Winter Writers Reading Series
Since 2011 Shake Rag Alley has partnered with the Council for Wisconsin Writers (CWW), Wisconsin People & Ideas, and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission through the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters to offer week-long residencies to their annual writing contest winners.
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 December 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 workshops, readings, and/or community outreach activities, including Wednesday evening Winter Writers Reading Series author talks and discussions.
This year we are pleased to welcome back Wisconsin People & Ideas writing contest winners from the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, as well as The Jade Ring Writing Contest winners from our newest partner agency, the Wisconsin Writers Association.
Unfortunately, the Council for Wisconsin Writers contest was postponed in 2021 due to pandemic concerns. We look forward to welcoming CWW writers during next year’s reading series.
2021-22 readings and discussions offered virtually via Zoom.
Please supply an email at registration using the buttons (coming soon) below.
About the Council for Wisconsin Writers
CWW is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to promoting local, state, and national awareness of Wisconsin’s great literary heritage and to encouraging excellence among Wisconsin writers today. Founded in 1964, the CWW is operated entirely by volunteer writers, editor, publishers, book sellers, and other supporters who serve on its board of directors. Learn more at wiswriters.org.
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.
2022 Writers-in-Residence Readings
January 12
Jennifer fandel
Wisconsin People & Ideas
1st Place Poetry Award
Jennifer Fandel is the first-place winner of the Wisconsin People & Ideas 2021 Poetry Contest. Her poetry is forthcoming or has been published in The American Journal of Poetry, Ginger, Measure, The Baltimore Review, and RHINO, as well as a number of anthologies including Hope Is the Thing: Wisconsinites on Hope and Resilience in the Time of Covid-19 (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2021). Fandel’s other published work includes book reviews and nonfiction books for children and young adults. She teaches poetry at Oakhill Correctional Institution through the Wisconsin Prison Humanities Project and tutors students in writing at Oakhill through the Odyssey Beyond Bars college program. Fandel has also taught poetry classes in women’s shelters, parks & rec programs, and grade schools.
Judge’s Comments:
“The Father” is exceptional in its marriage of content and form. I admire how the author threads the figure of the dog (the “white mutt”) through the entire poem, turning it into an extended metaphor for the deceased (and once reticent) father’s foremost presence in the speaker’s mind, which is “dogged” by complicated feelings. … Such captivating similes and images, precise diction, and enjambment kept me eagerly plunging into each new line as I journeyed through the poem.
January 26
Owen Aibric
Wisconsin Writers Association
Jade Ring Fiction Winner
Through a long career of teaching and environmental justice activism, Rick Whaley has always treasured stories of place—be they nature reveries, biographies of environmentalists, fiction where the setting is a character or a driver of conflict, or Prof. John Gleeson’s UW-M Celtic Studies classes. He chooses to write short stories under the pseudonym Owen Aibric because 1) some stories are better told in fiction, 2) He needs to get out of his political-correctness, call-to-action mindset, to write creatively, and 3) He likes to claim his Irish American heritage, especially for the Holy Hill story.
Owen is the progeny of a journalist mother who gave him novels to read to get him through his teenage years. He is the product of great high school English teachers (Wausau) and literature profs at UW Madison, and a veteran of the Redbird and Red Oak writing networks.
Since retiring, he gardens, writes, and encourages Monarchs (the butterfly kind). He and his wife teach reading to grandchildren and great grandchildren, discover hiking trails in the Milwaukee area, and try to stay healthy and be of use.
In his political/environmental life, Rick Whaley has co-authored the award-winning Walleye Warriors: The Chippewa Treaty Rights Story. In his fiction writing life under the pseudonym Owen Aibric, his 2021 Wisconsin Writer’s Association Jade Ring award-winning short story, “Tying the Knot with No End.” An updated copy of WWA’s 2021 Creative Wisconsin Anthology (with contest winners) is available from Amazon.com ($10).
Owen Aibric’s first short story, “Sewing Shop of Violet” was published online with Story-Quilt in January, 2020: https://www.story-quilt.com/category/fiction/ (hyphen is key to finding patchwork of stories instead of quilt designs)
Walleye Warriors was written with the late Walt Bresette, Chippewa environmentalist and treaty rights activist. In that book, the chapters alternate between Walt’s indigenous voice and Rick’s white ally’s voice. Walleye Warriors won the 1993 Council for Wisconsin Writer’s Book-length Non-Fiction Award. Rick’s second non-fiction book, How Green Is the Green Party: Stories from the Margin (2007), includes Irish/Wisconsin bioregional storytelling and Green Party/movement short essays. Both books are available from Beech River Books in New Hampshire: https://beechriverbooks.com
Most of the author’s stories, fiction and non-fiction, center on Place.
Read Owen Aibric’s prize-winning story:
Judge’s Comments:
There were so many incredibly strong pieces in contention for this year’s contest, but one in particular captivated me. Tying the Knot With No End, with its electric prose, immersive and vibrant setting, complex, finely-tuned characters, and expertly-layered subtext stayed with me long after I finished reading. As Abby and Zak teeter on the precipice of their relationship, the story takes on a sort of free-floating melancholy — a sense that choices not yet made are already being regretted. In doing so, it achieves that elusive effect Eudora Welty says is the prime objective of any great short story: to offer “some fresh approximation of human truth,” which it delivers in spades.
February 9
Allison Uselman
Wisconsin People & Ideas
1st Place Fiction Award
Allison Uselman is the first-place winner of the Wisconsin People & Ideas 2021 Fiction Contest. She was born, raised, and currently lives in Madison. Uselman attended Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she graduated in 2019 with a degree in English and with a studio art minor. In her free time Uselman draws, bikes, watches M*A*S*H reruns, and snuggles her dog, George. She hopes to one day attend art school somewhere near the ocean, where she can continue drawing baby animals, wildflowers, and pouty self-portraits.
Read Allison Uselman’s prize-winning short story “The Honor Cord.”
Judge’s Comments:
“Honor Cord” is such a poignant and mysterious story, I started again from the beginning the moment I had finished. The imaginative young protagonist of this story lives in a cauldron of ambiguous images and stories. Everything happening in Violet Wells’ small town seems imbued with the weight of significance. “Honor Cord” honors and reveals the startling complexity of life, and its author skillfully entwines the reader in her character’s delicate intuition.
February 16
Kathie Giorgio
Wisconsin Writers Association
Jade Ring Poetry Winner
Kathie Giorgio is the author of five novels, two story collections, a collection of essays, and two poetry chapbooks. A full-length poetry collection, No Matter Which Way You Look, There Is More To See, was released in 2020. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and poetry and awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Silver Pen Award for Literary Excellence, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award In Fiction. She is the director and founder of the international creative writing studio, AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC.
Judge’s Comments:
In its twenty-two short lines, this poem offers both breadth and depth in its approach to the topics that have been at the center of our national experience for over a year and a half. The poem captures the essence of this double struggle by juxtaposing two succinct lines:We can’t breathe, gasp the COVID victims. / I can’t breathe, gasps the black man.
February 23
Dasha Kelly Hamilton
Wisconsin Poet Laureate
Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer, performance artist and creative change agent, applying the creative process to facilitate dialogues around human and social wellness. She is the author of two novels, three poetry collections, four spoken word albums, and one collection of personal vignettes. She has taught at colleges, conferences, and classrooms and curated fellowships for emerging leaders. An Arts Envoy for the U.S. Embassy, Dasha has facilitated community building initiatives in Botswana, Toronto, Mauritius, and Beirut. Her touring production, Makin’ Cake, uniquely engages communities in a forward dialogue on race, class, and equity. Dasha is a national Rubinger Fellow and, concurrently, Poet Laureate for the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin.
Learn more about Dasha Kelly Hamilton and her work as Wisconsin Poet Laureate.
March: MPSD Classroom
Lora Hyler
Wisconsin Writers Association
Jade Ring Nonfiction Winner
Lora Hyler is a past WWA Jade Ring winner and a former reporter for NPR affiliate, WUWM and ABC affiliate, WISN, both in Milwaukee, WI. She also worked for media and energy companies. In 2001, she founded her marketing company, Hyler Communications. She also worked in television for two years on NBC affiliate, Today’s TMJ4.
The Stupendous Adventures of Mighty Marty Hayes is the first in a three-part children’s middle grade series, traditionally published in 2018. The novel has received several awards from the international Eric Hoffer Book Awards, and the Best Book Awards. Book two is underway. Inspired by the Emory Global Health Institute competition, Lora created her new book, Our Bodies Stay Home, Our Imaginations Run Free to help children ages 6-10+ through the coronavirus pandemic. Published by HenschelHAUS Publishing, the book has garnered national and international publicity.
Read Lora Hyler’s prize-winning essay:
The Bill of Rights, One College-educated Negro Man, and a 1955 Protest by 39 White Wauwatosa Women
Judge’s Comments:
This impeccably written essay opens with a strong pragmatic statement that includes the time, place, and societal situation. It would be difficult to find anyone who would not want to continue reading at this point. Not only does this essay explore a significant subject, it also allows the reader to perhaps learn something new – whether that be an example of the injustices against people of color at that time or learn of the courage of the white women who supported Mr. Hyler – or both.
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