Winchester Academy hosts poet laureate
Wisconsin Poet Laureate Karla Huston will present “Why Poetry Matters: Discussion and Reading” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 4, at the Waupaca Area Public Library.
Free and open to the public, the program is hosted by Winchester Academy.
Huston is the author of eight chapbooks of poems; her most recent is “Grief Bone.” In 2013 she received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association for her full collection, “A Theory of Lipstick.”
Huston’s work has garnered many other awards, including a Pushcart Prize in 2011. Her writing has earned her residencies at the Ragdale Foundation and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She has also been awarded three Jade Rings (one for fiction, two for poetry) from Wisconsin Writers’ Association.
A lifelong resident of Wisconsin, Huston started writing poetry in her 40S when she began teaching creative writing at Neenah High School, where she worked for 15 years.
She thinks of herself as a Wisconsin writer, and much of her writing reflects Wisconsin values. Her poetry finds its roots in the stories we tell and those memories which define us as human.
Of her poetry, the late poet Philip Darcy writes, “From start to finish it’s marked by … characteristic freshness and energy, not to mention humor and imagination as well.”
She is active in the Wisconsin writing community, currently serving on the board of the Council for Wisconsin Writers, helping to promote its missions to honor Wisconsin writers.
Huston is a graduate of West Salem High school. She earned both a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s in English and creative writing from UW-Oshkosh.
Winchester Academy’s programs are funded through sponsors and tax-deductible donations.
Huston’s program is sponsored by Pat Hollenbeck.
For more information about Winchester Academy, check winchesteracademywaupaca.org, follow on Facebook, or contact Executive Director Ann Buerger Linden at 715-258-2927 or [email protected].