Fellowship of Poets Announces Contest Winners

The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) announced its 2012 Wisconsin Triad Poetry Awards at the organization’s fall conference on Nov. 3 in Stevens Point.

Awards were given in three contest categories – Poet’s Choice, Theme Poem (this year, roots and/or branches), and the Kay Saunders New Poet Award, which is given to poets who have not won a monetary award in a prior WFOP contest. The contest is highly competitive with over 200 entries.

First place in the Poet’s Choice category was awarded to Michael Kriesel of Wausau. Estella Lauter of Fish Creek, whose work has been recognized in the Peninsula Pulse’s annual Hal Grutzmacher’s Writers’ Expose, received an honorable mention for this category.

The Poet’s Choice judge was Mark Wagenaar, 2012 winner of the UW – Madison Felix Pollak Prize and author of Voodoo Inverso (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012).

First place in the Kay Saunders New Poet category was awarded to Elise Gregory of Ellsworth and first place in the Theme Poem category was awarded to Joan Wiese Johannes of Port Edwards, whose work has also been recognized in the Peninsula Pulse’s annual Hal Grutzmacher’s Writers’ Expose.

The annual Triad contest is open to all Wisconsin residents who are members of WFOP. For information visit http://www.wfop.org.