Monday, AUGUST 18, 6:30 p.m., Harmony Cafe, Appleton – MARGARET ROZGA & KAY SANDERS
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. Featured reader(s) at 6:30 pm, brief open mic after.
A native Southerner, Kay N. Sanders married a Connecticut Yankee, and the two of them settled a potential civil war by making lovely Wisconsin their home. Her themes include family and place of her Southern heritage and reflections from the backyard of her Oshkosh home. Her poetry has been published in several venues, including Wisconsin People & Ideas, Verse Wisconsin, Fox Cry, Wisconsin Poets’ Calendars, and Your Daily Poem. The recipient of Wisconsin Writers’ Association jade rings, once for essay and twice for poetry, her chapbook, That Red Dirt Road, was published by Parallel Press. Together with Mandi Isaacson, Kay helps coordinate monthly poetry readings at the Carmel Crisp & Café in Oshkosh.
Poet, playwright and professor emerita of English at UW Waukesha, Margaret Rozgahas published two books: Two Hundred Nights and One Day and Though I Haven’t Been to Baghdad. She served as managing editor for the chapbook TURN UP THE VOLUME: Poems About the States of Wisconsin, a project to raise money for the First Amendment Protection Fund. Her poems have appeared recently in Stoneboat, The Avocet, The Kerf, Nimrod and as a Split This Rock Poem of the Week and her work has been included in six collaborative projects with visual artists. She is president of the Women’s Caucus of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and program chair for the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature. She lives in Milwaukee and offers poetry workshops at various venues in Wisconsin.
Sample Poem from Margaret:
Singing the Star Spangled Banner
My heart
is an open
–Jill Breckenridge
What do you do with your mouth?
Eat talk kiss yawn
What do you do with your heart?
Stay alive Love
What does it mean for the mouth/heart to be open?
Ready to speak? To love?
Deep speaking?
Unable to speak?
If your heart could speak, what would it say?
If it could eat, what food?
Smile widely as if to laugh
Yawn to swallow the cry
ON DECK AT HARMONY:
Sep15 Kathryn Gahl and Wendy Schmidt
Oct 20 Paula Anderson and Mariann Ritzer
Nov 17 Joan and Jeffrey Johannes
ADDITIONAL READINGS
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WED, AUG 13, CHRISTINE SWANBERG 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.
TUES, AUG 26, ABBY FRUCHT at the Caramel Crisp Café, 200 E City Center, Oshkosh at their new time: 6:15 p.m. An open mic will follow where participants may read one or two of their own poems or poems by others that they love. Abby’s new collection of stories, The Bell at the End of a Rope, was published 1 ½ years ago by Narrative Library. She is the author of five novels including SNAP, Licorice, Are You Mine?, Life Before Death, and Polly’s Ghost. Her earlier collection of stories, Fruit of the Month, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize in 1987, is now available in ebook form along with Abby’s other books as part of Dzanc Books’ rEprint series. She lives in Oshkosh but for twenty years has traveled regularly to Montpelier, Vermont, where she teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing Program. 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 atmandiisaacson@gmail.com
THURS, AUG 28 6-8 PM, READER’S LOFT IN GREEN BAY: Bill Gillard, Nathan Reid
& Phil Hansotia: 2069 Central Ct, Suite 44, Green Bay. Welcome All! Open to the Public. Open Mic will follow the featured readings. Wine, water, coffee, light finger food available. Call 920-406-0200 or email amy@readersloft.com for more information.
On deck for future readings at the Reader’s Loft:
SEPTEMBER 25 (Thurs.)
Robert Vaughan
Cathryn Cofell
Marilyn Windau
SAT, SEPT 6, THE BAY AREA SPOKEN WORD POETRY NIGHT FEATURES MARYBETH MATTSON: Help Barnes & Noble, Stadium District, Green Bay kick off spoken word poetry nights on the first Saturday of each month, 7:00 p.m. Open to all ages and experience levels, with a special focus on youth, young adults and children. Try your hand at spoken word poetry and get tips from experts! Singer/songwriter Marybeth Mattson first took to the stage as a performance poet in college. Moving home to Door County after completing college, Marybeth began singing with her mother (folk musician Jeanne Kuhns) before beginning to write and perform her own songs, solo at first, and later with Seth Raddatz. With lyrics that are both poetic and deliberate, Marybeth offers a new twist on the folk genre as she enchants listeners with level and lovely vocals.
WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES
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DEADLINES & SUBMISSIONS
Poetry submissions accepted to The Scene: Oshkosh. Erin Heiling is very enthusiastic about receiving your poetry with an eye towards publication. Poets may contact Erin at: artsy_erin@yahoo.com.
Call for 2015–2016 Wisconsin Poet Laureate!
Beginning August 18, 2014, applications are welcome from individual poets who are seeking the position. Applications may also be submitted by a person who is nominating a poet for the position of Wisconsin Poet Laureate. A complete application package must be sent to the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission at wipoetlaureate@gmail.com no later than October 10, 2014. Application instructions and additional information are available at www.wisconsinacademy.org/newpl.