Zookeeper’s Wife author Diane Ackerman, The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York author Deborah Blum and creator of the adorable Fancy Nancy children’s books Jane O’Connor, are writers of national best sellers.
Read all about this feastival at the Fox Cities Book Festival website at http://www.foxcitiesbookfestival.org/, the complete list of authors and their bios at http://www.foxcitiesbookfestival.org/authors/2012 and the schedule of events at http://www.foxcitiesbookfestival.org/schedule/2012.
Learn more about the Council for Wisconsin Writers, its annual contest and contest winners at www.wiswriters.org.