Wisconsin Writers Awards Reading & Celebration

Join us on Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 6 PM to celebrate the best published work from 2024 by Wisconsin writers. The award ceremony includes brief readings by first place winners and will be followed by a reception and book signing by the authors. Lake City Books will be on hand selling books.

Don't miss the opportunity to hear some of Wisconsin's best writers reading from their work. This event is free and open to the public.

The Wisconsin Writers Awards was established in 1964 and is Wisconsin’s longest-running literary award for published work. The six awards include three awards for books and three awards for short form works including short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. The awards celebrate works published in 2024 by writers currently residing in or having lived for a significant period of time.

In addition to cash prizes, first-place winners of the Wisconsin Writers Awards each receive a five-day writing residency at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point. Honorable mentions receive a cash prize and five-day residency at Ernest Hüpeden's Painted Forest in Wonewoc, WI. Out-of-state judges made the decisions for each award.

Book Awards

Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award 

Judge: Gabriela Garcia

Winner: Robert Fromberg, Gee, That Was Fun: 7 Days of Mayhem, 1983

Honorable Mention: Charity Eleson, Wayward Home

Blei/Derleth Nonfiction Book Award 

Judge: Megan Stielstra

Winner: Marcia Bjornerud, Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks

Honorable Mention: Zara Chowdhary, The Lucky Ones

Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award 

Judge: Gabrielle Bates

Winner: Nicholas Gulig, The Other Altar

Honorable Mention: Ae Hee Lee, Asterism

Short Form Awards

Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award 

Judge: K. Iver

Winner: A.M. Goodhard, "St. Lucy as Virgin Queen Ant"

Honorable Mention: Tyler Wagner, "Endless Savings"

Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction 

Judge: Suzanne Rivecca

Winner: Susanna Daniel, "The Goddess of Illicit Choices"

Honorable Mention: Bob Wake, "Mending Ruth"

Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfiction 

Judge: Kristine Mahler Langley

Winner: Rebecca Jamieson, "Sewing White Surpremacy"

Honorable Mention: Angela Woodward, "My Bestseller"

Find out more about the awards.

Robert Fromberg

Robert Fromberg’s books include the award-winning memoir How to Walk with Steve and the novels The Serial Stowaway and Gee, That Was Fun: 7 Days of Mayhem, 1983. His short fiction and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, and many other periodicals. A product of Peoria, Illinois, he spent his late teenage years on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, after which he obtained a degree from the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers and taught writing for seventeen years at Northwestern University. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Author hugging rock face. Trees in background.

Marcia Bjornerud

Marcia Bjornerud is Professor of Geosciences and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Her research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building, and she combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She has done research in high arctic Norway and Canada as well as mainland Norway, Italy, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region. A contributing writer to The New Yorker, Wired, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, she is also the author of several books for popular audiences: Reading the Rocks, Timefulness, Geopedia and the recently published Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks.

Nicholas Gulig

Nicholas Gulig is a Thai-American poet from Eau Claire. A former Fulbright Fellow, he is the author of North of Order, Book of Lake, Orient, and The Other Altar. From 2024-2025, he served as the Poet Laureate of Wisconsin. Currently, he teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and lives in Fort Atkinson with his wife and daughters.

portrait of the author among yellow flowers

A.M. Goodhart

A.M. Goodhart is a Madison based writer and textile artist. They have published poems in Epiphany, The Indianapolis Review, Passages North, and Lake Effect. Their collection Neither Kind of Body was a semi-finalist for the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize at BOA Editions and the Pamet River Prize at Yes Yes Books.

Susanna Daniel

Susanna Daniel is the author of three novels. Girlfriending, a spinoff of "The Goddess of Illicit Choices," is coming in February of 2026. Her debut novel, Stiltsville, was awarded the PEN/Bingham prize, and her second novel, Sea Creatures, was a Target Book Club pick (though she is now a Target boycotter).

Since 2013, Susanna has run the Madison Writers’ Studio with author Michelle Wildgen. Though she’s won lots of fellowships and has been published lots of places, she’s mostly concerned with building clear, authentic, and engaging stories and helping new writers... Read More

author posing in front of colorful bookshelves

Rebecca Jamieson

Rebecca Jamieson is the author of The Body of All Things (Finishing Line Press, 2017). Her writing has appeared in Entropy, Mid-American Review, The Offing, Rattle, and other publications. She is a Tupelo Quarterly Prose Prize winner and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Fishtrap Writers’ Conference, and the Spring Creek Project.

Rebecca holds an MFA in Writing and Publishing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is also the founder of Contemplate Create, where she teaches creative writing through a mindfulness-based lens.

She lives on Ho-Chunk land in Madison, Wisconsin. When she’s not writing, you can find her hiking, baking, or cuddling her two cats.

Learn more at www.contemplatecreate.com and @rebeccabjamieson on Instagram.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.

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