Spring 2024 Conference Schedule
Blue Harbor Resort, Sheboygan
Theme: Eco-Justice & the Poet’s Task
The conference will include a roll call/open mic, the presentation of the Muse and Chapbook Awards, plenty of time for buying and selling our books. Please join us!
Friday, April 26
3 p.m.
Optional tour of the Art Preserve with a guide from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Main hall opens to booksellers to set up
3-5 p.m.
Registration
5-6:30 p.m.
Dinner on your own
Main hall closes
6 p.m.
Main hall reopens with snacks and cash bar
6:30-7 p.m.
Evening program begins
Muse Awards presented by Mary Rowin
Chapbook Award presented by Amanda Reavey
Fellowship
7:30 p.m.
Open mic monitor announces open mic protocols and introduces Nickole Brown, our featured speaker, to start off the readings
Saturday, April 27
7:30 a.m.
Breakfast opens
8:30 a.m.
Welcome by Ed Werstein, VP of the WFOP East Region, Ryan Sorenson, Sheboygan’s mayor, and Lisa Vihos, Sheboygan’s Poet Laureate
Business Meeting
Recognition of first-time attendees followed by their roll call poems
9:45 a.m.
Break for book selling and fellowship
10:15 a.m.
Keynote feature presentation: Nickole Brown, “Writing in the Age of Loneliness: Eco-Literature & the Writer’s Task”
11:45 a.m.
Nickole signs books
12 p.m.
Lunch
1 p.m.
Readings by East Region Poets Laureates, introduced by Katherine Yets - Mario Willis, Christoher Kolon, Elizabeth Park, Lisa Vihos
1:45 p.m.
Break
2 p.m.
Learning Circles - 3 round-robin style workshops of 30 minutes each
The Poet’s Task: Imagining Futures (speculative poetry exploration)
The Poet’s Task: Paying Attention (using all five senses to write poetry)
The Poet’s Task: Connecting (using social media to build community)
3:30 p.m.
Break
4:30 p.m.
Reconvene at John Michael Kohler Arts Center for Nickole’s public reading, book sales and signing
6-7:30 p.m.
Dinner on your own
7:30-9:30 p.m.
Main Hall reopens for dessert, cash bar and Tonic Roots trio music
Sunday, April 28
7:30 a.m.
Breakfast opens
9 a.m.
Choose between two workshops:
Body Mind Soul Healing: Yoga & Writing with C.J. Holstine and Jacqueline Wing
Exploration of Multiple Poetry Forms with David Southward
10:30 a.m.
Break
10:45 a.m.
Closing panel discussion on eco-poetry with Nickole Brown, Heather Swan and Peggy Rozga
12 p.m.
Adjourn