Poetry Announcement

Dearest Friends,

I have won Second Place in the 2017 Wisconsin People & Ideas poetry contest.  The magazine will print my prize-winning poem along with one other poem of mine in the Summer 2017 issue (due out in mid-July), as well as online.  As one of the contest winners, I will also be reading my poems at this autumn’s Wisconsin Book Festival on Friday 3 November 2017, 5:30 pm at A Room of One’s Own bookstore in downtown Madison.  The categories were Poetry and Fiction, awarding First, Second and Third place winners, along with 10 Honorable Mention winners for each category.  I am really looking forward to meeting the other writers and hearing their words.

I was informed that there were 457 statewide submissions for this year’s contest, so coming in second for the poetry category feels pretty good.  I was also informed that my poem was the absolute first to be submitted (back in September 2016 when the contest opened).  For this poem to make it all the way through the various judging phases and not grow “stale” is a major feat, so I’m extremely honored.

WP&I magazine is a publication of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, an organization for several programs such as the James Watrous Gallery at the Overture Center and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate, not to mention numerous Wisconsin environmental initiatives.  I especially love their Vision of a Wisconsin “…where science is central to the health of our people, land, and waters; brimming with the arts and a lively creative culture; and brought together through civil discussion and exploration of the best ideas of today.”  I am proud to have contributed, in my small Hansa way, to this important exchange.

One last tidbit.  When the magazine publishes my bio, in the background of my portrait photo is the artwork of TetraPAKMAN, whose work has been featured in the 2016 Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.  I’ve admired his artwork since seeing an exhibition of his at the Diane Endres Ballweg Gallery (3^rd Floor of the Madison Central Library) and Madison College’s Gallery 211, where I took my photo.  I highly recommend checking out this environmental artist’s work.

So mark your calendars for November 3^rd at 5:30 pm, and in the meantime, check out the magazine!

"FUR"-ther Pertinents:

Press Release: http://mailchi.mp/wisconsinacademy/announcing-the-2017-winners-of-our-statewide-writing-contests?e=8062df8da9

-Hansa