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Winter Writers Reading Series
Since 2011 Shake Rag Alley has partnered with a number of Wisconsin writing organizations to provide week-long residencies to their annual writing contest winners. These organizations have included the Council for Wisconsin Writers (CWW), Wisconsin People & Ideas, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission through the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, the Wisconsin Writers Association, and Arts + Literature Laboratory.
In the tradition established by Edenfred, the Terry Family Foundation’s artist residence in Madison, writers and poets are provided with a week of uninterrupted time to focus on a project of their choice.
Between the months of January through March, writers stay in Shake Rag Alley’s inspiring lodging facilities surrounded by the nurturing environment of historic Mineral Point’s artistic community. Visiting writers participate in community outreach activities, including readings, workshops, and school visits as part of the Winter Writers Reading Series.
In 2024 we look forward to welcoming Wisconsin People & Ideas writing contest winners from the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters; the Wisconsin Writers Awards from the Arts + Literature Laboratory; and the Jade Ring winners from the Wisconsin Writers Association.
We are excited to partner with Mineral Point’s independent bookstore for our 2024 reading series. Unless noted, readings will be held at Republic of Letters Books, 151 High St., Mineral Point. Open Mic time after featured readers.
About Arts + Literature Laboratory
Arts + Literature Laboratory is a community-driven contemporary arts center in Madison, Wisconsin. The 10,500 square foot space in Madison’s downtown Capitol East District houses art gallery and performance space, a writing center and small press library, artist studios, and a dedicated education studio. The Wisconsin Writers Awards have been a program of the Council for Wisconsin Writers (CWW) since 1964. The awards honor the best work in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature. Since 2022, Arts & Literature Laboratory has continued the work of CWW by administering the Wisconsin Writers Awards.
About Wisconsin People & Ideas
Wisconsin People & Ideas is the quarterly magazine of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. The leading magazine of Wisconsin thought and culture, Wisconsin People & Ideas features articles by and about scientists, scholars, artists, writers, policymakers and others who serve as thought leaders in Wisconsin. The magazine also publishes works from contemporary and classic Wisconsin artists, writers, and poets. More information can be found at wisconsinacademy.org.
About Wisconsin Writers Association
Wisconsin Writers Association began serving the creative needs of Wisconsin writers in 1948 and is registered with the State of Wisconsin as a non-profit organization. WWA’s Board of Directors and member volunteers work together to donate their time, energy, and ideas to keep WWA going. In addition to the Jade Ring Writing Contest, WWA hosts an annual conference and maintains an online membership directory, as well as listings for Wisconsin writing clubs, guilds, groups, at wiwrite.org.
2024 Writers-in-Residence Readings
January 10
KATE VIEIRA
Wisconsin Writers Award for Short Nonfiction
Reading 7pm (in person)
Kate Vieira is an international ethnographer in the school of education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a creative nonfiction writer, and a single mom. Her personal essays have appeared in Guernica, The Sun, First Person Singular, Tin House (online), Nowhere Travel Magazine, and Writing on the Edge. She is a 2023 Sustainable Arts Awardee for parenting artists and is working on a memoir about language, learning, and single parenting across borders. She is honored to be joining the Shake Rag Alley community this winter as a Wisconsin Writing Award winner.
Coming Soon
The Kay W. Levin Award
The Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfiction goes to the best piece of short nonfiction published by a Wisconsin writer in the contest year.
Kay W. Levin (1925- 1989) was a board member of the Council for Wisconsin Writers in its formative years. After her death in 1990, her family endowed the award for short nonfiction in her memory. Ms. Levin had written children’s fiction before she and her husband, Robert, moved to Cleveland, Wisconsin, in 1974 from Chicago. Slowing to the pace of rural life, she turned her attention to essay writing, using as her inspiration events from everyday life on Kingfisher Farm, where they lived. Her articles on topics as diverse as her daughter’s death in a car crash to the harvesting of maple syrup appeared in The Milwaukee Journal Wisconsin Magazine among other publications. Levin was a champion of Wisconsin writers and the award in her name lives on to encourage essay writers into the future.
January 31
Matt Cashion
Wisconsin People & Ideas Fiction Award
Reading 7pm (Zoom only)
Passcode: GG.?PAz4
The author of three books, Matt Cashion’s novel Our Thirteenth Divorce (Livingston Press) won the 2017 Edna Ferber Book Prize, and his story collection, Last Words of the Holy Ghost (UNT Press), won the 2015 Katherine Anne Porter Prize. Born in the North Carolina mountains and raised in coastal Georgia, he earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and since 2006, he has enjoyed hiking, biking, kayaking, and running through Wisconsin’s beautiful Driftless region. He teaches Creative Writing and other courses at UW La Crosse.
Read “Music Appreciation for Dead People” in the Fall 2023 issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas
Wisconsin People & Ideas Fiction Award
Since 1994, Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine has sponsored the premiere annual fiction and poetry contests for Wisconsin writers. The contests are open to all Wisconsin residents and students age 18 and older. We encourage emerging and established writers to send in their best works of fiction and poetry for a chance to win up to $500 and other prizes along with publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas, a reading at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison, and a one-week residency at the lovely Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point.
February 7
CAROL DUNBAR
Wisconsin Writers Fiction Book Award
Reading 7pm (in person)
Carol Dunbar is a working writer and former actor who left her life in the city to live off the grid. Her first novel, The Net Beneath Us, won the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, was shortlisted for a WLA literary award, and named an honoree for The Society of Midland Authors Fiction Book Award. Her second novel, A Winter’s Rime, released in the fall of 2023. She writes from a solar-powered office on the second floor of a water tower in northern Wisconsin, where she lives in a house in the woods with her husband, two kids, and a Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog.
Coming Soon
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
The Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award is given to the best fiction book published by a Wisconsin writer in the contest year.
Edna Ferber (1888-1968), world famous in her day, was the author of 12 novels, nine plays (some in collaboration with other playwrights), 12 short story collections, and two autobiographies. Her novels included So Big (Pulitzer Prize winner in 1925), Show Boat (made into a musical in 1927), Cimarron (made into the 1931 Academy Award-winning movie), and Giant (made into the 1956 movie). When she was 12, her family moved to Appleton. She briefly attended Lawrence College and worked for the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal before writing her first novel. She was also a member of the celebrated Algonquin Round Table. Possessed with a strong sense of her Jewish identity, Ferber was a lifelong fighter against anti-Semitism.
Week of February 19
RHEA EWING
Wisconsin Writers Nonfiction Book Award
School Visit & Community Outreach
Rhea Ewing (they/them) is a comic illustrator and fine artist who graduated from University of Wisconsin–Madison with a BFA in drawing and printmaking. They currently live in California, though they continue to take artistic inspiration from the Midwest’s diverse landscapes. Ewing calls upon personal and political themes of queer identity, finding connections to the natural world, and building safe spaces for all people. The value of art, by their reasoning, is the ability to create connections, question assumptions, and inspire others to do the same. To that end they work in a variety of mediums, including graphic novels, fine art, and illustrated books.Their award-winning graphic novel FINE: a comic about gender was released in April 2022. This nonfiction graphic novel covers Rhea’s own coming out story alongside over 50 interviews with people all over the US about their experiences with gender and how it shapes our lives.
Coming Soon
The Norbert Blei/August Derleth Award
The Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award is given to the best nonfiction book published by a Wisconsin writer in the contest year.
About the award’s namesakes:
Norbert Blei [pronounced BLY] (1935-2013) grew up in Chicago and moved to Door County in 1968. The author of 18 books—fiction, nonfiction, essays, and poetry—Blei was described as a literary descendant of Carl Sandburg, Ernest Hemingway, Mike Royko, Studs Terkel, and Nelson Algren. His main literary themes were the sense of community and threats to community, whether in ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago or in his beloved Door County. Known for nurturing aspiring writers, he taught writing workshops for over 30 years at The Clearing in Door County. In 1994, he established Cross+Roads Press, which published the first chapbooks of poets, novelists, short story writers, and artists. Among his notable works were the nonfiction books Chi Town, Neighborhood, Door Way, Door Steps, and Meditations on a Small Lake.
August Derleth [pronounced DER leth] (1909-1971), a leading regional writer of his day, lived most of his life in Sauk City. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he was a prolific author (more than 100 books), including horror, historical fiction, detective fiction, science fiction, biography, short stories, and poetry. His most ambitious work, the nonfiction Sac Prairie Saga series, combines fiction, historical fiction, nonfiction naturalist works, and poetry to memorialize life in Wisconsin at that time. He also founded Arkham House publishers, which brought to the United States supernatural fiction that had previously been available only in the UK; Arkham was the first publisher of horror fiction author H.P. Lovecraft.
February 21
steve fox
Wisconsin Writers Awards for Short Fiction
Reading 7pm (in person)
Steve Fox is the winner of the Rick Bass Montana Prize for Fiction, the Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction, The Great Midwest Writing Contest, the Jade Ring Award, and the Midwestern Gothic Summer Flash Contest. His fiction has appeared in New Ohio Review, Orca, Midwest Review, MQR, Whitefish Review, and others. He holds an MA in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has lived and worked in four continents. His short-story collection, Sometimes Creek, was published by Cornerstone Press in January 2023 and was named winner of the American Book Fest 2023 Best Book Award (short-story category). Sometimes Creek is also a finalist for the 2023 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award. Steve lives in his home state of Wisconsin with his wife, three boys, and one dog. Find him at stevefoxwrites.com and @stevefoxwrites on Instagram and Twitter.
Coming Soon
The Zona Gale Award
The Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction goes to the best piece of short fiction published by a Wisconsin writer in the contest year.
Zona Gale (1874-1938), born in Portage, was a novelist, playwright, and short story writer whose work was inspired by her hometown. Her contemporary stories—often set in the fictional town of Friendship Village—focused on local color and descriptions of ordinary Midwestern people. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, she worked as a journalist in Milwaukee and New York before returning to Portage to concentrate on her writing. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama for the adaptation of her novel Miss Lulu Bett. She was active in progressive and feminist causes, including the National Women’s Party.
February 27
SUSAN HUEBNER
Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring Award for Poetry
Noon Lunch & Learn Workshop
at Shake Rag Alley
Susan Martell Huebner writes across genres. She won the WWA Jade Ring for Poetry in 2017 & 2023; Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters awarded her first place for poetry 2020. Find her recent poetry chapbook Gathering Sticks for the Fire at Kelsay Books; Reality Changes With the Willy Nilly Wind at Finishing Line Press; SHE THOUGHT THE DOOR WAS LOCKED (literary fiction) at Cawing Crow Press.
Read Susan’s award-winning poem “Variations on a Theme” on page 8 in the Wisconsin Creative Magazine
The Jade Ring Writing Contest has a celebrated history that began in 1949 when the Wisconsin Rural Writers Association (which later became the Wisconsin Writers Association) opened its inaugural writing competition. At the time, the contest was unnamed and its prizes, one could say, were ordinary. But that fall, the extraordinary happened when members gathered at the Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake, Wis. for the first statewide meeting.
They were treated to a presentation by a man whose name could be found in almost every refrigerator across the country. James L. Kraft’s talk that day wasn’t about the popular pasteurized cheese slices that had taken America by storm, or how he’d built a business that today is one of our country’s most powerful brands. The 76-year-old founder of Kraft Foods shared his collection of semi-precious stones and hobby of collecting, cutting and polishing jade into beautiful gemstone. He read his poem, Desert Jewels and offered to create and donate the prize for the first annual writing contest.
Kraft’s talent and generosity of a beautifully handcrafted jade ring sparked interest that inspired over 1,000 writers to enter short stories, poems, and plays in the 1950 competition. The contest found its name in the highly valued and sought-after first-place prize.
February 28
TAYLOR KIRBY
Wisconsin People & Ideas Poetry Award
Reading 7pm (in person)
Taylor Kirby’s recent work appears in Wisconsin People & Ideas, Salt Hill, Cream City Review, Booth, and as a Best American Essays 2021 Notable. She lives as close to Lake Mendota as she can and works as the program manager for Odyssey Beyond Bars at UW-Madison.
Read “if I have an addiction to water, know that it’s hereditary” in the Fall 2023 issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas
Wisconsin People & Ideas Poetry Award
Since 1994, Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine has sponsored the premiere annual fiction and poetry contests for Wisconsin writers. The contests are open to all Wisconsin residents and students age 18 and older. We encourage emerging and established writers to send in their best works of fiction and poetry for a chance to win up to $500 and other prizes along with publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas, a reading at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison, and a one-week residency at the lovely Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point.
March 6
Angela williamson emmert
Wisconsin Writers Poetry Award
Reading 7pm (in person)
Angela Williamson Emmert’s work has appeared in About Place Journal, Atticus Review, Prime Number Magazine, Sky Island Journal, Ekphrastic Review and other venues. Her poetry has won the Wisconsin Writers Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award and the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature’s Gwendolyn Brooks Award. For twenty-two years, she taught English in the Universities of Wisconsin System. Currently, she teaches creative writing and literature at New London High School and makes her home in rural Waupaca County with her husband and sons.
Coming Soon
The Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
The Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award is presented for a group of five poems.
Lorine Niedecker [pronounced NEE dicur] (1903-1970) was born on Blackhawk Island near Fort Atkinson, where she lived for most of her life. After two years at Beloit College, she returned home and began writing poetry, supporting herself by proofreading, writing for a radio station, and even cleaning hospital floors. At first, her work was influenced by Imagist and Objectivist poets, but she gradually developed her own voice and style, characterized by spare language, subtle rhythms, and stark, vivid imagery. During her lifetime, she published her four poetry books at infrequent intervals (New Goose in 1946 and My Friend Tree in 1962), although she was a regular contributor to literary magazines. Since her death, the publication of four additional books, her Collected Works (2002), in particular, has contributed to her reputation as a original and significant voice in contemporary American poetry.
Week of March 11
MARY BETH DANIELSON
Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring Award for Fiction
School Visit & Community Outreach
Mary Beth Danielson is very pleased about winning the 2023 Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring award for her short story, “How Crow Got Out of Jail.” Throughout her life she’s written for many publications including twelve years writing an award-winning column for the Racine Journal Times. She blogs often at her own website.
She grew up in rural Michigan and still pronounces creek as crick. She lived in Chicago for twenty busy years where she attended divinity school, did not become a minister, met her husband plus many of the people who are still her besties. In 1995 she and her family emigrated to Wisconsin where she learned how to pronounce Oconomowoc and Mukwonago (in her defense she only called it Muckawonga once).
She has held many jobs in her life, including many years leading an Employability Skills Program for incarcerated jail inmates.
She writes about and for people who are smart, grouchy, and generous.
Find Mary Beth’s award-winning story on page 28 of Creative Wisconsin Magazine
The Jade Ring Writing Contest has a celebrated history that began in 1949 when the Wisconsin Rural Writers Association (which later became the Wisconsin Writers Association) opened its inaugural writing competition. At the time, the contest was unnamed and its prizes, one could say, were ordinary. But that fall, the extraordinary happened when members gathered at the Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake, Wis. for the first statewide meeting.
They were treated to a presentation by a man whose name could be found in almost every refrigerator across the country. James L. Kraft’s talk that day wasn’t about the popular pasteurized cheese slices that had taken America by storm, or how he’d built a business that today is one of our country’s most powerful brands. The 76-year-old founder of Kraft Foods shared his collection of semi-precious stones and hobby of collecting, cutting and polishing jade into beautiful gemstone. He read his poem, Desert Jewels and offered to create and donate the prize for the first annual writing contest.
Kraft’s talent and generosity of a beautifully handcrafted jade ring sparked interest that inspired over 1,000 writers to enter short stories, poems, and plays in the 1950 competition. The contest found its name in the highly valued and sought-after first-place prize.
March 13
James Pollock
Wisconsin Writers Poetry Book Award
Reading 7pm (in person)
James Pollock is the author of Durable Goods (Véhicule Press/Signal Editions), which won the Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award from the Arts + Literature Laboratory and made The Miramichi Reader‘s list of the best poetry books of 2022; and Sailing to Babylon (Able Muse Press, 2012), a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award in Poetry, and winner of an Outstanding Achievement Award in Poetry from the Wisconsin Library Association. He is also the author of You Are Here: Essays on the Art of Poetry in Canada (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2012), a finalist for the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award for a collection of essays; and editor of The Essential Daryl Hine (The Porcupine’s Quill), which made Partisan magazine’s list of the best books of 2015. His poems have appeared in The Paris Review, AGNI, Plume, and many other journals. They have also won the Manchester Poetry Prize, the Magma Editors’ Prize, and the Guy Owen Prize from Southern Poetry Review, and have been reprinted in anthologies in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., including The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry. He graduated from York University in Toronto, earned a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and is now Professor of English at Loras College. He lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin.
Coming Soon
The Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
The Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award is given to the best book of poems published by a Wisconsin writer in the contest year.
About the award’s namesake:
Edna Meudt [pronounced MITE] (1906-1989) was born on a farm in Wyoming Valley and lived most of her life on a farm near Dodgeville. She was a teacher, lecturer, editor, and writer who published six books of poetry and two plays. She taught poetry at Rhinelander School of Arts for 18 years and was a co-founder of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, as well as president of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Widely published in magazines, she edited The Country Poet and a series of anthologies, An Upland Reader I, II, and III. Among her books are the much-lauded Round River Canticle, The Ineluctable Sea (which won the National League of American Pen Women prize in 1976), Plain Chant for a Tree, and her autobiography, The Rose Jar (1990).
Week of March 18
PAT ZIETLOW MILLER
Wisconsin Writers Children's Literature Award
School Visit & Community Outreach
Pat Zietlow Miller knew she wanted to be a writer ever since her seventh-grade English teacher read her paper about square-dancing skirts out loud in class and said: “This is the first time anything a student has written has given me chills.”
Pat started out as a newspaper reporter and wrote about everything from dartball and deer-hunting to diets and decoupage. Then, she joined an insurance company and edited its newsletter and magazine.
Now, she’s a full-time children’s author with 22 books currently available and more under contract. Her first book, Sophie’s Squash, won the Golden Kite Award for best picture book text. It also won an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor, a Charlotte Zolotow Honor and a Crystal Kite Award. Be Kind was on the New York Times bestseller list for 10 weeks, and In Our Garden was chosen for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
Pat has one wonderful husband, two delightful daughters and two pampered cats. She lives in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.
From the author of the mega-bestseller Be Kind and the winner of the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award comes a picture book for anyone who’s ever loved someone far away.
Someday soon, I’ll see you.
Even though you are there.
And I am here.
So very far apart.
In this heartfelt picture book, a child imagines ways to connect with a grandmother who lives far way. Whether by rocket ship or jet pack, train or in a plane, any journey is worth it to see someone you love.
With an inviting, accessible text by Pat Zietlow Miller and inventive art from the critically-acclaimed illustrator Suzy Lee, See You Someday Soon reminds us that, no matter the physical distance between us, the people we care about are never far from our hearts. The book features clever and innovative die-cuts throughout, adding a creative, thoughtful and discussion-worthy novelty aspect to this layered and deeply emotional story.
The Arthur Tofte/Betty Ren Award
The Arthur Tofte/Betty Ren Wright Children’s Book Award is given to the best children’s book published by a Wisconsin writer in the contest year.
About its namesakes:
Arthur Tofte (1902-1980) enjoyed two distinctly different careers: one as a businessman and the other as an author of science fiction, fantasy, and the occult. He published his first story, “The Meteor Monsters,” for Amazing magazine in 1938 when he was a member of the Milwaukee Fictioneers, a group focused on the memory and style of influential science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum. Tofte then focused on his career as a business executive in Milwaukee. Upon his retirement in 1969, and with the encouragement of editor Roger Elwood, he began publishing again, eventually producing five novels, 18 short stories, and four essays. His most popular works include Crash Landing on Iduna (1975), Walls Within Walls (1975), and The Ghost Hunters. His The Day the Earth Stood Still (1976) is a full-length version of the short story made into the world-famous film.Betty Ren Wright (1927- 2013) grew up in Milwaukee, graduated from Milwaukee-Downer College (now Lawrence University), and worked as an editor for Western Publishing Co. in Racine from 1949 to 1978 until turning to writing full time. Known for her mastery of mystery and suspense, her popular mysteries for middle-grade readers include A Ghost in the House, The Ghost of Mercy Manor, Too Many Secrets, and A Ghost Comes Calling. Her novel The Dollhouse Murders was a 1983 Edgar Award nominee in the best juvenile category and won the Texas Blue Bonnet Award. She also wrote 35 picture books, and her short stories appeared in Young Miss, Ladies’ Home Journal, Redbook, and many other magazines.
2022-2023
Anthony Bukoski
Council for Wisconsin Writers Fiction Book Award
Lawrence Tabak
Council for Wisconsin Writers Nonfiction Book Award
Jenna Rindo
Council for Wisconsin Writers Poetry Award
Adrianna McCollum
Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring Nonfiction Award
Nancy Jesse
Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring Fiction Award
Tom Pamperin
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
DeWitt Clinton
Council for Wisconsin Writers Poetry Book Award
Jennifer Morales
Council for Wisconsin Writers Short Fiction Award
Yvette Viets Flaten
Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring Poetry Award
Craig Reinbold
Council for Wisconsin Writers Short Nonfiction Award
Nick Gulig
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
Rochelle Melander
Council for Wisconsin Writers Children’s Literature Award
2021-2022
Owen Aibric
Wisconsin Writers Association
Jade Ring Fiction Winner
Jennifer Fandel
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
Kathie Giorgio
Wisconsin Writers Association
Jade Ring Poetry Winner
Lora Hyler
Wisconsin Writers Association
Jade Ring Nonfiction Winner
Dasha Kelly Hamilton
Wisconsin Poet Laureate
Allison Uselman
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
2020-2021
Kimberly Blaeser
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Zona Gale Short Fiction Award
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
Matt Blessing
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfiction
Thomas Davis
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
Krista Eastman
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Susan Martell Huebner
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
Dean Robbins
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Tofte/Wright Children’s Literary Award
David Southward
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
William Stobb
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Zona Gale Short Fiction Award
Jacquelyn Thomas
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
2019-2020
Marilyn Annucci
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
Laura Jean Baker
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Liam Callanan
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
Christina Clancy
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfiction
Steve Fox
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
Kathryn Gahl
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
Margaret Rozga
Wisconsin Poet Laureate
Robert Russell
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
2018-2019
Matt Cashion
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
Ronnie Hess
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Matthew Guenette
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
Michael Hopkins
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
Jenna Rindo
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
Ed Werstein
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Award
2017-2018
Paula Dáil
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Nicholas Gulig
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
Karla Huston
Wisconsin Poet Laureate
Catherine Jagoe
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
Rachel Davidson Leigh
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award
Patricia Skalka
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
David Southward
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
Bob Wake
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
Carolyn Kott Washburne
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award
Liz Wyckoff
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Zona Gale Short Fiction Award
2016-2017
John Gurda
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Ronnie Hess
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award
Karen Loeb
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
Judith Claire Mitchell
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
Gayle Rosengren
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award
Allison Slavick
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
Ron Wallace
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
John Walser
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
2015-2016
Margaret Benbow
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Zona Gale Short Fiction Award
Chloe Krug Benjamin
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
Bridget Birdsall
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award
Sean Bishop
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
Kimberly Blaeser
Wisconsin Poet Laureate
Cathryn Cofell
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
John Hildebrand
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Catherine Jagoe
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award
Nikki Kallio
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
Lisa Vihos
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
2014-2015
A.M. Bostwick
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award
Max Garland
Wisconsin Poet Laureate
B.J. Hollars
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Amaud Jamal Johnson
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
Dion Kempthorne
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
Jesse Lee Kercheval
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
Jeanie Tomasko
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
Craig Reinbold
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award
2013-2014
Shauna Singh Baldwin
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
Sarah Busse
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
Richard E. Carter
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Ellis/Henderson Outdoor Writing Award
Lydia Conklin
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Zona Gale Short Fiction Award
Paula Daíl
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kingery/Derleth Book-length Nonfiction Award
Bruce Dethlefsen
Wisconsin Poet Laureate
C X Dillihunt
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Poetry Contest Winner
Kathleen Ernst
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
Adam Fell
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award
Mary Ellen Gabriel
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award
Janet Halfmann
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award
David McGlynn
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Jill Stukenberg
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Fiction Contest Winner
2012-2013
Bruce Dethlefsen
Wisconsin Poet Laureate
Krista Eastman
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Book Award
Jacqueline Houtman
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award
Amy Lou Jenkins
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Ellis/Henderson Outdoor Writing Award
David Krump
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
Allison Slavick
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
People & Ideas Short Story Contest Winner
