WORD TENT
Saturday
Poetic Pens of Wisconsin
11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Local and regional poets of Wisconsin gather to share their poetic work. In the spirit of the bards of old, please come to lend an ear to the impressions, fears, loves, and healing energy of heart, mind, and body as these poets bare their souls in chance that the link that binds us all might be revealed. Each voice, unique in style and complexity, offers a glimpse into the experiences that have rendered our human interpretations and perspectives into a collective whole; poetry, the sound of the universe coming together.
Antler
Known far beyond Wisconsin and widely published since 1968, Antler was chosen Milwaukee’s second Poet Laureate (2002-03). His epic poem Factory was published in 1980 as number 38 in City Lights Books Pocket Poets Series. The collection Last Words was published by Ballantine in 1986. Antler: The Selected Poems was published in 2000. Allen Ginsberg called Antler “one of Whitman’s ‘poets and orators to come’” and Gary Snyder identifies him as “one of the half dozen or so truly committed wilderness poets in American letters.” Antler received the 1985 Walt Whitman award and won a Council for Wisconsin Writers Major Achievement Award in 2003.
E.P. Schultz
E.P Schultz lives in the Driftless area of Southwestern Wisconsin. He hosts monthly poetry readings and conducts poetry workshops. In 2008 he won second place in the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest. His work has appeared in The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Chronogram, Hawk & Whippoorwill, Inkwell Magazine, and many others. His chapbooks include Misprints and Legends, Desert Poems, and Third Floor Window. For three seasons, Ed has organized the poetry programs at the Kickapoo Country Fair.
Cathryn Cofell
Cathryn Cofell is on the run with poetry as profession—writing and publishing, reading and teaching. Her poetry has been wildly published in hundreds of magazines and anthologies and she’s received close to forty awards for her work, most recently the 2009 Wisconsin People and Ideas John Lehman Poetry Award and a was a 2008 Finalist for the Lorine Niedecker Award. Cathryn’s fifth and latest book is titled Kamikaze Commotion.
Jeff Poniewaz
Jeff Poniewaz has taught “Literature of Ecological Vision” at UW-Milwaukee since 1989. His poems have appeared in many periodicals and anthologies including Beloit Poetry Journal, Minnesota Review, Quixote, and Abraxas. Allen Ginsberg praised his work for its “impassioned prescient ecological Whitmanesque / Thoreauvian verve and wit.” Jeff’s book Dolphin Leaping in the Milky Way won a 1987 “Discovery Award” from PEN, the international writers’ organization. Lawrence Ferlinghetti called Jeff’s epic poem “September 11, 2001” “the best poem I’ve seen on 9/11.”
Sara Rath
1:00 pm
Sara Rath is a versatile author of award-winning work in a variety of genres. Her twelfth book, Night Sisters (Terrace Books, 2008) is narrated by a Madison woman whose flirtation with Spiritualism results in an encounter with a mischievous spirit and eerie reflections upon the unresolved death of a childhood friend. Much of the novel takes place at the fictional “Wocanaga” which closely resembles the Wonewoc spiritual camp in western Wisconsin. Sara is the author of one previous novel, the best-selling Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages, as well as four volumes of poetry and five nonfiction books, including The Complete Cow, About Cows, and The Complete Pig. She has also written for television and film. Sara lives in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
David Rhodes
2:15 pm
As a young man David Rhodes worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1971, he published The Last Fair Deal Going Down (Atlantic/Little Brown 1972), The Easter House (Harper & Row, 1974, and Rock Island Line (Harper & Row, 1975). In 1977, a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the chest down. Now thirty years later he is back with Driftless (Milkweed Editions, 2008), hailed by Chicago Tribune reviewer Alan Cheuse as “the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years.” Rhodes lives with his wife Edna in rural Wonewoc, Wisconsin.
Native Voices: Kathleen Tigerman and Chloris Lowe
3:30 pm
Kathleen Tigerman
Kathleen (“Kat”) Tigerman Ph.D collected and edited the writings of seven Native Nations of Wisconsin which appear in her book Wisconsin Indian Literature: Anthology of Native Voices (University of Wisconsin Press 2006). She is Professor of Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, where she teaches literature, Asian Religions and Women & Gender Studies courses. Kat has lived in the greater Kickapoo region for over thirty years, first in a cabin by the Wisconsin River, and then for the past 27 years at Dancing Waters Permaculture Cooperative where she was the founder. She has taught hatha yoga and moccasin making and won awards for her art-leather clothing. With her husband Carl Schlect she has recently been performing as a puppeteer in the Kickapoo Chautauqua.
Chloris Lowe
Chloris Lowe is a member of the Thunder Clan, twice been elected Leader of the sovereign Ho-Chunk Nation who has also worked with the National Museum of the American Indian – Smithsonian Institution. Lowe has worked with Tribal, Federal, State and local leaders for almost three decades throughout the Americas to develop and bring successful projects to Indian Country and was instrumental in the mid to late 1990’s in the problem solving and negotiation which created the Kickapoo Reserve.
Dennis Boyer: Listen to the Land
4:45 pm
Dennis Boyer is the author of many books including Prairie Whistles: Tales of Midwest Railroading and coeditor with Justin Isherwood of A Place to Which We Belong: Wisconsin Writers on Wisconsin Landscapes. Dennis is a believer in the power of stories, approaching our collective legends as though they were endangered species in an evolving habitat. He believes that much of our wisdom is embedded in the oral traditions of common people. Inspired by years of talking with farmers, foragers, loggers, tribal activists, seed savers, railroaders and nature lovers of various stripes, Boyer’s latest book Listen to the Land: Conservation Conversations (University of Wisconsin Press, 2009) offers impressionistic glimpses at ecological thinking in action, which he labels “adult contemporary folklore.” Dennis lives on a farm near Dodgeville, Wisconsin and is a lawyer active in conservation groups.
The Kickapoo Valley: Gem of Wisconsin
6:00 pm
When The Kickapoo Valley: Gem of Wisconsin, was published in 1896 the authors, Gertrude Frazier and Rose B. Poff, introduced the book by stating, “In presenting this handsome little volume to the public, we are prompted to do so by hearing and reading many fictitious reports about the Kickapoo Valley and its inhabitants.” At a time when the valley was reputed to be “wild and undeveloped, inhabited by illiterate people…timber thieves, horse thieves, and desperadoes” Frazier and Poff sought to set the record straight. Patti Knower, Gwen and Chuck Hatfield, and Carolyn and Brad Steinmetz are members of the Friends of the Kickapoo Reserve, the organization that has republished this little classic about the Kickapoo’s past. They have created a program based on the book which they have presented up and down the Valley and beyond. With selected readings from the book and background historical information from the time, the Kickapoo Valley of 1896 will come alive again to those gathered for this presentation.
Sunday
Ernest Callenbach: A Conversation on the Road to Ecotopia
11:00 am
When Ecotopia was written, nobody had given much thought to what an ecologically sustainable society might actually look like. Ernest Callenbach, in his now classic novel, depicted in carefully researched detail what green living would mean. Now he looks back on the process by which Ecotopian ideas originally evolved, discusses how they help us to understand and confront current challenges, and how they can guide us in the future.
Kenny Salwey: Tales of the Last River Rat
12:00 pm
Kenny Salwey has spent his life on the backwaters of the Mississippi River as a hunter, trapper, outdoor guide and all-around woodsman, but he is best known to the world outside the swamps and forests for his stories. Kenny is the author of The Last River Rat and Kenny Salwey’s Tales of a River Rat and the narrator of the award-winning documentary, Mississippi: Tales of the Last River Rat. A new book, The Old Time River Rats: Tales of Bygone Days along the Wild Mississippi is scheduled for publication by Voyageur Press in November 2009. A popular nature speaker since 1988, he has traveled throughout the upper Midwest talking about the survival of our two most precious resources: our natural resources and our children. Kenny and his wife, Mary Kay, live near Alma, Wisconsin.
