2012 Old stuff, perhaps in ascending order of chronology.
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“The power of spoken word continues to grow in Madison” —article in The Madison Times November 7, 2012, by A. David Dahmer

100 Thousand Poets for Change
This year’s Global Event - September 29th, 2012!
Poets around the world are planning individual events to take place simultaneously on September 29th in a demonstration/celebration of poetry, art and music to promote social, environmental, and political change. So far, over 450 cities representing 100 countries have signed up to make this year’s global initiative a success through poetry readings, public demonstrations, community picnics, awareness events, parades, concerts, and more!
Do you want to participate in an event?
Do you want to organize something in your area?
Do you want to learn about what happened last year?
Visit 100TPC.org for complete details. Write us at walterblue@bigbridge.org if you are interested in organizing or being a part of this global event!

Bridge Poetry Series
Madison poets Katrin Talbot, Sara Parrell, Susan Elbe, and Jesse Lee Kercheval have launched the Bridge Poetry Series in collaboration with the Chazen Museum of Art. This series creates a unique venue for poetry in Madison and highlights ekphrastic poetry, or poetry about works of art. Twice yearly, about a dozen Wisconsin poets will be invited to write poems inspired by works in one of the museum’s temporary exhibition, directly linking art and poetry. A public reading will be held in the galleries. The project’s intent is to build a bridge between art forms and also between poets all over Wisconsin to bring together and celebrate a diverse range of style, affiliation, age, and ethnicity. The poems from Bridge I are now up on the Chazen website: chazen.wisc.edu/about/multimedia-center/publications/bridge-poetry-series. Bridge II will be held on November 1.

F.J. Bergmann, Poynette, is as of January 2012 the editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

Calls for Submissions

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is hosting auditions on Saturday, December 1st from 2:00-5:00pm for persons interested in performing in a January 27th, 2013 live performance at the Majestic Theater 'Our Lives-Our Stories-Our Celebration'.

The event will celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, and will feature women (and men too!) who have stories to tell about how access or lack of access to birth control, family planning, and other reproductive services have impacted your life.

Auditions are on an appt. basis only, and should not exceed 5 minutes. To schedule your audition, call Lori Greenberg at (608) 256-7549 , ext. 2137.

Awards & Publications

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)

Fabu Carter Briscoe's Journey to Wisconsin: African American Life in Haiku has been selected for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry recognition for a 2011 publication by the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards Committee. See more from Fabu at artistfabu.com

Tricks of Light by Jeanie Tomasko (Little Eagle Press, 2011) has been selected for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry recognition for a 2011 publication by the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards Committee. Every year the Committee reviews approximately 250 books written by Wisconsin authors which were published during the previous calendar year, and selects no more than five books of poetry to be recognized as outstanding poetry books. The books are judged on their literary merit as well as the quality of the writing, editing, printing, and publishing.

Abraxas 48 is out; see abraxaspressinc.com/Abraxas_48.html for sample poems.

ANNOUNCING WINNERS OF THE 2012 WOODROW HALL JUMPSTART AWARD
Jim Pollock and the Aspiring Writers of Stevens Point won first place and $500.00 for a project mounting monthly haikus on the historic Fox Theater marquee in Stevens Point. Built in 1894 and originally named the Grand Opera House on Main Street, this theater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and at present, descendants of the theater's original owners are working on restoring the building for a cultural center. Calls for submissions for the haikus will be conducted with the help of Portal Wisconsin, The Portage County Arts Alliance, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, and local schools. The finalist was Nancy Rafal who received $400 for her proposal for the Baileys Harbor Community Mural Project which will include Lorine Niedecker and part of her poem, “Wintergreen Ridge” on an outside wall of Nelson's Shopping Center in Baileys Harbor. This project coincides with Niedecker's work being featured on The Poetry Trail in Newport State Park in Door County, and the 75th anniversary of The Ridges Sanctuary, which was the inspiration for Niedecker's poem. The Woodrow Hall Jumpstart Initiative Award and $300.00 went to Katrin Talbot, Susan Elbe, Sara Parrell and Jesse Lee Kercheval for their partnership with the Chazen Museum of Art. They will be bringing The Bridge Poetry Series to Madison, an ongoing year-round program where poets from around the state will be invited to respond to a work of art from a particular exhibit, and then share their poem at a public reading. This award is to fund the September 2012 reading in the series. Shoshauna Shy of Woodrow Hall Editions based in Madison created these awards, an offshoot of the Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf initiative. It's designed to help other Wisconsin poets implement a project that brings poetry into the eye of the general public in an unconventional manner. Learn more about this award and the Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf program at PoetryJumpsOfftheShelf.com

Winners of the Wisconsin People & Ideas/Wisconsin Book Festival 2012 Poetry Contest:
First place: “WINDOW—WINDOW, OUR LADY,” by CX Dillhunt, Madison
Second place: “I Am Here to Make Friends,” by Jeremy Behreandt, Madison
Third place: “Of Caliban and the Sixes, Upon the Cuttlefish,” by Barbara Lightner, Milwaukee
Ten honorable mention poems:
“The Pink Orange,” by Amelia Cook, Madison
“How to Start Your Poem,” Dion Kempthorne, Richland Center
“Belonging,” by Sharon Foley, Whitefish Bay
“Rifling,” Dion Kempthorne, Richland Center
“A Sonnet with Daily Haiku at the Convenience Store,” by CX Dillhunt,– Madison
“That Same Kid, Twelve Days Later,” by Geoff Collins, Marshall
“Dreaming of the Red 1964 Ford Mustang Convertible Dealer Promo Model Given to Me on My 16th Birthday by My Mother,” by CX Dillhunt, Madison
“Twilight: A Haiku Assay Sequence,” by CX Dillhunt, Madison
“MMXII, i,” by Barbara Lightner, Milwaukee
“Poem in Advance of Witty Repartee,” by Jeremy Behreandt, Madison

Wisconsin Writers Awards
Eight winners of the Wisconsin Writers Awards for work published in 2011 were announced 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 presented at a May 12 Awards Luncheon at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee. Winners in poetry include Adam Fell of Madison for his poetry book I Am Not a Pioneer; Robin Chapman of Madison received an honorable mention for the eelgrass meadow. Sarah Busse of Madison received the Lorine Niedecker Award for five poems; Susan Elbe of Madison received an honorable mention. Wendy Vardaman, Madison poet laureate, won the short nonfiction award “The Essay that I Begin Writing While Walking to the Wisconsin Capitol Trying to Discern the Right Question, 2/24/11,” Verse Wisconsin. Council for Wisconsin Writers at wiswriters.org (note the new website address). CWW is a non-profit organization founded in 1964 to promote awareness of Wisconsin’s literary heritage.

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.