Margaret Rozga

press release: Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts looks forward to welcoming Wisconsin Poet Laureate Margaret Rozga to Mineral Point this month as part of the 2019-20 Winter Writers Reading Series.

Rozga is among the award-winning Wisconsin writers and poets reading from their work and answering questions on select Wednesday evenings this winter. Rozga’s free talk is at 7 p.m. Feb. 26 at the Lind Pavilion, 411 Commerce St.

Since 2011 Shake Rag Alley, has partnered with the Council for Wisconsin Writers, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine, and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission to offer week-long residencies to their annual writing contest winners. From December through March, contest-winning writers and poets are provided with a week of uninterrupted time in Shake Rag Alley’s inspiring lodging facilities surrounded by the nurturing environment of historic Mineral Point’s artist community.

Save the date to enjoy the chance to meet and hear from Rozga and the following award-winning authors during the remainder of this year’s series. Each reading features refreshments and ends with a half-hour open mic:

Rozga, a lifelong Wisconsin resident, lives in Milwaukee. She earned her BA at Alverno College and an MA and PhD in English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. An emeritus professor of English at the UW-Waukesha, she continues to teach a poetry workshop for Continuing Education at what is now the UWM-Waukesha campus. Rozga’s poems draw on her experiences and interests as an educator, avid reader and researcher, parent and advocate for social and racial justice. Her first book, “200 Nights and One Day” (Benu Press 2009), was awarded a bronze medal in poetry in the 2009 Independent Publishers Book Awards and named an outstanding achievement in poetry for 2009 by the Wisconsin Library Association. She has published three additional collections and her work was nominated for inclusion in the 2005 “Best New Poets” anthology and for a Pushcart Prize.