What's Happening in Your Region?
Central-Fox Valley Region
Laura Pierret conducted a poetry workshop at the Taycheedah Correctional Facility, a maximum security women’s prison in Fond du Lac, on April 10th, in celebration of Poetry Month. This is the second year in a row the prison has invited Laura to their facility to speak about and share poetry with the inmates. Laura served as artist for the creative writing/drama workshop for the Very Special Arts Festival held in Fond du Lac on Saturday, April 27th, for adults with cognitive disabilities. Participants wrote and acted out limericks with the festival's "Western" theme under Laura's direction. Karla Huston has been awarded summer residency at Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL. She has been invited to read at a Graduate Students Poetry Circle for SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Language Association) in Baltimore. Her second chapbook Pencil Test was published by Cassandra Press. She has poems forthcoming in Nanny Fanny, 5 A.M., Steam Ticket and others.

Northeast Region
Dear NE area poets, As of May 1, I have stepped down as VP of the NE Area. It has been a great 10 years getting to know many of you as we worked on conferences, poetry events, round robins, Literary Fund, and other activities. Nancy Rafal of Baileys Harbor will be taking over the office. I wish her the best of luck and know that she will enjoy the same incredible cooperative spirit among our members that I experienced. Thanks to all of you who helped me over the years. Yours in poetry, Barbara Larsen

The Spring Conference is over but the laughter and good times go on. At final count 101 people attended the Egg Harbor event on April 26-27. Sue DeKelver organized the open to the public Saturday evening event in the Landmark Lounge. Sixteen spirited acts combining poetry with other art forms. Barbara Larsen was the conference chair and had worked on coordinating all aspects of the conference for nearly a year. A special thank you to Barbara’s husband, George, who kept the database of registrants. Peter Sherrill worked with the Landmark Resort to make site arrangements. Bill Olson printed and assembled the program booklets which included poems authored by Anita Beckstrom, Loraine Brink, Sue DeKelver, Barbara Larsen, Harriet Murphy, Mary Ann Napoleone,Peg Nemeth, June Nirschl, William Olson, Nancy Rafal, Judy Roy, and Raymond E. Walters . Nancy Rafal obtained permission from Good Stamps€Stamp Goods to use the stamped images which adorned the program covers, nametags, and bookmarks. The registration table and hospitality duties were handled by June Nirschl while Judy Roy handled the food arrangements. Loraine Brink coordinated the book sale tables. Other helpers were Donajean Durkin, Peggy Lott, and Peg Nemeth. Bishop Robert Morneau's talk was inspiring. The panel discussion moderated by Mariann Ritzer with panelists Alice D'Alessio, Jackie Langetieg, and Kathy Tapp provoked some lively discussion. My sincere "Thank You" to all members in the region who responded to the "Buck for Barbara" campaign. I think she was touched and surprised with our gift of the three volume, Coming Home: Literature of Wisconsin and the memory box. I plan to keep her busy in her "retirement" from region VP duties. Sue De Kelver was the featured poet at The Bridge in Egg Harbor in April. The reading coincided with the publication of her chapbook, Walnut from Waterloo, published by Marsh River Editions. Sue also read at Lawrence University as part of their Earth Day Celebration. Recently Sue has had poems published in Petroglyph (University of Utah), The Valley Scene, and on the web at musictoears.com which is the work of Roger Kuhns. Between the Sheets is the title of a new chapbook published by Perma Press and authored by The Sheets. The group consists of: Cathryn Cofell, Sue DeKelver, Bruce Dethlefsen, Annette Grunseth, Karla Huston, Michael Koehler, Carey Rellis, and Peter Sherrill. Kathryn Gahl's poem, "Afterward in Two Rivers", was published in the December 2001 issue of Porcupine and "Hot Summer Sofa" will appear in Potpourri in June of this year. The Sturgeon Bay Public Library invited poets to read during National Library Week. WFOP was represented at the Poets Cafe by Sue De Kelver, Jude Genereaux, Barbara Larsen, Mary “Casey” Martin, Nancy Rafal, and Peter Sherrill. Judy Roy has had poems in two recent issues of The Door Voice. On May 1st in Sister Bay, poets read works relating to man-made structures in Door County. Photographs and poems adorn the walls at the Meadows, a senior apartment complex though May. This is the third year for the program, brainchild of Barbara Larsen. Participants included: Anita Beckstrom, Loraine Brink, Donajean Durkin, Hanne Gault, Jude Genereaux, Barbara Larsen, Peggy Lott, Charlotte Manning, Harriet Murphy, Peg Nemeth, June Nirschl, Bill Olson, Nancy Rafal, Judy Roy, and Peter Sherrill. The subject of next year’s exhibit at the Meadows has been determined: Life in the 1940s. Get your wheels turning, find a visual, and let your pens begin! The Hardy Gallery in Ephraim has invited WFOP poets to read works related to "Door County People and Places" on September 5th, between 3 and 5 p.m. This event is part of the gallery’s inaugural season of biweekly "Fine Arts Potpourri" Please contact me for details. Nancy Rafal, PO Box 340, Baileys Harbor, WI 54202, mrsticket@dcwis.com.

submitted by Nancy Rafal, Northeast Regional Vice-President

New member Roger Kuhns is a musician and a lot of his poetry is in song. He made an album in South Africa (he lived in Africa for 8 years) of original contemporary folk rock songs called Eye of the Storm. Music and poetry readings can be heard at The Bridge on the third Saturday of each month in Egg Harbor (schedules of music and poetry, and CDs, etc. are on the www.musictoears.com website). Other WFOP members who have read at The Bridge include Sue DeKelver and Mary Casey Martin. Words from the Woods, a book festival, is scheduled for August 3, 2002 in Three Lakes, Wisconsin. The event will feature Ellen Kort, Jerry Apps, and other Wisconsin writers. Tentative plans include a luncheon at the Reiter Center, a walk-a-thon (6 miles, 3 miles, 1 mile, 1 block) as a library benefit. Impersonators of famous authors will join in the fun. Special activities for kids, such as spelling bees, trivia contests, storytelling, and skits, are in the dreamstage now. We hope to make this an annual attraction to further promote reading and writing in the northwoods. Save a vacation day to visit Three Lakes (home to the world’s largest chain of inland lakes) and the 'Jewel of the Nicolet.'

submitted by Jan Chronister, Northwest Regional VP

Diana Anderson of Eagle River had a poem accepted for publication by Free Verse.

Submitted by Kathy Dodd Miner, South-Central Regional VP

Writers on the Rock is a local writing club made up of Kathleen McGwin,Sherrie Avery-King, Ruth Sellnow and others. They joined the Sunrise Kiwanis group for breakfast at The Market/Upper Crust restaurant on April 9, 2002. They each read two poems, and Kathleen told the group about our club. This was initiated by Sherrie Avery-King in honor of poetry month (April). Fran Zell's first book of fiction, The Marcy Stories, was published in 2001 by Bottom Dog Press of Huron, Ohio with support from an Ohio Arts Council Grant. It was recently nominated for the 2002 Great Lakes Book Award. Upcoming readings include The Printers Row Book Fair and Guild Complex First Book Series in Chicago this June and Barnes & Noble appearances in St. Paul and Duluth in July. The book is available through most bookstores and also amazon.com. The Geography of the Heart, an anthology by Charlene A. Sexton, was a finalist in the Fine Press category of the Minnesota Book Awards, held April 12, 2002 in St. Paul, MN. The anthology contains poems from the 10-20th centuries, with reflective text. She is preparing a revised, paperback edition to be published this year. Michael Wilt reviews the book at http://nimblespirit.com/. Judith Strasser has a new chapbook entitled Sand Island Succession: Poems of the Apostles being published in May 2002 by Parallel Press.

submitted by Dorothy Schwenkner, South Regional VP

Submitted by Sandra Lindow, West-Central Regional VP

    Jane-Marie Bahr, Menomonie, had three poems published in the February issue of Free Verse.

Meet Your Officers:
D.B. Appleton, Treasurer
     A lot of people ask me, what's a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker like you doing living in Wisconsin? And I always answer them frankly and honestly... I don't know! And if I did know, it would probably take several Museletters worth of space to explain it, so maybe it's just as well. Ignorance may not be bliss, but at least it's brief.
      As anyone who's heard me utter more than three consecutive syllables knows, I am indeed a native of New York. Born in Manhattan, I spent four decades living, as the song goes, "only forty-five minutes from Broadway." Of course, George M. Cohan never figured on rush hour traffic on the Long Island Expressway, but that's another story. A career in "international wheeling and dealing" prepared me for a life neither in the midwest nor in poetry, but here I am, so go figure!
      One of the nicest things about life in Wisconsin has been my involvement with the WFOP. Although suspicious at first (as Groucho said, I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member!) I realized that the Fellowship is a great group of folks who just happen to enjoy expressing themselves poetically. But the thing I found fascinating, after becoming treasurer, is how many people, especially poets, seem to consider interests in words and numbers to be at opposite ends of the intellectual spectrum. To me, the two go together as naturally as beer and brats (he said, trying to display his progress at cultural assimilation!)
      Numbers possess a poetry as beautiful as any Shakespearean sonnet, as timeless as Whitman or Dickinson, as startling and unexpected as Ginsberg or Ashbery. The perfect ratio of a nautilus spiral; Euclid’s golden rectangle; the mystery of pi – these numerical concepts are nothing if not poetic. The subtle rhythm of a measured meter, the integral constructs of a sestina or pantoum – poetry and mathematics are wonderfully and inextricably linked, to the benefit and betterment of each.
      OK, being treasurer for a bunch of poets may seem odd, almost oxymoronic, and where digits prefaced with dollar signs are concerned, the numerical link to poetry is tenuous at best (at last check, not many writers of verse have cracked the Forbes list of wealthiest individuals). But to separate numbers from poetry? Now, that would be truly absurd!