Council for Wisconsin Writers

Supporting Wisconsin writers from 1964 to 2022

northeast Wisconsin

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WFOP Happenings in NE WI for January and February

Here’s news from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poet’s Cathryn Cofell:

THERE WILL BE NO POETRY AT THE DRAW IN JANUARY –  A GOOD TIME TO CHECK OUT THE EVENTS AT OTHER LOCALES, AND TO START POLISHING YOUR RECITATION PIECE. ALSO NOTE THAT WE’LL BE MOVING TO A NEW NIGHT – THE 2NDMONDAY OF MOST MONTHS!

3rd ANNUAL POETRY RECITATION EVENT

Monday, February 11, 2019

The Draw, 800 S. Lawe Street, Appleton

7 – 8:30 pm

Calling all readers, any readers, to recite a favorite poem (not your own) by heart. Open to all styles!! Interested?Please reply to Cathryn Cofell at ccofell@gmail.com so we can add you to our list of featured artists.

Open mike follows featured readers.  FREE and Open to the Public!

ON DECK: Stay tuned!

For more information about the poetry reading series in Appleton, contact Sarah Gilbert at pses@sbcglobal.net.

OTHER READINGS & EVENTS IN THE AREA

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CATCHING SNOWFLAKES ON YOUR TONGUE: TALES AROUND THE TABLE
FEATURING SHARON AUBERLE, RALPH MURRE, JEANIE TOMASKO & STEVE TOMASKO

Monday, January 7, 2019

Reader’s Loft

2069 Central Ct, Green Bay

5:00 pm

A special night of poetry and storytelling. Begins with open mic.  https://www.houseofthetomato.com/poetry-events/2019/1/7/poetry-reading

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SHORT STORY NIGHT

With special guest Cathryn Cofell

Monday, January 14, 2019

Lion’s Tail Brewing

116 S Commercial St, Neenah

in Neenah, a short story discussion over beers.

Do you enjoy reading but don’t have time for a traditional book club? Try Short Story Night instead! Join us at Lion’s Tail Brewing in downtown Neenah as we discuss Nabokov’s classic “Symbols and Signs” as well as Moore’s modern story “Referential.” Like a cross between a traditional book club and a late night talk show, Short Story Night includes trivia, commentary, discussion, author interviews and more. Read the stories online before Monday’s discussion at www.neenahlibrary.org/shortstory or pick up a copy at the Neenah Public Library reference desk. No registration required.

Occasionally, guest host Richie Zaborowske throws a poet into the mix. As an opening act to Nabokov and Moore, he’s invited poet Cathryn Cofell to read a few poems, talk about her Mill Poetry Prize and discuss all things poetry in the Fox Cities.

For more information, please contact the Neenah Public Library adult reference desk by phone: 920-886-6315 or e-mail:Library@neenahlibrary.org.

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 TOM MONTAG

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Evergreen Manor

1125 N. Westfield Drive, Oshkosh

6:30 pm

Please note that we will be in the Fireside Room that is near the front entrance.

An open mic will follow where participants may read a poem of their own or one that they love.

Tom Montag is most recently the author of In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013, This Wrecked World, and The Miles No One Wants. He has been a featured poet at Atticus Review, Contemporary American Voices, Houseboat, Basil O’Flaherty Review, and Blue Heron Review. With David Graham, he is editing an anthology of poetry about small town America.

For further information you may contact Mandi Isaacson  mandiisaacson@gmail.com or Frankie Mengeling mengeling.frankie23@gmail.com.

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DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS

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The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) has three contests that are currently open to members and non-members alike. Check them out!

STUDENT CONTEST
Deadline: January 12, 2019
Guidelines & How to Enter

CHAPBOOK CONTEST
Deadline: February 1, 2019
Open to Members and Non-Members Starting September 1, 2018
Guidelines & How to Enter
This year’s judge is Caroline Johnson

MUSE PRIZE
Deadline: February 1, 2019
Guidelines & How to Enter
This year’s judge is David Salner

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Upcoming NE Wisconsin WFOP Doings

From WFOP’s Cathryn Cofell:

The Poetry Rocks Series moves to a different date and location for January (typically held at Copper Rock on the 3rd Monday):

MONDAY, JANUARY 11 (2nd Monday!), 7 pm: Favorite Poem Reading @ Acoca Coffee, 500 W. College Ave, Appleton!  Every one is a featured reader — share a favorite poem that is NOT your own!  The traditional open mike will follow, so bring one of your own as well.

Acoca is just 3 blocks west of Copper Rock (same side of the street, across from the PAC).  Click here for the Acoca website.

ON DECK (BACK AT COPPER ROCK):

February 15 – Jeannie and Steve Tomasko

March 21 –  Soundings: Poets from the Door County anthology

For more information on the Poetry Rocks series contact Sarah Gilbert at pses@sbcglobal.net.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 7:00 pm, ETHEL AND TOM DAVIS at the UUF, 10341 Highway 42 in Ephraim. 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. For more information visit www.uufdc.org or call 920.854.7559.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, TIMOTHY WALSH at CARAMEL CRISP, 200 E City Center, Oshkosh at 6:15pm, followed by an open mic. 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 which begins promptly at 6:15.  Caramel Crisp closes at 7:30. For further information contact Kay Sanders at rksanders42@gmail.com or Mandi Isaacson at mandiisaacson@gmail.com.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 6-8 PM, ESTELLA LAUTER & NANCY RAFAL, Featured Reader(s) + Open mic at The Readers Loft | 2069 Central Ct, Suite 44, Green Bay.  For more info: torigw@twc.com or call the Loft at (920) 406-0200 | www.readersloft.com.

On Deck:

February 25: Jenna Cornell, D.R. Clowers, Ralph Murre
March 31: Tom Davis, Ethel Mortenson Davis

April 28: Sylvia Cavanaugh, Ed Werstein, Nancy Austin

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 7 pm: Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts (THELMA) hosts ALISON TOWNSEND – first poet to receive the UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Regional Literary Award. FREE event begins with reading in THELMA’s Café 1906 at 51 Sheboygan St., Fond du Lac. An open mic will follow for any others who would like to read. Cash bar will be available. For more information: www.thelmaarts.org or920.921.5410

WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

WEDNESDAY, January 6, 6-8 pm, Creative Writers’ Workshop, KRESS FAMILY BRANCH LIBRARY, 333 N. Broadway, De Pere.Support and networking for writers. Bring your original poems or short prose to read, along with copies for critique.

DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS

2016 WFOP Muse Contest is open: http://wfop.org/contests/muse.html

Deadline February 1.

2016 WFOP Chapbook Contest is open: http://wfop.org/contests/cbprize.html
Deadline February 1.

2016 WFOP Student Poetry Contest is open: http://wfop.org/contests/student.html

Deadline January 16.

​CWW OPENS 2015 WISCONSIN WRITERS AWARDS – DEADLINE FEB 1, 2016!

Work published by Wisconsin writers in 2015 is eligible in seven categories, including book-length fiction, nonfiction and poetry; short fiction and nonfiction; a set of five poems including at least two published in the contest year; and children’s literature. (Outdoor writing may now be submitted to the long or short non-fiction category).

First-place winners will receive $500 and a week-long writers’ residency at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point. Honorable mentions will receive $50.

Entries for this year’s Wisconsin Writers Awards must be postmarked no later than February 1, 2016. Authors who enter must be current Wisconsin residents. The entry fee is $25. Membership in CWW is not required, but members are entitled to one free entry. Out-of-state judges will make the selections. Awards will be presented in a banquet in May 2016.

Nominations are also open for CWW’s Major Achievement Award, of $1000, honoring the work of a Wisconsin writer who deserves special recognition for literary merit. No entry fee is required for the submission of nominating letters, also due by February 1, 2016 (postmark deadline).

CWW also sponsors an Essay Award for Young Writers (1500 word maximum) for Wisconsin high school students; there is no entry fee, and the award is $250 this year for the winning student. Members of the board will judge. Entries for the student essay contest must be postmarked no later than February 1, 2016.

Specific guidelines, entry forms, and important additional information for each award category are available on the awards section of the website, www.wiswriters.org/awards.htm.
CWW is a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of published Wisconsin writers and encouraging an appreciation of Wisconsin writing.

Deadline 5/1/2016: New American Press is accepting submissions for the next anthology of Midwestern poets. https://newamericanpress.submittable.com/submit/50705

  1. S.If you wish to be removed from this list, let me know.You are receiving this email because you are a member of the Central Fox-Valley Region of the WFOP, or you or someone you know has asked me to include you.  I will always blind cc you, so your email address is not shared with others.  

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NE WI Poetry New Events and Reminders

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 7:00 p.m.: Jean Valentine opens the Foot of the Lake Reading Series at the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts (THELMA)​, 51 Sheboygan St.,​

Fond du Lac! Valentine was the recipient of the 2009 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. She also won the Yale Younger Poets Award for her first book, Dream Barker, and the National Book Award for Door in the Mountain: New & Collected Poems. The doors open at 6:30 pm. A cash bar will be available.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center Galleries at Lawrence, the Mia Paul Poetry Series welcomes poet John Murillo, author of Up Jump the Boogie, for a reading, signing, and reception. Free and open to the public. A great poet you won’t want to miss! Contact Melissa Range (melissa.h.range@lawrence.edu) with any questions.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 7:00 pm, WI POET LAUREATE KIMBERLY BLAESER featured at the DICKINSON POETRY SERIES at the UUF, 10341 Highway 42 in Ephraim. 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. For more information visit www.uufdc.org or call 920.854.7559.

Wednesday, October 14 at 6:30 p.m. — The Kress Family Library in De Pere (333 N. Broadway) will host aCollege Writers’ Invitational with author Kathryn Gahl – 2015 Wisconsin People and Ideas Fiction Finalist, and winner of the 2015 Mill Prize for Fiction at the Fox Cities Book Festival.  Author of the poetry collection Life Drawing Class, Kathryn will share her poems and short fiction, and will host an open reading for student writers attending local colleges.  Kathryn is October’s featured guest in the Kress Library’s Local Author Showcase.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 7:​3​0 pm, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON, Ripon College Lane Library North Reading Room.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 7:00 – 8:30 pm, SARAH GILBERT & SARA PARRELL at the Poetry Rocks! Reading Series at Copper Rock Café, 210 W. College Ave, Appleton. ​​Plan to arrive by 6:45 or earlier to get refreshments and sign up for the open reading, with the reading beginning promptly at 7.   We now have a sound system, and parking is free after 6:00 pm!

Sara Parrell’s work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Tupelo Quarterly, qarrtsiluni, Wisconsin People and Ideas, Verse Wisconsin, and other journals, and she co-curates The Bridge Poetry Series at the Chazen Museum of Art. A pushcart nominee, she was awarded first prize in the 2008 Poetry Center of Chicago’s Juried Reading for her manuscript Psalms of New Orleans, and received the Leo Love Poetry Merit Award in 2012 from the Taos Writers’ Conference. Her collaboration with photographer Thomas Ferrella, HYBRID: Transported by Word and Image, was installed in Madison and Milwaukee hybrid taxis. She is faculty at the UW-Madison School of Nursing, and a member of the Madison Metropolitan School District’s mental health team.

Sarah Gilbert returned to writing poetry in the midst of two decades of Lynch Syndrome cancers, with a chapbook of her cancer poems, Tendril, published by Finishing Line Press in January 2015. Her work has also appeared in Fox Cry Review, Wisconsin Poets Calendar, The Healing Muse, Your Daily Poem, and Sharing Widely Living Deeply.  She serves as a regional VP for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and hosts this series!! in Appleton, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, three cats, and one old dog.

ON DECK at COPPER ROCK:

Nov 16 Annette Grunseth and Tori Grant Welhouse

Dec 7 WI Fellowship of Poets Calendar Contributors

For more information on the Poetry Rocks series contact Sarah Gilbert at pses@sbcglobal.net.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, MARY JO BALISTERI at CARAMEL CRISP, 200 E City Center, Oshkoshat 6:15pm, followed by an open mic. Mary Jo has two full books of poetry and a chapbook. Film adaptions of three of her poems can be seen on Poetry Storehouse and Vimeo (re-mix) by talented film makers Nic Sebastian, Othniel Smith, and March Neys. Another poem, Maybe, was chosen for Poetry that Moves on North suburban PACE buses in Illinois this year. She is associate editor of Tiger’s Eye Press and a founder of Grace River Poets, an outreach for women’s shelters, churches, and schools. Please visit her at maryjobalistreripoet.com

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 which begins promptly at 6:15. Caramel Crisp closes at 7:30. For further information contact Kay Sanders at rksanders42@gmail.com or Mandi Isaacson at mandiisaacson@gmail.com.

Oshkosh Reader line-up for 2015:

November 24 – Sylvia Cavanaugh

December – no reading

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 6-8 PM, JEANIE TOMASKO, STEVE TOMASKO & SHARON AUBERLE, Featured Reader(s) + Open mic at The Readers Loft | 2069 Central Ct, Suite 44, Green Bay.  For more info: torigw@twc.com or call the Loft at (920) 406-0200 | www.readersloft.com.

WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

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OCTOBER 15 & 16, travel to Fort Atkinson for the Lorine Niedecker Poetry Festival, featuring WI Poet Laureate Kim Blaeser, Fabu, Nick Demske, Lisa Vihos, Cathryn Cofell, Tom Montag, Marilyn Taylor and more!  For details, visit http://www.lorineniedecker.org/festival.cfm

OCTOBER 22-25, travel to Madison for the Wisconsin Book Festival, featuring dozens of fabulous authors including Matthew Dickman, ​the WI Academy poetry & fiction prize winners, Kimberly Blaeser, First Wave poets, CWW prize winners (including yours truly!), and the poetry of social justice. For details, visit http://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/

​ ​DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS

 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14: The Kress Family Branch Library is hosting an and is looking for poets to share poetry from their chapbooks and/or poetry collections from approximately 3:00 to 4:30 pm. There is a line-up of other events throughout the day including a workshop on publishing.

Contact johnolski@gmail.com if you are interested in participating.

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Poetry Doings in Northeast WI

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 6:30 pm  — Local Author Showcase at the Kress Family Branch Library in De Pere (333 N. Broadway).  WRITER AND EDITOR SHARON VERBETEN shares her 20 years of freelance experience.  Do you have ideas for articles or a book?  Sharon can answer your questions about the publishing process.

 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 7:00 – 8:30 pm, SYLVIA CAVANAUGH & ED WERSTEIN at the Poetry Rocks! Reading Series at Copper Rock Café, 210 W. College Ave, Appleton.

Plan to arrive by 6:45  or earlier to get refreshments and sign up for the open reading, with the reading beginning promptly at 7 .    We now have a sound system, and parking is free after 6:00 pm!

Originally from Pennsylvania, Sylvia Cavanaugh has an M.S. in Urban Planning from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.  She currently teaches African and Asian cultural studies at Sheboygan North High School.  She is also the school poetry club advisor. A member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, her poems have appeared in An Ariel Anthology, Midwest Prairie Review, Peninsula Pulse, Red Cedar Review, Seems Literary Journal, Stoneboat Literary Journal, Verse-Virtual, and Verse Wisconsin, among others. Most recently she was the winner of the Donn Goodwin Prize for poetry at the 2015 Milwaukee Irish Fest.

Ed Werstein, Milwaukee, spent 22 years in manufacturing before his muse awoke and dragged herself out of bed. He sympathizes with poor and working people. He advocates for peace and against corporate power. His poetry has appeared in Verse Wisconsin, Blue Collar Review, Steam Ticket, Stoneboat, Mobius: the Journal of Social Change and a few other publications. His first chapbook, Who Are We Then?, was published in 2013 by Partisan Press.

​ON DECK at COPPER ROCK:

Oct 19 Sara Parrell and Sarah Gilbert

Nov 16 Annette Grunseth and Tori Grant Welhouse

Dec 7 WI Fellowship of Poets Calendar Contributors

 

For more information on the Poetry Rocks series contact Sarah Gilbert at pses@sbcglobal.net.

 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, KARLA HUSTON at CARAMEL CRISP, 200 E City Center, Oshkosh at6:15pm, followed by an open mic.

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Winner of the 2003 Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest, Karla is the author of seven chapbooks of poetry, most recently Outside of a Dog.  Main Street Rag published her full collection of poems A Theory of Lipstick in 2013. Her poem “Theory of Lipstick” was awarded a  Pushcart Prize  and appeared in The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses (2012).

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 which begins promptly at 6:15. Caramel Crisp closes at 7:30. For further information contact Kay Sanders at rksanders42@gmail.com or Mandi Isaacson at mandiisaacson@gmail.com.

 

Oshkosh Reader line-up for 2015:

October 27 – Jo Balisteri

November 24 – Sylvia Cavanaugh

December – no reading

 

 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 6-8 PM, MARILYN ZEHLKE-WINDAU, GEORGIA RESSMEYER & MARYANN HURTT, Featured Reader(s) + Open mic at The Readers Loft | 2069 Central Ct, Suite 44,Green Bay.  For more info: torigw@twc.com or call the Loft at (920) 406-0200 | www.readersloft.com.

 

 

 

WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

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Mill Fall Classes Begin Monday, September 21with teachers: Karla Huston, Tom Montag, Steve Polansky. Classes will be offered in Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry, Fiction, and Reading for Writers (and readers).  For details, visithttp://www.millwriters.org/classes.html

 

 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19: Mill Poetry Workshop – Kim Blaeser Poet Laureate of Wi.
1- 4 pm at the Refuge. Non- members $55  Members $49.50

http://www.millwriters.org/mill-saturdays.html