Upcoming Niedecker Poetry Festival Features Wisconsin Poets

The Friends of Lorine Niedecker is hosting the second annual Lorine Niedecker Wisconsin Switch to WYSIWYPoetry Festival on September 24 and 25 in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. The goal of the Poetry Festival is to celebrate Wisconsin poetry.

Nancy Rafal, Baileys Harbor writer, will take part in a discussion, “Nature of Wisconsin Poetry.” With her on the panel will be Karl Gartung and Faith Barrett who co-taught the Bjorklunden seminar, “Reading the Ridges: The Poetry of Lorine Niedecker,” earlier this summer.

“Last year the festival was an overwhelming success, and we will continue the momentum,” said Ann Engelman, president of the Friends of Lorine Niedecker. The Festival offers opportunities for poets, publishers, and those who appreciate poetry to gather, share, read poetry, and raise awareness for poetry in our culture.

The festival will include workshops, poetry readings, presentations, opportunities to meet publishers and to pick up the latest poetry buzz. Two workshops will be held. The first is “Write Like a Poet: Tricks Poets can Teach Every Writer” and the second is a writers workshop at Niedecker’s cabin on Blackhawk Island. The Council for Wisconsin Writers Lorine Niecker Poetry Award winner, Angela Sorby, and other invited poets will read during a Saturday evening event, “Wisconsin Poetry.”

A schedule of events is posted on the http://www.lorineniedecker.org website. Most events are free. For more information about the Poetry Festival, contact Ann Engelman at 920.563.0416 or Amy Lutzke at 920.563.7790.