2020 Results

STUDENT CONTEST

All winners receive a complimentary copy of the 2022 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar in which their poems will be published.

JUNIOR DIVISION, Grades 6-8 (115 entries)

First Place: Chloe Kessenich (8) Pardeeville Middle School, Pardeeville, “My Hero”; Amber Denure, teacher
Second Place: Tessa Tkachuk (6) Slinger Middle School, Slinger, “For Everyone and No One to Hear”; Paul Walter, teacher

Honorable Mentions:

Brooke Van De Kreeke (6), Riverview Middle School, Plymouth, “Curling”; Tyler Gruett, teacher
Heather Drake (8), Indian Mound Middle School, McFarland, “Willow”; Tom Alesia, teacher
Wyatt Navis, Pardeeville Middle School, Pardeeville, “The Showing”; Amber Denure, teacher

SENIOR DIVISION, Grades 9-12 (331 entries)

First Place: “El Sol” by Jackson Brunner, grade 10, Arrowhead Union High School, Hartland (Terri Carnell, teacher)
Second Place: “Grandpa” by Alyssa Kruse, grade 10, West Salem High School, West Salem (Laura Deal, teacher)
Third Place: “Peaceful Night Riders” by Lindsay Martin, grade 11, Arrowhead Union High School, Hartland (Terri Carnell, teacher)

Honorable Mentions:

“An Autumn Scene” by Emma Carr, grade 12, Cedarburg High School, Cedarburg (Kristen Kalenowicz, teacher)
“The Endangered Trophies” by Lola Elahi, grade 11, Arrowhead Union High School, Hartland (Terri Carnell, teacher)
“Flowing Freely” by Grace Hansen, grade 11, Arrowhead Union High School, Hartland (Terri Carnell, teacher)

Judge:

Carolyn Vargo
Past WFOP regional vice-president (with Jan Leahy), Teacher of English and French - Milwaukee Public Schools, Facilitator-Milwaukee Art Museum Young Writers Program, In-house poetry presenter at Allenfield Grade School in Milwaukee, Facilitator-Urban Echo Poets at the Urban Ecology Center, Member Poets Ink, Presenter-Poetry from Page to Stage (MPL). Publications and Inclusions: Beads on a String (Chap Book), Bramble Spring 2019, WFOP Newsletter, Where I Want to Live-Poems for Fair and Affordable Housing, Coffee and Ink, Poetry from Page to Stage, Threads, Verse Wisconsin, numerous WFOP Yearly Calendars, Echoes and Waves (Woodland Patterns). Carolyn’s interests are bird and people watching, writing, spending quality time with her grandchildren and friends like Mary and Bob Stetson and Janine Arseneau who help with judging poetry contests.

TRIAD CONTEST

Humor Theme (51 entries)

First place: Thomas J. Erickson for “The Lawyer and the Thief”
2nd Place: Nancy Jesse for “Homage to a Problematic Yet Noble Vegetable”
3rd Place: Ed Block for “Florida Man”
Honorable Mention: Elizabeth K. Keggi for “Spiders”

Poet’s Choice (59 entries)

First Place: Emily Bowles for “My Monstrous”
Second Place: Sandra Lindow for “The sound of the bell as it leaves the bell”
Third Place:  Cathyrn Cofell  for “As His Way in this World Leads to College”

Honorable Mentions

Margaret Rozga for “Conjugating Pronouns”     
Jackie Langetieg for “At the Kitchen Table”
James Roberts for “The Smile in His Eyes”

Kay Saunders Emerging Poet  (19 entries)

1st Place: Robert Kokan for “Doves in the Rafters”
2nd Place: Kathleen Hayes Phillips for “My prayer flags are flying again”
3rd Place: Patricia McNamee Rosenberg for “Chicago Summer 1968”

Honorable Mention:

Amy Phimister for “Old Violins”
Mike Gadzik “Walking Beside the Fox River with My Daughter on a Sunday”
Erna Kelly for “Grass”

CHAPBOOK CONTEST
1st Place: Rented Chickens by Candace Hennekens
2nd Place: Everything About Breathing by B.J. Best
1st H.M.: Baseball and Benediction by Ed Werstein
2nd H.M.: Bird Religion by Jan Chronister

Taneum Bambrick, Chapbook Prize Judge:
Taneum Bambrick is the author of Vantage, which was selected by Sharon Olds for the 2019 American Poetry Review/Honickman first book award (Copper Canyon Press 2019). Her chapbook, Reservoir, was selected by Ocean Vuong for the 2017 Yemassee Chapbook Prize. A graduate of the University of Arizona’s MFA program, she is the winner of an Academy of American Poets University Prize, an  Environmental Writing Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Arts Center, and the 2018 BOOTH Nonfiction Contest. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, PEN, Narrative, The Missouri Review, 32 Poems, West Branch, and elsewhere. She has received scholarships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

About the prize winners, read judge’s comments here.

MUSE PRIZE
1st Place: “All Along the Junction Trail,” Sandra Lindow
2nd Place: “Driving to the the Diagnosis, and After,” Gail Sosinsky
3rd Place: “Instead of a Bicycle for Christmas,” Susan Martell Huebner
H.M.: “First Night (I Leave you at Memory Care),” Peggy Trojan
H.M.: “Bird (I’m Always Amazed),” Judy Kolosso
H.M.: “Prelude to the first day of Kindergarten,” Paula Schulz
H.M.: “Kirby Puckett Has A Big Butt,” Thomas Erickson
H.M.: “Losing Purchase,” Bruce Dethlefsen

Lisa Star, Muse Prize Judge:
Now that you have my selections for the prize-winners and honorable mention recipients for the WFOP Muse Poetry Contest, I just wanted to share a few thoughts about my experience reading the poems and judging the contest. One of the most important roles of poetry in our lives, I think, is to cultivate community— to use the beautiful medium of poetry as a way to bring people together. Though Coleman and I were with you all so briefly a few years ago, I sensed the fellowship of your poetry community immediately. There was such joy in the gatherings, such beautiful listening during the Open Mic. It was wonderful to bear witness to, and I got another dose of that warmth reading these poems.

There are a number of themes that recur in the body of the work as a whole, and they are the themes, as we now know more than ever, that are the bones of humanity: reverence for the natural world, respect for each other, and in particular for our elders, even as we become elders ourselves. I read through these poems many times before I could place even one of them in my “Not this time” pile. If you have the opportunity, please tell each and every Wisconsin poet who submitted a poem to the contest that their words filled my heart during a time of fear, uncertainty, bewilderment and grief. Please thank them all for me for sharing their gifts with me.

There were 83 entries for the MUSE Poetry contest for 2020.