Council for Wisconsin Writers

Supporting Wisconsin writers from 1964 to 2022

WFOP

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Poems Wanted for Anthology

Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and Bent Paddle Press have issued the following call for poems:

Seeking poems in any form and style, narrative or lyric, serious or humorous, reflecting our lived experience during this time of social distancing. The purpose of the anthology is to give voice to the fears and frustrations, as well as the gratitude and hope felt as we adjust to isolation and search for community. Editors: Kathleen Serley, Bruce Dethlefsen, & Angela Voras-Hills.

Submission Details:

• Open to all Wisconsin poets and members of WFOP

• Send 1–3 poems, no more than 5 pages total (as .doc, .docx, or PDF) to bramble@wfop.org with “CCAnthology” in the Subject Line

• Include bio & contact info

• Previously unpublished poems only

• Simultaneous submissions OK, but please withdraw immediately if accepted elsewhere

• Deadline August 15, 2020

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Come to the Cabaret for the Constitution, Social Justice and Poetry

Two members of the Council for Wisconsin Writers board of directors are among poets featured in a Constitutional Cabaret that will spotlight the U.S. Constitution and social justice issues through spoken word, music, and satire!

Monday, September 9, 7 p.m.

The Draw, 800 S. Lawe Street, Appleton

Poetry Unlocked & poet Nathan J. Reid, who is a CWW board member, have partnered up to present this unique experience motivated by the uncertainties facing our world today. Issues like gun violence, racism, women’s rights, class system, and more will be presented by these talented poets. Fellow CWW board member Sylvia Cavanaugh will join Nate at the Cabaret, along with:

• Dan Denton
• Bobbie Lee Lovell
• Alex Ullberg
• Ed Werstein
• Laura Winkelspecht

A live band featuring Joanna Kosowsky Dane, Loren Dempster, and Tad Neuhaus, will use their skills to create spontaneous, improvised music throughout the show. Travis Whitty will provide videography as well as his own musical talents.

Nate will emcee the evening, punctuating the night with spoken word, sketches, and songs.

An OPEN MIC is scheduled for the middle of the show, as part of intermission. [Note: due to the special nature of this event, OPEN MIC time will be limited to two minutes per person and should be thematically related to the Cabaret].

As always, a cash bar will be available.

Come get your freedom of speech on with these talented people and other members of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets!

DISCLAIMER: This event will be filmed! By attending, anyone at the event will be agreeing to be on camera as an audience member. 

More news from WFOP:

ON DECK:

Oct 14 – Former Poets Laureate Bruce Dethlefsen and Karla Huston

Nov 11 – Stay Tuned!

Dec 9 – WFOP Poets’ Calendar Reading

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

OTHER READINGS & EVENTS IN THE AREA

 MARILYN TAYLOR

Wednesday, September 11, 7 p.m.

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County

10341 Water Street (Hwy 42), Ephraim

 Open mic follows featured readers. For more information email contact @uufdc.org.

SHEBOYGAN POETS

Tuesday, September 24, 6:30 p.m.

Evergreen Manor, Fireside Room

1125 N. Westfield Drive, Oshkosh

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

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

DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS

Bramble is open for submissions to Wisconsin writers for the Fall Issue, starting August 1 – September 15. Guest editors Kim Parsons and Sheryl Slocum invite you to explore black holes and lacunae — for guidelines, click here: https://www.wfop.org/bramble-how-to-submit.

WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

Mark your calendar for the WI Fellowship of Poets’ Fall Conference on October 25 – 26! The theme is “The Magic of Poetry” with featured guests Cynthia Marie Hoffman and a real live magician (we’re told). Other fab conference features include the book fair (sell em or buy em), roll call (introduce yourself to the fellowship via a short poem), Triad contest winners and on Friday night, the open mic or fellowship in the bar! It’s a great opportunity to learn and grow and gain some new poet friends! Non-members welcome! More information and registration will be open soon on the WFOP website, here: https://www.wfop.org/conferences 

Submitted by Cathryn Cofell-Mutschler, WFOP

 

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News from WFOP

Here, from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Cathryn Cofell-Mutschler, is information about a book donation opportunity, poetry readings and other news:

ELIZABETH HARMATYS PARK & LAURA WINKELSPECHT

Monday, August 12

The Draw, 800 S. Lawe Street, Appleton

7 – 8:30 pm

 

Elizabeth Harmatys Park is a Wisconsin native, a sociologist, and a peace and prison volunteer.  Her poetry has been published in journals, anthologies, and in the Wisconsin Poetry calendar.  She is the past recipient of the Jade Ring First Prize in poetry awarded by the Wisconsin Writers Association.

 

Laura Winkelspecht is a Wisconsin poet and writer who writes with the hope of finding some lightning among the lightning bugs. Laura has been published in One Sentence Poems, Rat’s Ass Review, The Lake, Poets Reading the News, Postcard Poems and Prose among others. She received an honorable mention for The Mill’s 2017 Janet Dee Wullner-Faiss Memorial Prize for Poetry. Laura is also a Pushcart Prize nominee.

 

An open mic will follow these featured readers. Cash bar (beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages) available.

 

SPECIAL ONE-TIME REQUEST: We’re collecting unused journals to donate to Catalpa Health, Northeast Wisconsin’s leading organization for children’s mental health. Journaling is an important part of the healing process. Bring one or more journals to gift to a child in need, if you can!

ON DECK:

Sept 9 – The Constitutional Cabaret!

Oct 14 – Former Poets Laureate Bruce Dethlefsen and Karla Huston

 

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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MARA PACKARD

Wednesday, August 14

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County

10341 Water Street (Hwy 42), Ephraim

7:00 pm

   

Open mic follows featured readers. For more information email contact @uufdc.org.

 

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SYLVIA CAVANAUGH & ED WERSTEIN

Tuesday, August 26

Evergreen Manor, Fireside Room

1125 N. Westfield Drive, Oshkosh

6:30 pm

   

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

 

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

 

 DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS

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Bramble is open for submissions to Wisconsin writers for the Fall Issue through September 15. Guest editors Kim Parsons and Sheryl Slocum invite you to explore black holes and lacunae — for guidelines, click here: https://www.wfop.org/bramble-how-to-submit.

 

The Triad Contest is open for submissions to members of the WI Fellowship of Poets, through August 15. It’s actually three contests in one (hence, the name): Poet’s Choice, the Kay Saunders Emerging Poet award (for poets who have not won 1st place in a contest as an adult.) and The Theme Award, with this year’s theme of “History.” For more guidelines and the entry form, click here: https://www.wfop.org/annual-contests . Not a member? Joining is inexpensive (just $30 / year) and easy (just click here: https://www.wfop.org/membership/join-or-renew)

 

 WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

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Mark your calendar for the WI Fellowship of Poets’ Fall Conference on October 25 – 26! The theme is “The Magic of Poetry” with featured guests Cynthia Marie Hoffman and a real live magician (we’re told). Other fab conference features include the book fair (sell em or buy em), roll call (introduce yourself to the fellowship via a short poem), Triad contest winners and on Friday night, the open mic or fellowship in the bar! It’s a great opportunity to learn and grow and gain some new poet friends! Non-members welcome! More information and registration will be open soon on the WFOP website, here: https://www.wfop.org/conferences 

 

 

 

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Poetry Quarterly Accepting Submissions Until June 15

Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets quarterly magazine, Brambles, submissions window closes on Saturday:

Bramble Open Submission Period: May 1 – June 15, 2019
Guest Editor: B.J. Best

Bramble welcomes unsolicited submissions of 1-3 poems from Wisconsin poets & WI Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) members.


Bramble is open to all poems & forms, however our Guest Editor offers the following entreaty: Give us your odd, your strange, your weird, your uncanny, your unnerving, your curious, your peculiar. Give us your oddly shaped, oddly formed, oddly numbered, oddly lined, oddly rhymed. Give us your apocrypha, your opera, your anaphora.

For more submission guidelines visit https://www.wfop.org/bramble-how-to-submit

 

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NE WI Poetry Readings, Workshops, Contests from WFOP

RON CZERWEIN & ESTELLA LAUTER

Monday, April 8 

The Draw, 800 S. Lawe Street, Appleton

7 – 8:30 pm

Ron Czerwein

For many years Ron hosted poetry readings and open mics at his used bookstore, Avol’s, and after it closed in 2012, at different venues in Madison. Ron’s poems have appeared online and in a number of print journals. His chapbook, “a little rain, a little more,” was published by Bent Paddle Press in November 2018. These days Ron continues to sell used and out-of-print books on the internet under the name Avol’s Books, LLC. You can visit the website at www.avolsbooks.com. From time to time Ron creates collages to amuse his friends. Some of these can be seen on his Instagram account @czerwienron.

Estella Lauter

Since her retirement from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh as Chair of the English Department, Estella Lauter has reveled in the writing community, publishing four chapbooks with Finishing Line Press (one of them in the New Women’s Voices series). Her poems have won awards from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP), the Wisconsin Writers Association, Fox Cry and the Peninsula Pulse.  She tied for first prize in the 2009 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry contest, and her work has been published in several literary journals and anthologies. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Door County for 2013 – 2015, during which time she founded the Door County Poets Collective to publish an anthology,Soundings: Door County in Poetry (Caravaggio Press, 2015). She co-edited the 2017 Poets Calendar for WFOP with Francha Barnard on the theme of water.

ON DECK:

May 13 – Tori Grant Welhouse and Sherry Elmer

June 10 – Colleen Nehmer and Lynn Patrick Smith

July 8 – Marilyn Annucci and Dewitt Clinton

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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 KARLA HUSTON on WHY POETRY?

Thursday, April 4

Central Library

515 Pine Street, Green Bay

1:00 pm

Join past WI Poet Laureate Karla Huston as she discusses poetry in the 21st century. Free and open to the public.

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POETRY: ALIVE & WELL & LIVING IN MANITOWOC

Saturday, April 6

Manitowoc Public Library

707 Quay St. Manitowoc

12:30 p.m.

10 community leaders will share their favorite poems. They’ve been paired with 10 Manitowoc area poets who will each read an original poem inspired by their partner’s favorite poem.

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OPEN MIC – POETRY NIGHT

Monday, April 15

LaDeDa Books & Beans

1624 New York Ave., Manitowoc

6:30-7:30 p.m.

Open mic to celebrate Poetry Month. Co-hosted by Silver Lake College of the Holy Family and LaDeDa Books. Everyone is welcome to read 1-3 original or favorite poems. No need to register in advance; feel free to email emilie.lindemann@sl.edu with questions.

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 RON CZERWIEN

Thursday, April 18

Reader’s Loft

2069 Central Ct, Green Bay

5:30 pm

Ron will be reading from his new chapbook, released by Bent Paddle Press.  More info here: https://www.houseofthetomato.com/poetry-events/

ON DECK:

May 16: Cathryn Cofell & Karla Huston

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 LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY STUDENT SHOWCASE

Thursday, April 18

Half Price Books

281 N. Casaloma Drive, Appleton

7:00 pm

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KIKI PETROSINO

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Wriston Art Center Galleries

Lawrence University

7:00 pm

The Mia Paul Poetry Series concludes its 2018-2019 run with a reading from poet Kiki Petrosino, author of four collections of poetry: Black Genealogy (2017), published by Brain Mill Press; and Witch Wife (2017), Hymn for the Black Terrific (2013), and Fort Red Border (2009), all from Sarabande Books. Petrosino is an associate professor and director of the MFA program at the University of Louisville. The reading will be followed by a brief Q&A, a book signing, and a reception.

  WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

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The Spring Conference of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) is open for Registration

April 26 & 27th

Holiday Inn,  Eau Claire.

Theme: Confluence

Featured Artist: Heid E. Erdrich

Find more info here: https://www.wfop.org/conferences/

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 CALL FOR POETS & PROSE WRITERS – CELEBRATE EARTH WEEK 2019, EGG HARBOR

“Earth Day Every Day”

The Celebrate Earth Week committee is looking for poets and prose writers to take part in this year’s celebration on Sunday, April 28.

Sunday: “5 x P” – An Artistic Reflection on the Earth

This year the locations and programs designed to encourage all to join in Celebrate Earth Week, will focus on ideas and resources to help us all make Earth Day Every Day.  All events will take place over the weekend of April 26th, 27th and 28th at the beautiful Kress Center in Egg Harbor.

Art will unfold in the late afternoon on Sunday April 28th as we invite all to come for the sunset and stay for a medley filled with  green messages of appreciation and inspiration from the artistic worlds. Sunday evening’s “5 x P “ will signal the close of a busy, lively weekend of earth centered events.  Therefore, the idea is for it to provide a setting that inspires peaceful contemplation of our own roles and opportunities as earth stewards.   Those attending will hopefully enjoy, absorb, and be inspired by beautiful works of Prose, Poetry, Photography, Piano and Praise in an artistic, musical and meditative reflection on the Earth, our common home.

If you are interested, please contact Pat at pat-glen@hotmail.com for more information.

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The Hal Prize is NOW Open – Deadline May 1, 2019

The Peninsula Pulse announces the 2019 Hal Prize, offering publication to a readership of more than 18,000, cash awards for first place winners, a week stay at Write On, Door County, and other prizes. The Hal Prize is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and to photographers throughout the United States.

https://thehalprize.submittable.com/submit

 WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES

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WARM UP TO A SPRING CLASS AT THE MILL, A PLACE FOR WRITERS:

Introduction to Fiction with Steve Polansky (8 Weeks)
A conversation about the craft and the art of fiction writing.

Poetry with Tom Montag (8 Weeks)
The luminous poem is about the thing revealed.

Advanced Fiction Writing with Steve Polansky (8 Weeks)
Discuss stories and sections of larger prose works submitted by participants. Class limited to 8

Memoir Writing with Jill Swenson (8 Weeks)
Work with a writing coach who can offer you the tools, techniques, and resources you need.

Poetry Writing with Emily Bowles (1 Day)
Make Your Own Magic: Learn to Knit Yourself into—and out of—Your Stories

Poetry with Karla Huston (2 Weeks)
Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes!

Fiction Writing Workshop with Abby Frucht (2 Weeks)
Poem to Story: A Fiction Writing Workshop in Two Parts

Learn more about any of the Mill Spring classes at www.millwriters.org or CLICK HERE

 

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Upcoming WFOP Readings in NE Wisconsin

Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Cathryn Cofell sends this news:

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!! Committed reciters, to date, are: Emily Bowles, Cathryn Cofell, Abby Frucht, Sarah Gilbert, Barbara Hines, Steve Hirby, Elizabeth Keggi, Linda Kroll, Bobbie Lee Lovell, Colleen Nehmer, Joe Nehmer, Nathan Reid and Kathy Vivoda.

 

Interested in joining this star-studded cast? Please reply to Cathryn Cofell with your interest and the name of your poem (if you know it) at ccofell@gmail.com.

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

ON DECK:

March 11 – Emily Bowles

April 8 – Ron Czerwein and Estella Lauter

May 13 – Tori Grant Welhouse and Sheri Elmer

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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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.