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