Council for Wisconsin Writers

Supporting Wisconsin writers from 1964 to 2022

Geoff Gilpin

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Letters of Gratitude

The Council for Wisconsin Writers’ mission — “to recognize and celebrate Wisconsin writers and to promote awareness of our state’s great literary heritage” — is highly and constantly gratifying. Recipients’ appreciation and gratitude makes it doubly so. Letters, such as two received recently from this year’s Major Achievement Award winner, DSC05488Milwaukee historian John Gurda, and the Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award winner Catherine Jagoe highlight that.

With permission from John and Catherine, we are pleased to share their letters:

From John Gurda to Council for Wisconsin Writers President Geoff Gilpin:

“Dear Geoff:

I’ve already expressed my gratitude to (board member) Erik Richardson via email, but I thought I’d use this somewhat more formal channel to thank you and the CWW for this year’s Major Achievement Award. It’s obviously a career capstone, and one I find enormously satisfying. As I approach seventy, I’m amazed that I’ve been able to make a living as a Milwaukee historian for all these years–a job for which there were no posted openings. The CWW’s Achievement Award confirms my choice of careers and encourages me to keep moving into the future down the path of the past.

All the Best,

John Gurda”

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From Catherine Jagoe to Geoff Gilpin:

“Dear Geoff,

I would like to reiterate my heartfelt thanks to the Council for Wisconsin Writers for the Edna Meudt prize I was recently awarded for Bloodroot. I felt that I didn’t do justice at the award ceremony to the depth of my appreciation for the work that the Council does to celebrate and encourage Wisconsin writers. When Karla Huston called to tell me about the award I was so overcome, I actually wept.

This book was a very long time in the making — I had been revising and sending it to contests from almost ten years, and it had been a finalist or semi-finalist numerous times. The process of submitting a book manuscript is arduous and expensive and I had just about run out of hope. I decided I would send the manuscript to one last contest and then put it aside and move on. To my astonishment, it won that contest, the Settlement House American Poetry Prize.

Because the book explores my experience as a newcomer and foreigner, the nature of home and the process of uprooting and re-rooting in Wisconsin, it meant a very great deal to me that it won the CWW award. It allowed me to feel accepted in this community of writers instead of being a perpetual outsider. As another immigrant writer put it recently, it’s like getting a big hug from your adopted home.

The $500 and week’s residency will buy me some crucial time to start generating new work. So please thank all the board members again from me personally at your next meeting.

Warmly,

Catherine Jagoe”

On behalf of Wisconsin writers, CWW again congratulates John and Catherine on their stellar work. More about these writers is at John’s website johngurda.com and Catherine’s website www.catherinejagoe.com.

More information about CWW, its annual contests and how to become a member is at wiswriters.org.

 

 

 

 

 

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CWW President Joins UW Study on Psychedelic Medicine

Geoff Gilpin, who serves as president of the Council for Wisconsin Writers, took some psychedelic journeys recently, but it was for science.

 

Gilpin, author of the memoir The Maharishi Effect: A Personal Journey Through the Spiritual Movement That Transformed AmericaThe Marharishi Effect Book Cover  is quoted in a recent Wisconsin State Journal article about his experience in a pharmacokinetics study being conducted by  UW-Madison’s School of Pharmacy.

Specifically, the study is to assist scientists assess the potential of psilocybin, which is the hallucinogenic ingredient found in “magic mushrooms,” to “ease the minds of patients with cancer and other conditions,” according to the WSJ article.

Gilpin, who is conducting research for a book on psychedelics he’s working on, says that the study sessions he’s participated in have resulted in interesting journeys. His blog is here.

More information about Gilpin and the Council for Wisconsin Writers is at www.wiswriters.org.

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CWW Seeking Volunteers

The Council for Wisconsin Writers, in seeking to more fully accomplish our mission of celebrating the achievements of writers in our state, is in the process of making some exciting changes. We are looking for volunteers with interest and skills in media production, membership development, and conducting interviews and writing essays on Wisconsin writers.

CWW is a non-profit organization that operates entirely with committed volunteers who serve as its Board of Directors and support it with membership dues, donations and service. More about CWW is at its website,  www.wiswriters.org.
Anyone interested in assisting with this cause and helping CWW achieve its goals, please contact CWW President Geoff Gilpin at geoff@geoffgilpin.com.

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CWW Contest Namesake Gets NYT Mention

Council for Wisconsin Writers President Geoff Gilpin notes that Wisconsin poet Lorine Niedecker, for whom the CWW Norine Niedecker Poetry Award is named, got a mention in an unusual place: the year-end roundup of best classical music recordings in the New York Times: Classical Critics Pick the Top Music Recordings of 2014 [Dec. 18, 2014]

“There’s a new album (“Chamber Music”) by British composer Harrison Birtwistle that includes settings of Niedecker poems,” Geoff says. “It’s not on Spotify, but here’s a quote from Amazon:

‘Settings of the writings of US Objectivist poet Lorine Niedecker (1903-1970), scored for soprano and cello in 1998 and 2000, begin and close the album. As Bayan Northcott writes in the booklet, These concentrated songs demand the utmost of their performers in precision, expression and timing. As in Webern’s settings, the few words and notes on the page can seem to imply whole worlds of thought and feeling.’”

See more about the Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award and other CWW’s contests at http://www.wiswriters.org/rules.htm. These contests for 2014 work by Wisconsin writers are open for entries until midnight, Jan. 31, 2015.

 

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Long-time CWW Supporter Dies

With the death this week of Dorothy Tofte, the Council for Wisconsin Writers lost a long-time advocate and supporter. Dorothy, 98, was the wife of prolific science fiction and fantasy writer Arthur R. Tofte. Although Dorothy’s impressive career in nursing spanned many decades, according to the Becker Ritter Funeral Home, which posted this notice, both she and Arthur, who died in 1980, were devoted members of CWW. The CWW Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award was named in honor of the Toftes and Dorothy’s friend, children’s author Betty Ren Wright.

Following are CWW member tributes to Dorothy:

CWW President Geoff Gilpin

  • I was deeply saddened to learn of Dorothy’s passing. She and her husband Arthur were pillars of our organization over the decades. In recent years, we’ve missed her quiet graciousness at our annual awards banquet. Her generosity lives on through the Tofte/Wright Award, presented annually for the best work of children’s literature by a Wisconsin writer. My deepest condolences to her family and friends. Wisconsin has lost a great supporter of the arts.

Geoff Gilpin

President, Council for Wisconsin Writer

Posted on Dorothy’s online memorial page

  • In the early ’90s, when I was first getting started with Redbird Studio, Dorothy Tofte and her friend, Betty Ren Wright (sp?) got excited about the classes for adults and kids and wanted to be part of it. Betty always cheered us on. Dorothy went another step. She climbed the four flights of stairs to the studio, attended workshops, helped encourage the writers, and contributed to the young writers scholarship fund. Whenever she saw me, she asked how things were going at the studio and she didn’t mean to get a general answer, she wanted details. What were people writing? How many more had been published? Was I still working with inner city schools? Did that lady finish writing about her son?
            She and Betty were not only friends, they were champions who worked behind the scenes to help “the young ones” along. I’m grateful to have seemed like one of “the young ones”
            to them.
           As I write this, I realize it’s my turn to “help the young ones.” I hope none of them are up four flights of stairs.
        Judy Bridges
        Author, Shut Up & Write! 

        Founder, Redbird Studio
           Board member, Council for Wisconsin Writers

The Becker Ritter Funeral Home notice includes the following information about services:

Visitation will be held at the Funeral Home on Monday, November 24, at 11:30 a.m., with lunch following. In lieu of flowers, memorials to the Council for Wisconsin Writers, Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award or a charity of your choice.

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CWW Board Members on WORT

Council for Wisconsin Writers President Geoff Gilpin and Board Member Marilyn Taylor talked up CWW last Thursday on WORT’s “Radio Literacy” program. To have a listen, go to  http://www.wortfm.org/?page_id=1811, and scroll down to Thursday, Radio Literacy.

For more about CWW, please go to www.wiswriters.org, and for information about and to make reservations for the CWW Awards Banquet on May 10 at the Wisconsin Club, please go to http://www.wiswriters.org/banquet.htm.