Council for Wisconsin Writers

Supporting Wisconsin writers from 1964 to 2022

Melissa Hope Range

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WFOP Coming Attractions

Here’s news of upcoming events for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets:

MON, JAN 12, the WFOP Poetry Series moves to its new home at Copper Rock Café, 210 W. College Ave, Appleton.  We invite you to arrive by 6:45 or earlier to get refreshments and sign up for the open reading, with the featured readers beginning promptly at 7, followed by an open reading.  First up:  Thomas J. Erickson and C. Kubasta.  

Thomas J. Erickson grew up in Kohler, Wisconsin.  He received a BA from Beloit College in English Composition and a law degree from Marquette University.  His poems have appeared in numerous publications including The Los Angeles Review, Quiddity International Literary Review, Mad Poet’s Review, The New Poet, and Slant. , His chapbook, “The Lawyer Who Died in the Courthouse Bathroom” (Parallel Press, 2013) was awarded second place in the 2014 Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook Contest.    He is an attorney in Milwaukee where he is a member of the Hartford Avenue Poets.

C. Kubasta attended Wells College and received an MFA in poetry from The University of Notre Dame.  Her work experiments with hybrid forms, excerpted text, and shifting voices. A Lovely Boxwas 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, including So To Speak, Stand, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Verse Wisconsin, and The Notre Dame Review. Check out 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 information, contact Sarah Gilbert at pses@sbcglobal.net.

​ON DECK at COPPER ROCK:

Feb 16: Andrew McSorley, Melissa Hope Range, Charles Austin Segrest

Mar 16: Richard Swanson and Timothy Walsh

Apr 20: Lawrence University Students

ADDITIONAL READINGS

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TUES, JAN 6 at ​ 7 p.m.:  ​The Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective in partnership with Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts  presents the FAVORITE POEM PROJECT:  local “celebs” and the audience are invited up to read a poem from a favorite poet (not one of their own).  Check outhttp://www.favoritepoem.org/! THELMA, 51 Sheboygan Street, Fond du Lac, WI.  The event is free. Refreshments are available.

WED, JAN 14 at 7:00 P.M. DAVID CLOWERS, 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.

 THURS., JAN 27, DAVID CLOWERS at CARAMEL CRISP, 200 E City Center, Oshkosh at 6:15pm: We are now reading in the game room beyond the cafe portion of the building. Pick up your edibles, walk on back.  You’ll take a little jog to the left and keep on til you see us. It is not far. The section is cozy and much quieter so we may all hear better. So come early to treat yourself to coffee, dessert or other goodies to enjoy during the 6:15 reading. Tom ​is the ​author of In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013, read.  An open mic will follow where participants may read a poem of their own or one that they love.

​ So please come early and treat yourself to coffee, dessert or other goodies to enjoy during the reading which begins promptly at 6:15.  This will allow us time for a few minutes of visiting before Caramel Crisp closes at 7:30. Looking forward to seeing you at the beginning of another wonderful year of POETRY in Oshkosh.

Last Thursdays, 6-8 pm:

​Featured Reader(s) + Open mic at ​The Readers Loft | 2069 Central Ct, Suite 44, Green Bay, WI 54311 | (920) 406-0200 | www.readersloft.com

JANUARY 29  Estella Lauter
FEBRUARY 26  Sarah Gilbert, Mark Falcone
MARCH 26  Bobbie Lovell, F.J. Bergman
APRIL 30 Phil Hansotia, Wendy Schmidt
MAY 28  Tim Walsh, Kathryn Gahl
JUNE 25  Abraham Smith
JULY 30  Ching-In Chen
AUGUST 27  Bruce Dethlefsen, Cathryn Cofell, Karla Huston
SEPTEMBER 24  Marilyn Windau, Georgia Ressmeyer

OCTOBER 29  Steve Tomasko, Jeanie Tomasko, CX Dillhunt

WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

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 WED, JAN 7 6-8 P.M. CREATIVE WRITERS’ WORKSHOP, Kress Family Branch Library, 333 N. Broadway, De Pere.  A monthly group gathering of adult writers seeking networking and support.  Bring poems or short prose to read along with copies for critique. 

DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS

VISIT THE WFOP WEBSITE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT MULTIPLE CONTESTS with differing deadlines, including the 2014 Chapbook Prize, and the 65th Anniversary Contest.  wfop.org

​January 31 deadline for the Council for Wisconsin Writers Awards!  Visit http://www.wiswriters.org/awards.htm for more information.

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WFOP News

TUES, NOV 4 at ​ 7 p.m.:  ​The Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective in partnership with Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts will present HYBRID: Transported by Word & Image at THELMA, 51 Sheboygan Street, Fond du Lac, WI. Photographer and artist Thomas Ferrella and poet Sara Parrell collaborate to bring the poems of 43 Wisconsin poets and Ferrella’s images to the page. 

Supported by a city of Madison Blink Grant to support public art, this project went live on May 1 in 39 Green Cab of Madison taxis. HYBRID’s poetry creates a powerful story of human resiliency and connection. In addition to the 10 x 13 laminated single pages in each of the cabs, a folio of the entire collection was created and can be purchased.  Ferrella and Parrell will talk about the making of the Green Cab project. Sara Parrell, Paula Sergi, Mary Wehner and Cathryn Cofell,who are included in the project, will read their and other poems.  THELMA will also exhibit the broadsides of photography and matching poems featured in the project.The event is free. Refreshments are available.  An open-mic follows the featured reader.

WED, NOV 12, 7:00 P.M. LORAINE BRINK, 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.

Monday, NOVEMBER 17, 6:30 p.m., Harmony Cafe, Appleton:  JOAN & JEFFREY JOHANNES

Joan Wiese Johannes’s fourth chapbook, He Thought the Periodic Table Was a Portrait of God, was published last fall by Finishing Line press and includes the 2011 regional winner of the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest and award winners in contests sponsored by Peninsula Pulse and Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. Her previously published chapbook, Sensible Shoes, was the 2009 winner of the John and Miriam Morris Chapbook contest sponsored by the AL Poetry Society. Joan agrees with the stage manager in Our Town  who said that only poets and saints truly appreciate life while living it.

In 2013 Jeffrey Johannes’s first chapbook, Ritual for Beginning Again, was published, he received a Pushcart nomination, and was an award winner in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Triad contest. He also won the 2012 Hal Grutzmacher Poetry Award sponsored by Peninsula Pulse, and his poetry has been published in various journals and anthologies. Jeffrey is also an artist and cartoonist, making what he calls “pometoons”, which are cartoon versions of his poems.

The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) Fox Valley Poetry Series meets at Harmony Café, 233 E. College Ave, Appleton on the third Monday of most months. NOTE THAT DECEMBER AND JANUARY ARE EXCEPTION MONTHS!

Featured reader(s) at 6:30 pm, brief open mic after.  For more information contact Sarah Gilbert at pses@sbcglobal.net .

​ON DECK AT HARMONY:

Dec 1, 2015 WFOP Calendar reading with editors Steve and Jeannie Tomasko

Jan 12, Tom Erickson and Christina Kubasta

Feb 16, Melissa Hope Range, Charles Austin Segrest & Andrew McSorley

Mar 16, Lawrence Student Invitational

TUES, NOV 25, PAULA SERGI at the Caramel Crisp, 200 E City Center, Oshkosh at 6:15pm.

We are now reading in the game room beyond the cafe portion of the building. Pick up your edibles, walk on back.  The section is cozy and much quieter.  Paula Sergi enjoyed a career in public health nursing before obtaining an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks and co-editor of three anthologies. She has spent ten years with the Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective to bring a reading series to Fond du Lac.

An open mic will follow where participants may read one or two of their own poems or poems by others that they love.   Come early and enjoy a meal or grab a cup of coffee!  For more information, contact Kay Sanders at rksanders42@gmail.com or Mandi Isaacson at mandiisaacson@gmail.com

WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

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WED, NOV 5 6-8 P.M. CREATIVE WRITERS’ WORKSHOP, Kress Family Branch Library, 333 N. Broadway, De Pere.  A monthly group gathering of adult writers seeking networking and support.  Bring poems or short prose to read along with copies for critique. 

NOV 6 & 7:  THE GREAT LAKES WRITERS FESTIVAL AT LAKELAND COLLEGE!  Featured writers Karla Huston and David Jauss.  FREE and open to the public.  Visithttp://greatlakeswritersfestival.org/

DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS

December 15 deadline for the 2016 Wisconsin Poets Calendar!  Visit wfop.org for more information.

January 31 deadline for the Council for Wisconsin Writers Awards!  Visit http://www.wiswriters.org/awards.htm for more information.