Nick Gulig, Yvette Viets Flaten, Rochelle Melander

press release: 2023 Winter Writers Reading Series: Via Zoom. Free (donations welcome); register for Zoom link at www.ShakeRagAlley.org or call the office. 

Nick Gulig, winner of the Wisconsin People & Ideas Poetry Award for “Of Genesis,” is a Thai-American poet from Wisconsin, who was educated in Montana, Iowa and Colorado. In 2011, he earned a Fulbright Fellowship to Bangkok, Thailand. His published works include the book-length poems North of Order (Yes Yes Books, 2015) and Book of Lake (CutBank Books, 2016). His third full-length collection, Orient, received the 2017 CSU Poetry Center Open Book Award and was published by Cleveland State University in 2018. Gulig currently lives in Fort Atkinson and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Yvette Viets Flaten was awarded a Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring for her poem “Reflections of a Poet as a Young Girl 1969.” She will visit the Mineral Point Area School District during her residency. Viets Flaten has degrees in Spanish and history from the UW-Eau Claire. She writes fiction and poetry. Her poetry has appeared in the Wisconsin Academy Review, Hurricane Alice, Avocet, Free Verse, Midwest Review, Red Cedar, Barstow and Grand, and The Writer’s Almanac Pandemic Poetry Contest.

Rochelle Melander was awarded the Council for Wisconsin Writers Arthur Tofte/Betty Ran Wright Children’s Literature Award for her book Mightier Than the Sword: Rebels, Reformers, and Revolutionaries Who Changed the World Through Writing. Rochelle is a teaching artist, professional certified coach and the author of a dozen books, and during her residency she will visit the Mineral Point Area School District. Rochelle is the founder of Dream Keepers, a writing workshop that teaches young people how they can change their lives and communities through writing. She’s taught writing to children and adults at schools, universities, libraries, art museums, botanical gardens, churches, synagogues, corporate events, and art studios.

Since 2011 Shake Rag Alley has partnered with the Council for Wisconsin Writers (CWW), Wisconsin People & Ideas, and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission through the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters to offer week-long residencies to their annual writing contest winners.

In the tradition established by Edenfred, the Terry Family Foundation’s artist residence in Madison, writers and poets are provided with a week of uninterrupted time to focus on a project of their choice.

Between the months of January through March, writers stay in Shake Rag Alley’s inspiring lodging facilities surrounded by the nurturing environment of historic Mineral Point’s artistic community. Visiting writers participate in readings and/or community outreach activities, including Wednesday evening Winter Writers Reading Series author talks and discussions.

In 2023 we are look forward to welcoming Wisconsin People & Ideas writing contest winners from the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters; the Council for Wisconsin Writers contest winners; and the Jade Ring Writing Contest winners from the Wisconsin Writers Association.

All 2023 readings and discussions will be offered virtually via Zoom with some select evenings featuring in-person options. All reading begin at 7 pm.