Intersections: Writing Where You're From | Arts + Literature Laboratory | Madison Contemporary Arts Center

Intersections: Writing Where You're From

All of us are a complex mix of identities that are, in large part, informed by where we have been—by the people and the places that we come from. Whether we identify as rural, urban, or suburban; as native, immigrant, or exile, we are marked by place and we make a mark on places we live by how we choose to live. This intersection of place and identity is reflected in the language we use and the stories we tell. Through readings and conversation, we will explore this intersection from a variety of angles, while also talking about practical craft matters involved in writing through and about this intersection.

The Watershed Reading Series is supported by Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc, charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. 

This event is sponsored in part by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and will be held at Olbrich Gardens located at 3330 Atwood Ave in Madison.

Derrick Austin in a wheat-colored ribbed sweater, seated

Derrick Austin

Derrick Austin is the author of Tenderness (BOA Editions, 2021) and Trouble the Water (BOA Editions, 2016). His first chapbook, Black Sand, is recently out from Foundlings Press. He is a 2022-2023 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholar.

Wisconsin Poet Rebecca Dunham

Rebecca Dunham

Rebecca Dunham's most recent collection of poems is Cold Pastoral from Milkweed Editions. She is a professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

Agate Nesaule Wisconsin author

Agate Nesaule

Agate Nesaule experienced the turmoil of World War II and its aftermath in Europe, came to the United States at age twelve, and was a Professor of English and a founder of Women's Studies at UW-Whitewater.  Her award winning memoir A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile is also a mother/daughter story. Her novel In Love with Jerzy Kosinski deals with Latvian Immigrants settled in the Midwest.  She is at currently at work on Coming Home, a memoir about literal, spiritual, symbolic returns, and she is editing three of her books in Latvian, which will be published in Latvia. 

Writer Alexandria Delcourt

Alexandria Delcourt

Alexandria Delcourt received her MFA from the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing in 2014. She currently teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and is also a Co-Producer for the Madison Moth StorySLAM. 

Jennifer Morales Wisconsin writer

Jennifer Morales

Jennifer Morales is a poet, fiction writer, and performance artist living in rural Wisconsin. Meet Me Halfway, her collection of short stories about race relations in Milwaukee (University of Wisconsin Press, 2015), was selected by the Wisconsin Center for the Book as 2016 Book of the Year, among other honors. Recent publications include poetry in MAYDAY Magazine, Glass Poetry Journal, Kenning Journal, Stoneboat, and I Didn’t Know There Were Latinos in Wisconsin, and fiction in The Long Story and Temenos.

Poet Robin Chapman woman with white short hair and glasses with plants in background

Robin Chapman

Robin Chapman's poems have appeared recently in The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Hudson Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and online on One Art and Poem-A-Day. She is author of eleven books of poetry, including Panic Season (Tebot Bach 2022),  Six True Things (Wisconsin Library Association's Outstanding Book of Poetry Award); the eelgrass meadow (honorable mention for the Council of Wisconsin Writers' Edna Meudt Award); The Dreamer Who Counted the Dead (WLA Outstanding Book of Poetry Award); Abundance (Cider Press Editor's Award); Images of a Complex World: The Art and Poetry of Chaos (World Scientific, with physicist J.C Sprott's fractals and explanations; recipient of the Posner Poetry Award from CWW); and The Only Home We Know (WLA Outstanding Book of Poetry Award). She is recipient of the Helen Howe Poetry Award from Appalachia and residencies from Vermont Studio Center... Read More

McKenna Patterson Photography

Erin Ruzicka Trondson

Erin Ruzicka Trondson is the winner of the third annual Apprentice House Chapbook Competition for her manuscript Nesting. Her manuscript SilkSutures was a finalist for the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize in 2013. Trondson’s poetry has also appeared in such journals as So to Speak, Cold Mountain Review, Cheat River Review, About Place Journal, and Connections.  She was a day fellow at Edenfred’s arts residency program, part of the Terry Family Foundation in Madison. She holds a BA and MS from UW Madison and is currently the Executive Director of Woodland Montessori School in Madison, and is an adjunct at UW River Falls.  She lives in the country outside of Madison with her husband, daughters, cats, dog, and eleven chickens.

Roberta Hill Wisconsin poet

Roberta Hill

Roberta J. Hill (Oneida) is a poet, fiction writer and scholar.  Her most recent poetry publication is Cicadas:  New and Selected Poetry (Holy Cow! Press, 2013).  Her short story, "Reading the Streets," was published in 2016 in the International Writing Program's online journal, Narrative Witness #2, "Indigenous Peoples:  Australia-United States" online:  https://iwpcollections.squarespace.com/nw2-roberta-hill.  She edited the July 2014 issue of the Black Earth Institute's journal, About Place, "Enlightened Visions," available online:  http://aboutplacejournal.org/enlightened-visions/.  She is a Professor of English and American Indian Studies and is affiliated with The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.   

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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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