Congratulations to Kate Vieira, GMWP Director of Faculty, for her essay “Someone Else’s Language” (Guernica Magazine), which received the 2022 Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfiction. A reading and celebration will be held at Arts & Literature Laboratory (ALL) on Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 6 PM. The event is free and open to the public. Contact ritamae@artlitlab.org for further information. Read more at the award announcement:
The Wisconsin Writers Awards was established in 1964 and is Wisconsin’s longest-running literary award for published work. The eight awards include four awards for books, three awards for short form works including short stories, poetry,and nonfiction, and one special prize for writing by a Wisconsin high school student. The awards celebrate works published in 2022 by writers currently residing in or having lived for a significant period of time in Wisconsin (entries for the Wisconsin Young Writers Award need not have been previously published).
First-place winners of the Wisconsin Writers Awards for work published in 2022 each receive $500 and a five-day writing residency at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point. Honorable mentions receive $50 and week-long residency at Ernest Hüpeden’s Painted Forest in Wonewoc, WI. Out-of-state judges made the decisions for each award.
Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfiction
Judge: Ed Kemmick First Place: “Someone Else’s Language” (Guernica Magazine) by Kate Vieira, Madison, WI Honorable Mention: “A Headstone for Zach” (The Delacorte Review) by Lawrence Tabak, Madison, WIThe Wisconsin Young Writers Award
Judged by the ALL Literary Arts Team First Place: “Birthday Party” (poem) by Imani Fisher, Monona, WI Honorable Mention: “Stinky Fish” (personal essay) by Grace Huang, Madison, WIEdna Meudt Poetry Book Award
Judge: Mark Turcotte First Place: Durable Goods (Véhicule Press/Signal Editions) by James Pollock, Madison, WI Honorable Mention: Jordemoder: Poems of a Midwife (Holy Cow! Press) by Ingrid Andersson, Madison, WIThe Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award
Judge: Tara Betts First Place: “Barn Swallows” and other poems, Sky Island Journal, by Angela Williamson Emmert, Manawa, WI Honorable Mention: “Lake Edge, January,” The Hopper, and other poems, by Heather Swan, Madison, WIThe Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award
Judge: Alison Stine First Place: The Net Beneath Us (Forge Books) by Carol Dunbar, Superior, WI Honorable Mention: Still True (University of Wisconsin Press) by Maggie Ginsberg, Blue Mounds, WI Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction Judge: Dipika Mukherjee First Place: “Sometimes Creek” (New Ohio Review) by Steve Fox, Hudson, WI Honorable Mention: “Beantown” (Acentos Review) by Jennifer Morales, Viroqua, WINorbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award
Judge: Harriet N. Brown First Place: Fine: A Comic About Gender (Liveright) by Rhea Ewing, El Cerrito, CA (formerly Madison, WI) Honorable Mention: The Green Hour: A Natural History of Home (University of Wisconsin Press) by Alison Townsend, Stoughton, WITofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award
Judge: Michelle Houts First Place: See You Someday Soon (Roaring Brook Press) by Pat Zietlow Miller, Madison, WI Honorable Mention: Crossing the Pressure Line (Orange Hat Publishing) by Laura Anne Bird, Madison, WIMore information about our winners, judges, and guidelines can be found athttps://artlitlab.org/programs/literary-arts/wisconsin-writers-awards. The Wisconsin Writers Awards is a program of Arts and Literature Laboratory, a community-driven contemporary non-profit arts organization that supports the visual, literary, musical and performing arts, presents over 200 free or low-cost events per year, and offers year-round arts education for all ages. ALL nurtures innovation and the artistic growth of contemporary visual, literary, and performing artists; connects artists, resources and community; and fuels a passion for arts and literature. More information about ALL can be found at artlitlab.org.