Ronnie Hess

press release: Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts announces the 2018-19 Winter Writers-in-Residence Series featuring award-winning Wisconsin writers and poets reading from their work and answering questions on select Wednesday evenings at the Lind Pavilion, 411 Commerce St.

Since 2011 Shake Rag Alley, has partnered with the 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 April, 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. Past writers-in-residence include Chloe Benjamin, New York Times best-selling author of “The Immortalists” and “The Anatomy of Dreams,” and Kathleen Ernst, award-winning author of the Chloe Ellefson mystery series.

Save the date to enjoy the chance to meet and hear from the following award-winning authors during the upcoming free Winter Writers Reading Series:

7 p.m. April 10, 2019: Ronnie Hess, 2017 Council for Wisconsin Writers Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award Winner

Ronnie Hess, author of the winning short nonfiction memoir "Berlin Letters" (Poor Yorick Journal), is a journalist and poet who began a career in broadcast journalism at Wisconsin Public Radio. In the 1980s, she was a reporter/producer for CBS News in Paris, spending nearly four years in France reporting on political, social and cultural issues. After she returned to the Midwest, she worked for Minnesota Public Radio and Chicago Public Radio and was a freelance writer/producer for the “American Justice” series that aired on A&E. Returning to UW-Madison, she became director of communications in the Division of International Studies. During a sabbatical year, from 2004 to 2005, she taught middle school English in France.

She is the author of three poetry chapbooks (“Whole Cloth,” “Ribbon of Sand,” “A Woman in Vegetable”), two culinary travel guides (“Eat Smart in France,” “Eat Smart in Portugal,” Ginkgo Press), and has contributed to many national, regional and local publications including Saveur, The Christian Science Monitor and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She was restaurant critic for several years for Madison Magazine and a freelance arts critic for The Capital Times.