News & Reviews
In descending order of up-to-datedness; i.e. the most recent additions are at the top. Sooner or later, the oldest stuff will vanish or get relegated to the attic.

Submit local poetry news, reviews you've written of stuff you liked or hated, other strong opinions, gossip whether relevant or scandalous to: arachne@madpoetry.org

News

April 15, Monday, 8 am: Pulitzer Remix on WORT 89.9 FM; F.J. Bergmann is doing The Road.

The poems from Bridge I, II, and III are now up on the Chazen website: chazen.wisc.edu/about/multimedia-center/publications.

Calls for Submissions

TEACHERS ! LIBRARIANS ! LITERARY EVENT PLANNERS ! The Wisconsin Humanities Council based in Madison contributes to the quality of life by awarding grants for public humanities programs. Public humanities programs deepen our understanding of life, culture and society through reflection and conversation rooted in the study of history, literature and other branches of the humanities. Our grants are offered to non-profits and ad hoc committees for programs—and many of them happen to involve poetry! Our grants are up to $10,000.00 in seven different cycles throughout the year, and giving grants to small communities in Wisconsin is one of our top priorities.

In the recent past, some of the programs we have helped to bring to fruition include a poetry festival by The Friends of Lorine Niedecker in Fort Atkinson, a workshop and reading featuring Todd Boss at the McIntosh Memorial Library in Viroqua, and a Native American reading series in Lac du Flambeau. Learn more about how your own local community can be aided and abetted in providing poetic programming to the general public by checking out the WHC grant guidelines, and calling Shoshauna Shy at (608) 262-0706 to get you started. You can also find a listing of upcoming events statewide that we have helped with financial support at wisconsinhumanities.org

Send Your Haiku To Mars! NASA Seeks Poets: http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/contest-rules/ . NASA says the rules are simple: “'Everybody on planet Earth is welcome to participate!‚ The submission deadline is July 1, and starting July 15, the public will vote on the three winning poems to travel on the spacecraft’s DVD.”

Play Collaboration: Forward Theater Company in Madison and Verse Wisconsin are excited to announce a collaboration for Fall, 2013, based on Forward's season opener, the Wisconsin premiere of the award-winning Sons of the Prophet by acclaimed playwright Stephen Karam, and Madison-area writers are invited to participate! Submit up to 3 poems by August 1 in response:

To live ... is to suffer? Write a poem or prose poem that incorporates at least one line (or significant phrase) from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Feel free to use the line as a title, an epigraph, or within the poem. We encourage you to seriously engage and write to/against/in response to Gibran's work. Please make clear in your submission which words are from The Prophet. Send a short (2-3 line) bio with your piece to Sarah Busse & Wendy Vardaman, editors@versewisconsin.org. Include "Forward Submission" in the subject line, and please do share this call with other area poets!

Accepted poems will be published in the October issue of Verse Wisconsin Online and promoted through FTC’s website and social media posts. Up to 15 poems will be featured in a lobby display at the Overture Center during the three-week run of Sons of the Prophet in November, and those poets will also receive a free ticket to the play. The play performs in the Playhouse at Overture Center. Accepted poets will be invited to contribute audio or video to VW as well.

Play Synopsis: If to live is to suffer, then Joseph and Charles Douaihy are more alive than most. Their father has died in a tragic accident and their ailing uncle is losing it—putting the brothers’ once unbreakable sense of humor to the test. Amidst all this, Joseph’s eccentric boss is pressuring him to write a memoir about his family’s distant connection to Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet. With unexplained chronic pain and the fate of his reeling family on his shoulders, Joseph’s health, sanity, and insurance coverage are on the line.

To learn more about Sons of the Prophet or Forward Theater, visit forwardtheater.com. Address questions about the call to editors@versewisconsin.org.

Best,
Sarah & Wendy, with Gwen Rice, Forward Theater

Awards & Publications

Winners of the Wisconsin People & Ideas 2013 Poetry Contest:
First place: “Before Dawn, the Crows” by Geoff Collins – Marshall
Second place: “Following Up” by William Quist – River Falls
Third place: “Reservation Math” by C.E. Perry – Madison
Winners receive cash awards of $500 (first place, the John Lehman Poetry Award), $100 (second place), and $50 (third place). The first-prize poet also receives a one-week residency at Shake Rag School for Arts and Crafts in Mineral Point and a three-hour CD recording/editing session at Abella Studios.

F.J. Bergmann has won the 2012 Rannu Fund Award for Speculative Poetry.

Jeanie Tomasko was the co-winner of the Right Hand Pointing 2012 chapbook contest.

Marilyn Annucci's chapbook, Waiting Room, won the 2012 Sunken Garden Poetry Prize, selected by Tony Hoagland (Hill-Stead Museum, 2012)

Poetry Books

The Imaginary Baritone, by Richard Merelman, has been published by Fireweed Press.

Out of the Black Forest, by F.J. Bergmann, has been published by Centennial Press.

Old Reviews: Reviews previously posted on this page.