WFOP Contest Results

2023 Results

TRIAD AWARDS

65 poets entered one or more categories of the Triad Contest. The Kay Saunders Memorial Emerging Poet Category had 16 entries. There were 53 entries for the theme, “What could have, should have, or would have been if” and 56 entries in Poets’ Choice.

Kay Saunders Memorial Emerging Poet 

First place: David Clowers for "A Carrying Wind"
Second place: Dennis Collier for "After Cataract Surgery"
Third place: Katrina Serwe for "Ephemeral"
Honorable mention: ‘’Mikaela Hafen for "A Stable of Poems"
Honorable mention: Kathleen VanDemark for  "Lighting Effects”

Theme

First place: Kathleen VanDemark for “12 Years, 8 Children”
Second place:  Dennis Collier for “Dilemma”
Third place: Jeffrey Johannes for “Why Are You Calling Me After 40 Years?
Honorable Mention: Paula Schulz for “Answer the Phone”
Honorable Mention:  Katrina Serwe for “Perspective”
Honorable Mention: Sheryl Slocum for “Escape” 

Poets’ Choice

First place: Rebecca H. Swanson for “The Clearing”
Second place: Gillian Nevers for “On Being Invited to Write an Ode to a Vegetable”
Third place: Ed Werstein for “Ken Ken”
Honorable Mention: Sharon R. Daly for “Limburger Memories”
Honorable Mention: Ingrid Andersson for “Biomimicry”
Honorable Mention: Nancy Jesse for “My Mother’s Wrinkles”

MUSE PRIZE

First Place Winners
Nancy Jesse - "That Night"
Bobbie Lovell - "After Roe v. Wade Was Overturned"
Pauline Witte - "Say it Softly"

Honorable Mentions
Gene Gilbert - "My Grandfather"
Roman Ryan - "The Tip of My Tongue Slipped Through My Fingers"

CHAPBOOK CONTEST

1st Place
Angela Trudell Vasquez - My People Redux

2nd Place
Thomas J. Erickson - Cutting the Dusk in Half

3rd Place
Elizabeth Tornes - Northern Skies

WFOP STUDENT CONTEST 

Middle School Winners
1st Place
Comforting Eternity
Student Violet Evans – 8th grade
Instructor Lenore Hatton – Oregon Middle School

2nd Place
The Tenacious Daisy
Student Sienna Weber – grade 6
Instructor Tyler Gruett - Riverview Middle School

3rd Place
Sugar Glider 
Eleanor Fieber – grade 6
Tyler Gruett – Riverview Middle School

Honorable Mentions

Overthinker 
Madeline Hartmann – grade 6
Tyler Gruett – Riverview Middle School

Pond
Easton Krueger – grade 6
Megan Rothmeyer – Horace Mann Middle School

The Hunt
Colin Kelly – grade 6
Tyler Gruett – Riverview Middle School

High School Winners
1st Place
o medousa
Marie Ward – grade 10
Melissa Rickey – Golda Meir School MPS

2nd Place
Time
Niamh Sweet – 11th grade
Nicole Reetz – Lincoln High School

Time heals what you broke
A bouquet crushed in your hands
I grow without you

3rd Place
Leftovers
Rachel Frank – grade 12
Jody Drake – Neenah High School

Honorable Mentions High School
The Grey Man
Ryan Justice – grade 11
Elizabeth Jorgensen – Arrowhead Union High School

I Used to but I was Told
Audrey Hutchinson – grade 11
Terri Carnell – Arrowhead Union HS

They Tell Me 
Mackenzie Cain – grade 12
Jamie Woller – Wausau East High School

WFOP WAM STUDENT EKPHRASTIC POETRY CONTEST

First Place Winner
The Saints of Hampstead Heath: She, Biggest of the Three
Mya Koffie 12th Grade
Aaron Ramponi Appleton HS

Second Place
A Colorful World
Inspired by Enchanted Island by Millard Sheets
Ellie Lloyd 12th grade
Elizabeth Jorgensen Arrowhead HS

Third Place Winner
Summers in Port Clyde: Memories for My Grandchildren
Influenced by House at Port Clyde by Stowe Wengenroth
Courtney Weston 12th grade
Terri Carnell Arrowhead HS

Honorable Mentions

The Saints of Hampstead Heath
Eden Weis 12th grade
Michelle Lindell Wausau HS 

A Poem Regarding The All Eternal One And Her Power
On The Saints of Hampstead Heath by Leonora Carrington, 1997
Killian Weston 12th grade
Elizabeth Jorgensen Arrowhead HS

Our House At Port Clyde
Jack Ziemann 12th grade
Elizabeth Jorgensen Arrowhead HS

The House No One Dared to Go Near
On House at Port Clyde by Stowe Wengenroth (1938)
Michael Walsh Grade 11
Elizabeth Jorgensen Arrowhead HS

Traveler
Inspired by the painting Enchanted Island by Millard Sheets
Ryanne Farris 12th Grade
Elizabeth Jorgensen Arrowhead HS

Bristol Bay
A poem describing the art piece Enchanted Island.
Olivia Wyma 11th grade
Elizabeth Jorgensen Arrowhead HS