Press Release: 2015 Wisconsin Writers Awards Announced!
From: Council for Wisconsin Writers | www.wiswriters.org
For release: March 25, 2016
Contact: Robin Chapman | rschapma@wisc.edu
2015 WISCONSIN WRITERS AWARDS ANNOUNCED BY COUNCIL FOR WISCONSIN WRITERS
Seven Wisconsin writers have been named winners of the Wisconsin Writers Awards for work published in 2015. The Council will award each winner $500 and a week-long writing residency at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point. Honorable mentions will receive $50 each. Out-of-state judges made the selections.
The Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award goes to Judith Claire Mitchell, Madison, for A Reunion of Ghosts, Harper Collins.
John Gurda, Milwaukee, is the winner of the Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award for Milwaukee, City of Neighborhoods, Historic Milwaukee, Inc., while Lynne Diebel, Stoughton, receives honorable mention for Crossing the Driftless, University of Wisconsin Press.
Ronald Wallace of Madison, is the winner of the Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award for the book For Dear Life, University of Pittsburgh Press. Honorable mention goes to The Sacred Monotony of Breath, Prolific Press, by Robert Nordstrom of Mukwanago.
Gayle Rosengren of Fitchburg, is winner of the Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award for Cold War on Maplewood Street, Penguin Random House. Ann Bausum of Janesville receives honorable mention for Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, Penguin Random House.
Matt Cashion of La Crosse, is the winner of the Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction for “Any Idiot Can Feel Pain,” Grist. Jackson Tobin of Madison, is the recipient of an honorable mention for “Kneecap,” Midwestern Gothic.
Ronnie Hess of Madison, is the winner of the Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award for “The Red Shoes,” Peninsula Pulse. Nate Lowe of Plymouth, receives honorable mention for “Archipelago,” Beecher’s.
The Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award for five individual poems goes to John Walser of Fond du Lac. Honorable mention goes to Susan Elbe of Madison.
The winner of the $250 CWW Essay Award for Young Writers is Hannah. L. Nies, a junior at Waunakee High School, for her essay, “The Girl in the Moon.”
The public is invited to celebrate our state’s fine writers at the CWW’s Awards Banquet at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee. Banquet tickets must be reserved by Tuesday, May 10.
More information about the winners, judges, banquet registration, and the Council for Wisconsin Writers can be found at its website, www.wiswriters.org.