Submissions are now open for the 40th annual Wisconsin Poetry Prizes!

Submissions to the Wisconsin Poetry Series are now open! Any poet with an original, full-length collection is eligible for the 40th annual Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry, judged by the founding editor of the Wisconsin Poetry Series, Ronald Wallace. Each manuscript, accompanied by a $28 reading fee, will be considered for both prizes. Each winner will receive $1,500 and publication through the University of Wisconsin Press. At least three additional applicants will also be offered publication. Submissions are due by September 15, 2024.

We are also accepting submissions to the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation, judged by Idra Novey and awarding $1,500 plus publication. Translators or original authors are invited to submit a full-length collection of poetry translated into English. Applicants to the translation prize will be asked to confirm they have permission for English translation and publication of the work, by its author(s) or the executor(s) of any active copyright(s). Submissions must be accompanied by a $28 reading fee. Submissions are due by November 7, 2024.

Manuscript Requirements:

  • For the Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes, the author’s name and contact info should not appear anywhere on the document. Please assemble a single pdf including a title page, a table of contents, the manuscript poems, and (optionally) an acknowledgments page listing any magazines or journals where the submitted poems may have first appeared. Manuscripts should be 50 to 90 pages in length on 8.5″ × 11″ pdf pages.
  • For the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation, the name of the translator and original author should appear on the title page of the document. Please assemble a single pdf including a title/author page, a table of contents, the manuscript poems, 50- to 250-word bios for each original author and translator, a project statement up to 500 words in length, and (optionally) an acknowledgments page listing any magazines or journals where the submitted translations may have first appeared. Manuscripts must include each poem in both its original language and in English translation, comprising 75 to 150 total pages in length, on 8.5″ × 11″ pdf pages.

This Year’s Judges:

Ron Wallace, the founding editor of the Wisconsin Poetry Series, has come out of retirement to judge the 40th annual Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry. He is Felix Pollak Professor Emeritus of Poetry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His twenty books and chapbooks include Long for This World: New and Selected Poems and For Dear Life: Poems. He divides his time between Madison and a forty-acre farm in Bear Valley, Wisconsin. 

Idra Novey will judge the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation. She is a novelist, poet, and translator. Her novel Take What You Need was a New York Times Notable Book of 2023 and named a Best Book of the Year with the New Yorker, L.A. Times, Boston Globe, NPR, Today, and was Yiyun Li’s Author Pick at The Guardian. Her first novel, Ways to Disappear, was a finalist for the L.A. Times First Fiction Prize and the winner of the 2016 Brooklyn Public Library Prize and the Sami Rohr Prize. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into a dozen languages and she’s written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and The Guardian. In 2022, she received a Pushcart Prize for her story “The Glacier,” published in the Yale Review. Novey’s works as a translator include Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H. and a co-translation with Ahmad Nadalizadeh of Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian, Lean Against This Late Hour, a finalist for the PEN America Poetry in Translation Prize in 2021. She teaches in Princeton University’s Creative Writing Program. Her first book of poems in a decade, Soon and Wholly, is forthcoming in September 2024.

About the University of Wisconsin Press

The University of Wisconsin Press is a not-for-profit publisher of books and journals. With more than 1,500 titles and 8,000 peer-reviewed articles in print, its mission embodies the Wisconsin Idea by publishing work of distinction that serves the people of Wisconsin and the world. 

For more information on the Wisconsin Poetry Prizes, please visit https://uwpress.wisc.edu/series/wi-poetry.html.

Interview with new Native Plants Journal editor Lora Perkins

Welcome to Native Plants Journal and UW Press, Lora Perkins! Can you start by sharing a bit about your background and experience in the fields of restoration and ecology?

I am a plant ecologist working primarily in the field of restoration ecology. My educational background includes three land grant institutions, New Mexico State University, Oregon State University, and University of Nevada, Reno. I am now a Professor at South Dakota State University. This track through land grant universities has instilled in me a deep appreciation for research that increases our basic scientific understanding as well as provides locally relevant boots-on-the-ground application. For example, we want to understand the basic science around dormancy in native seeds and we also want to get the little buggers to germinate during ecological restoration!

My past research has focused on both native and invasive plants and I have worked in hot deserts, cold deserts, and prairie ecosystems. I (along with a co-author) was awarded the 2019 Bradshaw Medal from the Society for Ecological Restoration for outstanding contribution to the field. More recently, I serve on the Advisory Board for the Center for Excellence in Bison Research, on the Prairie Reconstruction Initiative Advisory Team, and am part of the executive team for the Northern Great Plains Native Seed Partnership.

As the new editor of Native Plants Journal, what inspired you to take on this role? What aspects of the journal’s mission and focus align with your professional interests?

Native plants hold tremendous importance both for our environment and for cultural heritage. Native plants are diverse and interesting. Some natives are iconic and widespread (for example, Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem): tall, easily recognizable with the ‘turkeyfoot’ inflorescence, and a distribution from Saskatchewan to the Gulf of Mexico. Some native plants are rare and ephemeral (for example, Penstemon haydenii (blowout penstemon) that is a habitat specialist found only in the sandhills in Nebraska and Wyoming. Native Plants Journal is THE place to share essential information about all plants native to North America.

Assuming the role as editor is a profound opportunity to cultivate the journal in its mission to be leading forum to share information on North American native plants. I aim to help the journal to grow and blossom with increased use and impact.

What is your vision for the future of Native Plants Journal? Are there specific initiatives you hope to implement to expand the journal’s impact and reach?

One goal I have for the Native Plants Journal is to expand the spatial distribution of our editorial board and manuscripts. In the past, we have been really good at distributing information about plants native to the western United States. I would like to achieve more balance by adding editorial board members and increasing the number of manuscripts from other regions throughout North America.

Our sister journal, Ecological Restoration, is also under new editorship. We are excited to explore cross-journal initiatives and collaborations.

Are there specific thematic areas or topics within native plants and restoration that you believe deserve more attention in the journal?

I enjoy journal volumes with a theme. However, I do not necessarily think these themes must necessarily come from the top down. I am open to suggestions and to see if there are themes that naturally emerge from submissions. That being said, some potential themes that come to mind are based on phylogenetic groups (i.e., a related group of plants), geographic groups (i.e., native plants from a given area), plant life stages (e.g., floral traits); or a practical topics (e.g., treatments to increase seed performance in restoration). 

In your view, what role can Native Plants Journal play in promoting awareness and understanding of the importance of native plants in conservation?

Native Plants Journal should be the go-to source of information for anyone looking for information about plants native to North America. It is the role of our journal to consolidate, disseminate, highlight, and elevate information about biology, ecology, conservation, restoration, or production of native plants.

What advice do you have for aspiring researchers and authors looking to contribute to Native Plants Journal? How can they ensure their work aligns with the journal’s goals and standards?

Any aspiring researcher or author who has work about native plants should consider our journal. We publish five different types of manuscripts: refereed research (rigorous scientific research); topic reviews on native plant-related subjects; germplasm release articles; propagation protocols; and general technical articles. The key is that the work must be about plants native to North America. We accept work on a single species as well as work on many species. We want articles published in our journal to be accessible to academics, practitioners, growers, as well as folks just interested in native plants, so the writing must be clear and easy to understand.

The University of Wisconsin Press welcomes Dan Crissman as editor in chief

The University of Wisconsin Press is pleased to announce that Dan Crissman will join our staff as editor in chief, effective July 22, 2024. He will oversee our acquisitions department and serve as a member of UW Press’s senior management team.

Crissman joins us from Indiana University Press, where he currently serves as editorial director and previously served as trade and regional acquisitions editor. He brings more than 15 years of publishing experience, having worked previously at Belt Publishing; W. W. Norton & Company; the Overlook Press; and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The author of the books Cleveland in 50 Maps and Brewing Everything: How to Make Your Own Beer, Cider, Mead, Sake, Kombucha, and Other Fermented Beverages, Crissman also works as a freelance writer and developmental editor. He holds a bachelor of arts from the College of William & Mary and will soon complete a master of arts in U.S. history from Indiana University. Crissman will be based in Cleveland, Ohio, but looks forward to visiting Madison regularly.

“We are delighted that Dan will be joining us as editor in chief,” says Dennis Lloyd, director of the University of Wisconsin Press. “He brings a wealth of experience in trade, regional, and scholarly acquisitions. Everyone here was impressed with his intelligence and enthusiasm, and all are looking forward to working with him in the months and years to come.”

Crissman adds, “There has been so much change in academic publishing—and higher education more generally—over the past few years, and esteemed presses like Wisconsin have a unique opportunity to lead the way forward. I’m excited to work with the fantastic team at UW Press to publish cutting-edge scholarship and bring to light the many untold stories of the people of Wisconsin.”

About the University of Wisconsin Press

The University of Wisconsin Press is a not-for-profit publisher of books and journals. With more than 1,500 titles and 8,000 peer-reviewed articles in print, its mission embodies the Wisconsin Idea by publishing work of distinction that serves the people of Wisconsin and the world. 

The University of Wisconsin Press Celebrates National Poetry Month

The University of Wisconsin Press is proud to publish at least seven poetry collections each year as part of the Wisconsin Poetry Series. In celebration of National Poetry Month, all in-stock Wisconsin Poetry Series titles are on sale for 30% off with discount code NPM2024UWISC. We invite you to browse the Wisconsin Poetry Series titles and learn more about the series at this link. You can also follow along on social media as we highlight many must-read collections throughout the month!

The Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry, along with the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation, are awarded annually; each winner receives a monetary prize and publication of their work in the Wisconsin Poetry Series. Winners are selected by a guest judge following an initial screening process conducted by coeditors Sean Bishop and Jesse Lee Kercheval in conjunction with the Creative Writing Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The series also publishes collections by a handful of exceptional finalists and, often, a winner of the Four Lakes Prize in Poetry. The next submissions period will open this summer.

SUBMISSION PERIOD NOW OPEN FOR GEORGE L. MOSSE FIRST BOOK PRIZE

The University of Wisconsin Press and the George L. Mosse Program in History are pleased to announce that the submission period is now open for this year’s Mosse First Book Prize.

The prize was established in 2020 to honor Mosse’s commitment to scholarship and to mentoring new generations of historians. Winning books are published as part of the George L. Mosse Series in the History of European Culture, Sexuality, and Ideas, and the recipient receives a $5,000 prize, payable in two installments. An honorable mention winner may also be selected to receive a $1,000 prize and publication.

The inaugural winner of the Mosse First Book Prize, awarded in 2022, is Kathryn L. Brackney; her book, Surreal Geographies: A New History of Holocaust Consciousness, will be published this August. The latest winner is Paula Antonella Oppermann, whose book is scheduled for publication in 2025.

“George L. Mosse shaped our understanding of National Socialism, völkisch ideology, the intersectionality of antifeminism and antisemitism, fascist images of masculinity, and fascist culture. He emphasized that beyond focusing on fascist leaders, we need to investigate what fascism meant for everyday life experiences of average citizens and enthusiastic followers,” Oppermann says. “I tried to follow his approaches in my book, in which I investigate the history and ideology of Latvia’s most prominent fascist party, the Pērkonkrusts (Thunder Cross). Being given the opportunity to publish my very first book in a series honoring Mosse’s work and life is a privilege and honor.”

“George L. Mosse was a prolific and innovative scholar who significantly enriched our understanding of multiple aspects of European history: cultural symbolism and intellectual history, fascism and gender, Jewish and LGBTQ+ history. He was also a legendary mentor to aspiring scholars,” says series advisor David Sorkin. “This prize perpetuates George’s dual legacy of scholarship and mentorship by rewarding the next generation of historians with the opportunity to publish an outstanding monograph with the University of Wisconsin Press.”

The prize is open to original, previously unpublished monographs of historical scholarship in English (whether written in English or translated), and aims to support and engage early-career scholars writing on topics related to the history of European culture, sexuality, or ideas.

According to UW Press acquisitions editor Nathan MacBrien, “This is an opportunity for UW Press to acknowledge the innovative work of an early career scholar and for the selected author to publish a book that will reach a broad audience of scholars and students.”

Proposals will be accepted through August 1, 2024; all submissions will be reviewed by the Press and series advisors. A short list of finalists will be chosen in October 2024, and those manuscripts will be read by a jury of expert readers, who will select the winning project. The winner will be announced after successful peer review of the manuscript and final approval for publication by the Press.

Entrants should begin by sending a proposal to UW Press acquisitions assistant Tristian Lee, at tristian.lee@wisc.edu. The subject line should contain “Mosse First Book Prize” as well as the author’s last name and a keyword. Please do not send the complete manuscript until requested to do so. Proposals should follow the guidelines detailed at https://uwpress.wisc.edu/proposal.html and should include the following elements:

  • the scope and rationale for the book and its main contributions, 
  • how the work fits with the Mosse Series, 
  • the audience and market for the book, 
  • the manuscript’s word count, 
  • an annotated table of contents, 
  • two sample chapters (ideally an introductory chapter and one interior chapter), and 
  • a curriculum vitae. 

Please note whether the book is under consideration elsewhere at the time of prize submission; work submitted for consideration must not be under contract elsewhere and should be complete at the time of submission.

About the University of Wisconsin Press

The University of Wisconsin Press is a not-for-profit publisher of books and journals. With more than 1,500 titles and more than 8,000 peer-reviewed articles in print, its mission embodies the Wisconsin Idea by publishing work of distinction that serves the people of Wisconsin and the world.

About the George L. Mosse Series in the History of European Culture, Sexuality, and Ideas

The Mosse series promotes the vibrant international collaboration and community that historian George L. Mosse created during his lifetime by publishing major innovative works by outstanding scholars in European cultural and intellectual history.

About George L. Mosse

A legendary scholar, teacher, and mentor, Mosse (1918–1999) joined the Department of History at UW–Madison in 1955. He was an early leader in the study of modern European culture, fascism, and the history of sexuality and masculinity. In 1965 Mosse was honored for his exceptional teaching by being named UW’s first John C. Bascom Professor. He remained famous among students and colleagues for his popular and engaging lectures, which were often standing-room only. A Jewish refugee from prewar Germany, Mosse was appointed a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1969 and spent the final decades of his career traveling frequently between Madison and Jerusalem.

The University of Wisconsin Press Celebrates Women’s History Month

The University of Wisconsin Press is proud to publish books and journals that engage with women’s history and experiences. In celebration of Women’s History Month, the following titles will be offered at a discount all month long, with discount code WHM2024UWISC. We invite you to click on the hyperlinks below to browse titles across genres—from history to political science to memoir as well as fiction and poetry by and/or about women. You can also follow along on social media as we highlight some of the must-read books included here.

Nonfiction

Holding the World Together: African Women in Changing Perspective, edited by Nwando Achebe and Claire C. Robertson

Muslim Women in Postcolonial Kenya: Leadership, Representation, and Social Change, by Ousseina D. Alidou

Silenced Resistance: Women, Dictatorships, and Genderwashing in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea, by Joanna Allan

I Am Evelyn Amony: Reclaiming My Life from the Lord’s Resistance Army, by Evelyn Amony, edited with an introduction by Erin Baines

Words of Witness: Black Women’s Autobiography in the Post-Brown Era, by Angela A. Ards

A Brave and Lovely Woman: Mamah Borthwick and Frank Lloyd Wright, by Mark Borthwick

Congo’s Dancers: Women and Work in Kinshasa, by Lesley Nicole Braun

Women’s Work: Making Dance in Europe before 1800, edited by Lynn Matluck Brooks

African Women Writing Resistance: An Anthology of Contemporary Voices, edited by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez, Pauline Dongala, Omotayo Jolaosho, and Anne Serafin

Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory, and Silence in Rwanda, by Jennie E. Burnet

Such Anxious Hours: Wisconsin Women’s Voices from the Civil War, edited by Jo Ann Daly Carr

A Quiet Corner of the War: The Civil War Letters of Gilbert and Esther Claflin, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 1862–1863, by Gilbert Claflin and Esther Claflin, edited by Judy Cook, with a foreword by Keith S. Bohannon

To Offer Compassion: A History of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, by Doris Andrea Dirks and Patricia A. Relf

Women in Roman Republican Drama, edited by Dorota Dutsch, Sharon L. James, and David Konstan

Conjoined Twins in Black and White: The Lives of Millie-Christine McKoy and Daisy and Violet Hilton, edited by Linda Frost

Innocence and Victimhood: Gender, Nation, and Women’s Activism in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina, by Elissa Helms

Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories, by Jean M. Humez

Shaping Tradition: Women’s Roles in Ceremonial Rituals of the Agwagune, by David Uru Iyam

​​Practical Audacity: Black Women and International Human Rights, by Stanlie M. James

From the Womb to the Body Politic: Raising the Nation in Enlightenment Russia, by Anna Kuxhausen

Romaine Brooks: A Life, by Cassandra Langer

Amazons of the Huk Rebellion: Gender, Sex, and Revolution in the Philippines, by Vina A. Lanzona

A Cinema of Obsession: The Life and Work of Mai Zetterling, by Mariah Larsson

Gender Nonconformity, Race, and Sexuality: Charting the Connections, edited by Toni Lester

Citizen Countess: Sofia Panina and the Fate of Revolutionary Russia, by Adele Lindenmeyr

Equals in Learning and Piety: Muslim Women Scholars in Nigeria and North America, by Beverly Mack

Whispers of Cruel Wrongs: The Correspondence of Louisa Jacobs and Her Circle, 1879–1911, by Edited by Mary Maillard

​​As Told by Herself: Women’s Childhood Autobiography, 1845–1969, by Lorna Martens

Systemic Silencing: Activism, Memory, and Sexual Violence in Indonesia, by Katharine E. McGregor

Elusive Justice: Women, Land Rights, and Colombia’s Transition to Peace, by Donny Meertens

The Best Weapon for Peace: Maria Montessori, Education, and Children’s Rights, by Erica Moretti

Slave Trade and Abolition: Gender, Commerce, and Economic Transition in Luanda, by Vanessa S. Oliveira

Lorine Niedecker: A Poet’s Life, by Margot Peters

Beyond the Flesh: Alexander Blok, Zinaida Gippius, and the Symbolist Sublimation of Sex, by Jenifer Presto

A Mysterious Life and Calling: From Slavery to Ministry in South Carolina, by Reverend Mrs. Charlotte S. Riley, edited and with an introduction by Crystal J. Lucky, with a foreword by Joycelyn K. Moody

Strong-Minded Woman: The Story of Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin’s First Female Lawyer, by Mary Lahr Schier

Spirit Wives and Church Mothers: Marriage, Survival, and Healing in Central Mozambique, by Christy Schuetze

Sister: An African American Life in Search of Justice, by Sylvia Bell White and Jody LePage

Laughter and Civility: The Theater of Emma Gad, by Lynn R. Wilkinson

Memoir

The Toni Morrison Book Club, by Juda Bennett, Winnifred Brown-Glaude, Cassandra Jackson, and Piper Kendrix Williams

Daytime Stars: A Poet’s Memoir of the Revolution, the Siege of Leningrad, and the Thaw, by Olga Berggolts, translated and edited by Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, with a foreword by Katharine Hodgson

Farm Girl: A Wisconsin Memoir, by Beuna Coburn Carlson

With the Lapps in the High Mountains: A Woman among the Sami, 1907–1908, by Emilie Demant Hatt, edited and translated by Barbara Sjoholm, with a foreword by Hugh Beach

Self-Made Woman: A Memoir, by Denise Chanterelle DuBois

Coming Out Swiss: In Search of Heidi, Chocolate, and My Other Life, by Anne Hermann

Across America by Bicycle: Alice and Bobbi’s Summer on Wheels, by Alice Honeywell and Bobbi Montgomery

Plain: A Memoir of Mennonite Girlhood, by Mary Alice Hostetter

The Blind Masseuse: A Traveler’s Memoir from Costa Rica to Cambodia, by Alden Jones

Space: A Memoir, by Jesse Lee Kercheval

Daughter in Retrograde: A Memoir, by Courtney Kersten

Loving before Loving: A Marriage in Black and White, by Joan Steinau Lester

The Only Way Through Is Out, by Suzette Mullen

Fiction

Women Lovers, or The Third Woman, by Natalie Clifford Barney, edited and translated by Chelsea Ray, with an introduction by Melanie C. Hawthorne

A Thin Bright Line, by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Lava Falls, by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Catina’s Haircut: A Novel in Stories, by Paola Corso

The Dead of Achill Island, by Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden (and the rest of their Nora Barnes and Toby Sandler Mystery series)

Still True, by Maggie Ginsberg

Half, by Sharon Harrigan

Dot & Ralfie, by Amy Hoffman

The Off Season, by Amy Hoffman

Minus One, by Doris Iarovici

Underground Women, by Jesse Lee Kercheval

Cravings, by Garnett Kilberg Cohen

Imagine Your Life Like This, by Sarah Layden

The Lost Archive, by Lynn C. Miller

The Book of Joshua, by Jennifer Anne Moses

All about Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color, edited by Jina Ortiz and Rochelle Spencer, with a foreword by Helena María Viramontes

The Summers, by Ronya Othmann, translated by Gary Schmidt

Unswerving, by Barbara Ridley

Death Casts a Shadow, by Patricia Skalka (and the seven previous volumes in her Door County mystery series)

Starvation Shore, by Laura Waterman

The Art of the Break, by Mary Wimmer

Across the Great Lake, by Lee Zacharias

Poetry

How the End First Showed, by D. M. Aderibigbe

(At) Wrist, by Tacey M. Atsitty

Shopping, or The End of Time, by Emily Bludworth de Barrios

Thunderhead, by Emily Rose Cole

Host, by Lisa Fay Coutley

Dear Terror, Dear Splendor, by Melissa Crowe

My Favorite Tyrants, by Joanne Diaz

Alien Miss, by Carlina Duan

Psalms, by Julia Fiedorczuk, translated by Bill Johnston

Gloss, by Rebecca Hazelton

Queen in Blue, by Ambalila Hemsell

Perigee, by Diane Kerr

Conditions of the Wounded, by Anna Leigh Knowles

Ganbatte, by Sarah Kortemeier

The Explosive Expert’s Wife, by Shara Lessley 

Radium Girl, by Celeste Lipkes

Season of the Second Thought, by Lynn Powell

The Book of Hulga, by Rita Mae Reese, with illustrations by Julie Franki

Why Can’t It Be Tenderness, by Michelle Brittan Rosado

As If a Song Could Save You, by Betsy Sholl

House of Sparrows, by Betsy Sholl

Otherwise Unseeable, by Betsy Sholl

The Sleeve Waves, by Angela Sorby 

If the House, by Molly Spencer

Hive, by Christina Stoddard

Girl’s Guide to Leaving, by Laura Villareal

The Apollonia Poems, by Judith Vollmer

The Sound Boat, by Judith Vollmer

The Blue Hour, by Jennifer Whitaker

American Sex Tape™, by Jameka Williams

ANNOUNCING THE RESULTS OF THE WISCONSIN POETRY PRIZE COMPETITION

Out of nearly 1,000 entrants, Caitlin Roach has been selected as the winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry and Eduardo Martínez-Leyva has been named the winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry. Additionally, Peter Covino has been selected as the winner of the second annual Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation, for his translation of Dario Bellezza’s work. Each will receive $1,500, and their collections will be published this fall by the University of Wisconsin Press.

In addition, Emily Bludworth de Barrios has been named winner of the Four Lakes Prize in Poetry, and her collection will be published next spring, alongside finalist collections by Hedgie Choi, Caroline M. Mar, and Felicia Zamora.

Amaud Jamaul Johnson served as this year’s judge for the Brittingham and Felix Pollak prizes. Born and raised in Compton, California, he is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor. He is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and Cave Canem Fellow, and his honors include the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Dorset Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, New York Times Magazine, Lit Hub, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. He is currently the Knight Family Professor of Creative Writing at Stanford University. His most recent collection, Imperial Liquor, was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2021 UNT Rilke Prize.

Geoffrey Brock served as the judge for this year’s Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation. He is the author of three books of poems, the editor of The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, and the translator of various books of poetry, prose, and comics, most recently Giuseppe Ungaretti’s Allegria, which received ALTA’s National Translation Award for Poetry. His other awards include the Raiziss/de Palchi Book Prize, the MLA Lois Roth Award, the PEN Center USA Translation Prize, and Poetry magazine’s John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize, as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Cullman Center, the NEA, and the Academy of American Poets. He teaches in the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing & Translation, where he is the founding editor of the Arkansas International.

Caitlin Roach’s collection, Surveille, has been awarded the Brittingham Prize in Poetry. Roach is a queer poet from Southern California. A three-time National Poetry Series finalist, her poems have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Tin House, jubilat, The Iowa Review, Poetry Daily, Colorado Review, and Best New Poets (2023, 2021, and 2017), among others. She earned an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two sons.

Eduardo Martínez-Leyva’s collection, Cowboy Park, has been awarded the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry. Martínez-Leyva was born in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican immigrants. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Boston Review, The Adroit Journal, Frontier Poetry, The Hopkins Review, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from CantoMundo, the Frost Place, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Lambda Literary Foundation, along with a teaching fellowship from Columbia University, where he earned his MFA. He was the writer-in-residence at St. Alban’s School for Boys in Washington, DC, and teaches and resides in New York City.

Peter Covino’s translation of What Sex Is Death: Selected Poems of Dario Bellezza has been awarded the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation. Covino’s translation work has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Richmond American International University of London, Rome Programme. After a fourteen-year career as a social worker in the fields of AIDS services and foster care, Covino is an associate professor of English in the PhD Program at the University of Rhode Island, specializing in contemporary poetry, translation, and ethnic studies. He is also a well-published scholar, poet, editor, and author, with works that include a coedited essay collection on Italian American literature and the prize-winning poetry books The Right Place to Jump and Cut Off the Ears of Winter (2007 PEN-American Osterweil Award). Covino is the founding editor and faculty advisor of the Ocean State Review, and since 1998 a founding editor-trustee of the nonprofit press Barrow Street Inc.

Dario Bellezza (1944–96) was Italy’s first openly gay, major prize-winning poet-novelist-playwright, who died a premature death of AIDS-related complications. Over the course of a twenty-five-year career, he publishedmore than twenty books, including eight full-length poetry collections, eight novels, two plays, translations from the French, and nonfiction. Twentieth-century Italian and American literary luminaries Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, Gregory Corso, and Allen Ginsberg, among others, championed his work. Significantly, Bellezza’s literary career extends two decades beyond Pasolini’s death, and he embraced his identity as an out gay man in an era of increased polemicizing of gay rights and harsh opposition by the Vatican. The sheer variety of forms, from epigram to brash love-lyric to sustained political narrative, coupled with the fervor of Bellezza’s voice make a compelling argument for his lasting importance among the best poets of the second half of the twentieth century.

Emily Bludworth de Barrios’s collection Rich Wife has been awarded the Four Lakes Prize in Poetry. Bludworth de Barrios is a poet whose previous book, Shopping, or The End of Time, received the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry. Her poems have appeared in publications such as Harvard Review, Copper Nickel, The Poetry Review, and Oxford Poetry. She received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and also holds degrees from Goldsmiths College and the College of William & Mary. She was raised in Houston, Cairo, and Caracas, and now lives in both Houston, Texas, and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.

Hedgie Choi, author of the collection Salvage, received her MFA in poetry from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin and her MFA in fiction from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Her poetry can be found in Poetry, Catapult, West Branch, and elsewhere. Her fiction can be found in Noon, American Short Fiction, The Hopkins Review, and elsewhere. She cotranslated Hysteria by Kim Yideum, which won the 2020 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize and the 2020 National Translation Award. Her translation of Pillar of Books by Moon Bo Young was published by Black Ocean in 2021.

Caroline M. Mar, author of the collection Water Guest, is the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer and the author of Special Education and the chapbook Dream of the Lake. A high school health educator in her hometown of San Francisco, she is getting to know her new home of Oakland. Mar is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, an alumna of VONA, and a member of Rabble Collective. She has been granted residencies at Storyknife, Ragdale, and Hedgebrook, among others. 

Felicia Zamora’s collection Interstitial Archaeology will be released next spring. Zamora is the author of six books of poetry, including Quotient; I Always Carry My Bones, winner of the 2020 Iowa Poetry Prize and the 2022 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; Body of Render, Benjamin Saltman Award winner; and Of Form & Gather, Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize winner. She won the 2022 Loraine Williams Poetry Prize from The Georgia Review, a 2022 Tin House Next Book Residency, and a 2022 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, AGNI, Alaska Quarterly Review, The American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry 2022, Boston Review, Ecotone, The Georgia Review, Guernica, Gulf Coast, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Orion, Poetry Magazine, The Nation, West Branch, and others. She is an associate professor of poetry at the University of Cincinnati and a poetry editor for the Colorado Review.

Submissions for the next competition will be accepted between July 15 and September 15, 2024. 

About the University of Wisconsin Press

The University of Wisconsin Press is a not-for-profit publisher of books and journals. With more than 1,500 titles and 8,000 peer-reviewed articles in print, its mission embodies the Wisconsin Idea by publishing work of distinction that serves the people of Wisconsin and the world. 

For more information on the Wisconsin Poetry Prizes, please visit https://uwpress.wisc.edu/series/wi-poetry.html.

The University of Wisconsin Press celebrates Black History Month

The University of Wisconsin Press is proud to publish books and journals that engage with Black history, culture, and experiences. In celebration of Black History Month, the following titles will be offered at a discount all month long, with discount code BHM2024UWISC. We invite you to click on the hyperlinks below to browse our titles across genres, from narratives by enslaved Americans to works of anthropology, from history to poetry and fiction. You can also follow along on social media as we highlight some of the must-read books included here. 

How the End First Showed by D. M. Aderibigbe

Words of Witness: Black Women’s Autobiography in the Post-Brown Era by Angela A. Ards

Afro-American Poetics: Revisions of Harlem and the Black Aesthetic by Houston A. Baker Jr.

The Toni Morrison Book Club by Juda Bennett, Winnifred Brown-Glaude, Cassandra Jackson, and Piper Kendrix Williams

The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: An American Slave by Henry Bibb, with a new introduction by Charles J. Heglar

The Blind African Slave: Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace by Jeffrey Brace, as told to Benjamin F. Prentiss, Esq., edited and with an introduction by Kari J. Winter

Grace Engine by Joshua Burton

Kaiso! Writings by and about Katherine Dunham edited  by VèVè A. Clark and Sara E. Johnson

Confronting Historical Paradigms: Peasants, Labor, and the Capitalist World System in Africa and Latin America by Frederick Cooper, Allen F. Isaacman, Florencia C. Mallon, William Roseberry, and Steve J. Stern

Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association by E. David Cronon, foreword by John Hope Franklin

The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census by Philip D. Curtin

Livin’ the Blues: Memoirs of a Black Journalist and Poet by Frank Marshall Davis, edited and with an introduction by John Edgar Tidwell

Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance edited by Thomas F. DeFrantz

Neither Black Nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States by Carl Degler

Against a Sharp White Background: Infrastructures of African American Print edited by Brigitte Fielder and Jonathan Senchyne

Living Black: Social Life in an African American Neighborhood by Mark S. Fleisher

Witnessing Slavery: The Development of Ante-bellum Slave Narratives by Frances Smith Foster

Conjoined Twins in Black and White: The Lives of Millie-Christine McKoy and Daisy and Violet Hilton edited by Linda Frost

Transforming Ethnographic Knowledge edited by Rebecca Hardin and Kamari Maxine Clarke

Cubans in Angola: South-South Cooperation and Transfer of Knowledge, 1976–1991 by Christine Hatzky

Race in America: The Struggle for Equality edited by Herbert Hill and James E. Jones Jr.

Black Labor and the American Legal System: Race, Work, and the Law by Herbert Hill

Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories by Jean M. Humez

Practical Audacity: Black Women and International Human Rights by Stanlie James

Understanding and Teaching American Slavery edited by Bethany Jay and Cynthia Lynn Lyerly, foreword by Ira Berlin

Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement edited by Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Last Seen by Jacqueline Jones LaMon

Reading African American Autobiography: Twenty-First-Century Contexts and Criticism edited by Eric D. Lamore

Gender Nonconformity, Race, and Sexuality: Charting the Connections edited by Toni Lester

Early African Entertainments Abroad: From the Hottentot Venus to Africa’s First Olympians by Bernth Lindfors

Equals in Learning and Piety: Muslim Women Scholars in Nigeria and North America by Beverly Mack

Whispers of Cruel Wrongs: The Correspondence of Louisa Jacobs and Her Circle, 1879–1911 edited by Mary Maillard

Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730–1830 by Joseph C. Miller

Meet Me Halfway by Jennifer Morales

Fagen: An African American Renegade in the Philippine-American War by Michael Morey

For Labor, Race, and Liberty: George Edwin Taylor, His Historic Run for the White House, and the Making of Independent Black Politics by Bruce L. Mouser

A Black Gambler’s World of Liquor, Vice, and Presidential Politics: William Thomas Scott of Illinois, 1839–1917 by Bruce L. Mouser

Òrìṣà Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yorùbá Religious Culture by Jacob K. Olupona and Terry Rey

All about Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color edited by Jina Ortiz and Rochelle Spencer

A Summer Up North: Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau Claire Baseball by Jerry Poling

Caribbean Autobiography: Cultural Identity and Self-Representation by Sandra Pouchet Paquet

After Freedom: A Cultural Study in the Deep South by Hortense Powdermaker, with a new introduction by Brackette P. Williams and Drexel Woodson

Ulysses in Black: Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature by Patrice D. Rankine

A Mysterious Life and Calling: From Slavery to Ministry in South Carolina by Reverend Mrs. Charlotte S. Riley, edited and with an introduction by Crystal J. Lucky, foreword by Joycelyn K. Moody

Fugitive Texts: Slave Narratives in Antebellum Print Culture, by Michaël Roy, translated by Susan Pickford

A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said by Omar Ibn Said, translated by Ala Alryyes

When Whites Riot: Writing Race and Violence in American and South African Cultures by Sheila Smith McKoy

Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South by Michael Tadman

Slavery and Race in American Popular Culture by William L. Van Deburg

Sister: An African American Life in Search of Justice by Sylvia Bell White and Jody LePage

American Sex TapeTM by Jameka Williams

University of Wisconsin Press Welcomes Scandinavian Studies to Catalog

The University of Wisconsin Press is delighted to announce the addition of the prestigious academic journal Scandinavian Studies to its catalog. This exciting collaboration underscores the University of Wisconsin Press’s commitment to supporting scholarly research and fostering intellectual discourse across various disciplines.

Scandinavian Studies, a leading interdisciplinary journal in the study of the Nordic region, has been at the forefront of academic research and publication for over a century. First published in 1911, it serves as a vital platform for scholars and researchers to explore and showcase scholarship in the fields of Nordic history, literature, linguistics, art, folklore, and culture.

The inclusion of Scandinavian Studies in the University of Wisconsin Press catalog further enhances the esteemed lineup of scholarly journals offered by the press. By expanding its academic offerings, the Press continues to establish itself as a hub for exceptional research and scholarly discourse.

“We are very excited to welcome Scandinavian Studies to our journals publishing program. In addition to the prestige it brings to our program, it will also increase the synergy with our books publishing program, which has a well-established Scandinavian studies list, and a Nordic World series co-published with Aarhus University Press.” – Toni Gunnison, the University of Wisconsin Press Journals manager

Under the editorship of Dean Krouk, professor at the University of Wisconsin’s Scandinavian Studies program, as well as an international editorial board comprised of scholars in the field, Scandinavian Studies consistently publishes groundbreaking research, thought-provoking articles, and critical reviews that contribute to the collective understanding of Scandinavian culture, history, and society. By joining forces with the University of Wisconsin Press, the journal is set to expand its reach, connect with a broader academic audience, and engage in dynamic scholarly conversations.

“I am truly excited about partnering with the University of Wisconsin Press, which will allow Scandinavian Studies to reach a wider audience and further enrich the international academic discourse in our field. The journal will continue to publish original scholarship and research that explores and analyzes Nordic cultures, literature, histories, and societies.” – Dean Krouk

The University of Wisconsin Press is eager to embark on this exciting collaboration and looks forward to contributing to the growth and distribution of knowledge through the publication of Scandinavian Studies.

More information about the journal, as well as current and previous issues can be found on https://sca.uwpress.org/

UW Press announces new book series: Women and Gender in Africa

The University of Wisconsin Press is pleased to announce the launch of a new book series, Women and Gender in Africa, edited by Jacqueline-Bethel Mougoué and Aili Mari Tripp. The series seeks to publish innovative book-length works, based on original research, primarily in the areas of history, politics, and cultural studies.

Jacqueline-Bethel Mougoué, associate professor of African cultural studies and history at UW–Madison, says, “I am thrilled to highlight the works of innovative scholars who bring fresh perspectives on issues of gender and women in Africa. We are especially excited to focus on scholarship that transcends traditional scholarly frameworks by defying disciplinary boundaries and geographical constraints, exploring diverse methods, and spanning the vast expanse of the African continent.”

The series welcomes submissions that address questions and debates of broad theoretical, empirical, and methodological significance of interest to a wide readership, including manuscripts that demonstrate the comparative implications of women’s experiences across and beyond the African continent. The editors are especially interested in such topics as women and religion, sexuality, LGBTQI+ concerns, human rights, migration, health, the family, the environment, law, conflict resolution, race and ethnicity, women’s movements and feminism, and globalization. Projects addressing agency are particularly welcome, including authority, political and spiritual leadership, economic activity, and forms of knowledge and healing. The series welcomes manuscripts that incorporate discussions of literature and popular culture, representation and identity construction, and testimony and life writing.

For Aili Mari Tripp, Vilas Research Professor of Political Science at UW–Madison, the series is an opportunity “to give visibility to the growing body of first-rate research in Africa and beyond that focuses on women’s agency and challenges in a wide variety of social science and humanities fields.”

The series advisory board includes Ousseina Alidou (Rutgers University, USA), Nwando Achebe (Michigan State University, USA), Naminata Diabate (Cornell University, USA), Ainehi Edoro (University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA), Marc Epprecht (Queens University, Canada), Shireen Hassim (Carleton University, Canada), Dorothy Hodgson (Brandeis University, USA), Stanlie James (Arizona State University, USA), Alice Kang (University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA), Siphokazi Magadla (Rhodes University, South Africa), Fatima Sadiqi (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco), Laura Ann Twagira (Wesleyan University, USA), and Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso (Brandeis University, USA).

Editor in chief Nathan MacBrien adds, “The University of Wisconsin Press has long had a commitment to publishing scholarship on Africa, and in particular writing on women’s lived experience in Africa. This new series provides inspiration for us, and the disciplines, to both broaden and deepen our commitments by giving space to imaginative work from new generations of scholars in Africa and across the world.”

Manuscripts will be selected based on significance of the topic, quality of scholarship, clarity and style of presentation, list balance, and marketability. For more information about submission, please contact Nathan MacBrien, editor in chief, at macbrien@wisc.edu. For other inquiries, please contact the series editors, Jacqueline-Bethel Mougoué (jmougou@wisc.edu) and Aili Mari Tripp (atripp@wisc.edu).

About the University of Wisconsin Press

The University of Wisconsin Press is a not-for-profit publisher of books and journals. With more than 1,500 titles and 8,000 peer-reviewed articles in print, its mission embodies the Wisconsin Idea by publishing work of distinction that serves the people of Wisconsin and the world.