Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books

Here’s news from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) PR Coordinator Cathryn Cofell:

The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets 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.  

Judy Kolosso lives with her husband and two cats near Slinger, WI at the southern edge of the Northern Kettle Moraine Forest.  They also spend time in Neenah at her family’s farm where her love of nature was kindled.  Judy and her husband have two grown sons.  She has published two collections of poetry, Aubade and In The First Place, and is in the process of gathering together a third.

Fran Nelson is writing non-fiction and poetry with a group of local Valley poetry writers who are very talented and inspiring.  She enjoys all kinds of reading, writing and traveling.  Fran is retired from the medical field and actively engaged as a realtor.  A sample of her work follows:

ON DECK AT HARMONY – 2012 

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July 16           Nancy Rafal and Wendy Schmidt 
August 20     Barb Germiat and Beth Spencer

Sept 17          Louis Clark and CX Dilhunt
                        
Want more opportunities to share your craft at Harmony?  Consider Harmony’s Open Mind Program every Friday night!

OTHER KEY HAPPENINGS 

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KARLA HUSTON & CATHRYN COFELL WITH BJ BEST:  FRIDAY, JUNE 1:  
7:00 pm  reading and book signing at Avol’s Books, 315 W. Gorham Street, Madison.  Join sunnyoutside press poets Huston & Cofell reading from their brand spanking new collaborative chapbook, Split Personality, and BJ Best, author of State Sonnets and the forthcoming I Got Off the Train at Ash Lake.  Click on their names above for the websites of each.

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, Huston & Cofell will also be leading a workshop with Scott Wiggerman and David Meischen, of two collaborative exercises from the book Wingbeats:  Exercises & Practice in Poetry (Dos Gatos Press). This is an open workshop from 1-4:00 pm, free of charge—no need to pre-register, at the Sequoya Library, 4340 Tokay Blvd., Madison. Please bring a stalled poem, a pen or pencil, and paper or a notebook.

PAULA SERGI:  TUESDAY, JUNE 12:  7 p.m. the Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective in partnership with Windhover Center for the Arts will present a reading from Sergi’s new book, Black Forest Love Songs at the Windhover Café Gallery, 51 Sheboygan Street in Fond du Lac.  Of her new book, poet David Graham says:  Love in all its moods and seasons stands at the center of Paula Sergi’s Black Forest Love Songs, her strongest collection yet.  The voice here is wise and wistful, the emotional clarity notable, and the lines rich with music and dramatic detail. Sergi displays an especially sharp eye for gray areas of both thought and feeling. “I want it all,” the speaker of one poem admits; and of course wanting is at the core of life’s sweetness as well as its losses.  In fact, this book does have it all:  music, honesty, and unforgettable turns of phrase and thought in every poem.  Refreshments served.  Book signing and open mic will follow.

SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN FESTIVAL OF BOOKS, JUNE 15-16:  The Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books will return to the UW-Waukesha campus on June 15-16, 2012 celebrating the theme “Freedom to Read.” 100 authors and presenters including keynote Tawni O’Dell and Wisconsin favorites Cathryn Cofell with Obvious Dog (Bruce Dethlefsen and Bill Orth), Jerry Apps, Kathie Giorgio and Jean Feraca.  View the 2012 Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books Program for detailed information about program content.

ANN PETERS:  FRIDAY, JUNE 15:  Ann Peters, a New Yorker and native of Fond du Lac, will read from her forthcoming book House Hold: A Memoir of American Place and Property.  7 pm reading at Windhover Café Gallery, 51 Sheboygan Street in Fond du Lac. Refreshments will be served.  

LEN TEWS:  TUESDAY, JUNE 26:  This new venue at 200 E City Center in Oshkosh now hosts a featured reader on the 4th Tuesday of most months. Tewswill be giving a poetry reading at 6:30 pm. Len Tews retired in 1996 and moved to Seattle where he began writing  poetry.  Some of his poetry has been collected into five chapbooks: Family Poems, Dance Steps in Brass, The Moon Is Not Yet, Singing the River and Frayed Ends. His work has also been published in  Mid-America Poetry Review, The Wisconsin Review, Echoes, Fox Cry, Verse Wisconsin and other places. He has recently moved back to Oshkosh.  An open mic will follow where participants may read one or two of their own poems or poems by others that they love.   

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.