Council of Wisconsin Writers Awards Reading

The Council for Wisconsin Writers Awards for work published in 2021 will introduce you to Wisconsin writers you don't yet know and celebrate those you might already be familiar with. Awards are for full-length books, short fiction, poetry, non-fiction, children's literature and there's another for young writers. A reception at 3 p.m. is followed by the awards presentation at 4 p.m.; first-place winners will read from their work.

media release: Sixteen Wisconsin writers have won First Place Awards and Honorable Mention Recognition in the Council for Wisconsin Writers contests for work published in 2021.

The Council awards first-place winners in seven contests $500 and a week-long writing residency at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point. Honorable Mention recipients receive $50 and a residency at Ernest Hüpeden’s Painted Forest, Valton, WI. Winners of the CWW Young Writers Award receive $250 for First Place and $50 for Honorable Mention. All contests are judged by out-of-state judges except for the Young Writers Award, which is judged by the CWW Board of Directors.

Award winners will be celebrated on Saturday, May 14, 2022, at a reception from 3 p.m.-4 p.m,

followed by the awards presentation and readings by First Place Winners, at the Arts + Literature Laboratory, 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin.

The winners are:

EDNA FERBER FICTION BOOK CONTEST – Judge: Kevin McIlvoy, Asheville NC

Anthony Bukoski of Superior for The Blondes of Wisconsin: Stories published by University of Wisconsin Press

Shannon Schuren of Sheboygan Falls, Honorable Mention, for Where Echoes Lie published by Philomel Books

EDNA MEUDT POETRY BOOK AWARD – Judge: Allison Joseph, Carbondale IL

Dewitt Clinton of Shorewood for Hello There published by Word Poetry Press

Margaret Rozga of Milwaukee, Honorable Mention, for Holding My Selves Together: New and Selected Poems published by Cornerstone Press

ZONA GALE SHORT FICTION AWARD – Judge: Hasanthika Sirisena, Selinsgrove PA

Jennifer Morales of Viroqua for “The Doorman” published in Fire & Water: Stories from the Anthropocene, Black Lawrence Press

Kathie Giorgio of Waukesha, Honorable Mention, for “Recipe” published in Evening Street Review

LORINE NIEDECKER POETRY AWARD – Judge: Leslie Monsour, Los Angeles CA

Jenna Rindo of Pickett for five poems published in various journals

Lora Keller of Milwaukee, Honorable Mention, for five poems published in various journals

NORBERT BLEI/AUGUST DERLETH NONFICTION BOOK AWARD – Judge: Harriet Brown, Syracuse NY

Lawrence Tabak of Madison for FOXCONNED: Imaginary Jobs, Bulldozed Homes, and the Sacking of Local Government published by University of Chicago Press

Bruce Campbell of Brookfield, Honorable Mention, for A Fullness of Uncertain Significance published by Orange Hat Publishing

KAY W. LEVIN AWARD FOR SHORT NON-FICTION – Judge: Ed Kemmick, Billings MT

Craig Reinbold of Wauwatosa for “What WE Might Salvage” published in AGNI Magazine

John Gurda of Milwaukee, Honorable Mention, for “Education of a Southside Barfly” published in Milwaukee Magazine

TOFTE/WRIGHT CHILDREN’S LITERARY AWARD – Judge: Michelle Houts, Rockford OH

Rochelle Melander of Milwaukee for Mightier than the Sword: Rebels, Reformers, and Revolutionaries Who Changed the World Through Writing published by Beaming Books

Jon Etter of Wauwatosa, Honorable Mention, for Yet Another Dreadful Fairy Book published by Amberjack Publishing/Chicago Review Press

YOUNG WRITERS – Judges: CWW Board of Directors

Cara Wreen of Green Bay for her poem “Tea Assortment”

Addison Rahmlow of Slinger, Honorable Mention, for her poem “Nobody, etc.”