Wisconsin Poetry News

Spoken Word Artist Apollo Poetry Tops WFOP Conference Lineup
Poetry Out Loud State Finals
City Poets Laureate, Madison
Council for Wisconsin Writers Awards

Poetry Out Loud State Finals

Competing in a very strong field of eight contestants from across the state, Anna Wolfs, a sophomore at Arrowhead High School (Hartland), won the 2011-2012 Poetry Out Loud State contest on Saturday, March 24 in Madison. The poems she recited from memory were: “The Death of Allegory,” by Billy Collins; “Lions” by Sandra McPherson; and “Hap” by Thomas Hardy. The runner-up was Rosalyn Gravrok, Holy Family Home School in Eau Claire. The first place winner will receive a $200 scholarship and her school, $500. She will represent Wisconsin at the National Finals in Washington, DC on May 13-15 where she is eligible to win up to $25, 000 in scholarships. She is the daughter of Alicia and Hendrik Wolfs of Hartland.

The runner-up will received $100 and her school $200 for poetry books. Other state finalists who had won their regional contests were Annetta Martin, Milwaukee School of the Arts; Lydia Wildes, Veritas Academy, Eau Claire; Isabel Karp and Lily Veldran, James Madison Memorial HS; Esther O'Brien, Rhinelander HS; Natalie Steiner, Wrightstown HS.

Jacki Martindale is the program's state coordinator for the Wisconsin Arts Board. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation are the founders and national supporters for the contest. All Wisconsin high schools are eligible to participate. For more information, contact Martindale at jmpmartindale@gmail.com.

Created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud is administered in partnership with the State Arts Agencies of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

The Wisconsin Arts Board is the state agency that nurtures creativity, cultivates expression, promotes the arts, supports the arts in education, stimulates community and economic development and serves as a resource for people of every culture and heritage. Since 1973, the Arts Board has supported artists and arts organizations with funds from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information on the Wisconsin Arts Board, please visit http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov.

Council for Wisconsin Writers 2011 Awards

Eight winners of the Wisconsin Writers Awards for work published in 2011 were announced in March by the Council for Wisconsin Writers. Each will receive $500 and a week-long writer’s residency at Shake Rag Alley or Maplewood Lodge in Mineral Point. Awards were decided by out-of-state judges and will be presented at a May 12 Awards Luncheon at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee. The public is cordially invited to attend and celebrate Wisconsin's fine writers.

Poet Karl Elder of Lakeland College is recipient of the $500 Christopher Latham Sholes Award for outstanding encouragement of Wisconsin writers through his long history of mentoring and showcasing their work, especially in co-ordinating the Great Lake Writers Festival since 1991.

Winners for poetry are Adam Fell of Madison for his book I Am Not a Pioneer; Verse Wisconsin co-editor Sarah Busse of Madison received the Lorine Niedecker Award for five poems. Honorable mentions were also named in each category and will receive $50 each. They are Robin Chapman of Madison for her poetry book the eelgrass meadow; and Susan Elbe of Madison, for the Niedecker Award for five poems. Wendy Vardaman of Madison, also received an honorable mention for her short nonfiction “The Essay that I Begin Writing While Walking to the Wisconsin Capitol Trying to Discern the Right Question, 2/24/11,” published in Verse Wisconsin's special Main Street issue of poems about the Wisconsin protests.

More about the winners, names of the out-of-state judges and information for reserving a place at the May 12 Awards luncheon is at the Council for Wisconsin Writers website at www.wiswriters.org. CWW is a non-profit organization founded in 1964 to promote awareness of Wisconsin’s literary heritage.

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Spoken Word Artist Apollo Poetry Tops WFOP Lineup

Apollo Poetry, a spoken word poet from Phoenix, Arizona, will kick off the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ (WFOP) spring 2012 conference in Madison, Friday April 27. The poet will give a free public performance beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the Lussier Community Education Center, 55 S. Gammon Road. Seating is limited. Apollo Poetry will also give a reading at the conference on Saturday, April 28 at 10:15 a.m.

The WFOP conference, April 27-28, is being held at the Radisson Hotel, 517 Grand Canyon Drive in Madison, and is open to the public. For a schedule and to register online, go to wfop.org. The deadline for pre-conference registration is April 20, 2012.

The theme for the conference is “Jailbreak from Tradition: Exploring Alternative Avenues of Poetic Expression”. In addition to Apollo Poetry, former Madison poet laureate Fabu Phillis Carter will be featured at a reading, Saturday at 1:15 p.m.. Another conference highlight will be “Survivor: Poetry Island,” where four poets race against the clock to create poems using words chosen by the audience.

Apollo Poetry has been immersed in poetry most of his life. He was the first spoken word artist to perform at the Billboard Music Awards and hosted his own show, Showtime at Apollo, on the MTV network. Since then he has been involved in community-based projects, performing at retirement homes, homeless shelters, and working with Invisible Children, Youth for Human Rights, the Department of Peace, and the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, among other organizations. His website is apollopoetry.com.

Fabu Phillis Carter was Madison’s third poet laureate. During the last four years she has put poetry in unusual places and spaces, including in local newspapers and on Madison Metro Buses. She is one of four poets with their verse stamped on the sidewalk on Williamson Street in Madison. Visit artistfabu.com for more information.

Madison Poets Laureate

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin announced that Sarah Busse and Wendy Vardaman have agreed to serve as Poets Laureate for the City of Madison. Busse and Vardaman will share the volunteer position from January 16, 2012 until January 18, 2016.

Madison's first Poet Laureate, John Tuschen, was appointed in 1977 by Mayor Paul Soglin during his first term in office. Tuschen remained Poet Laureate for over 20 years. Former Mayor Susan Bauman appointed his successor, Andrea Musher in 2001. In 2007, former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz appointed Fabu Phillis Carter. And Mayor Soglin is once again encouraging poets to be an important part of civic discourse.

For more information about the poet laureate program or the new poets laureate, please visit the Madison Arts Commission website.