The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Winter Poetry Festival is a gathering for local artists to share their best, most personal and wackiest poems with the Madison community.
This eight-week festival kicked off Jan. 19 with readings from six poets at the Arts and Literature Lab, including Madison’s Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate. Each Sunday afternoon until March 9, attendees admitted with no fee can listen to a new batch of poets perform their works.
This year’s Winter Poetry Festival coincides with the WFOP’s 75th anniversary. The fellowship, which has more than 500 members from across Wisconsin, is committed to spreading poetry appreciation across the state while providing members with mentoring, affordable workshops and free readings. Members also receive their own websites to post works and the chance to perform at readings like the WPF.
“The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets offers a wonderful variety of things for both the beginner and the advanced poet,” WFOP regional Vice President and Winter Poetry Festival host James P. Roberts said.
With 48 performers total, the festival is also showcasing 13 first-time readers, giving a platform to poets who previously lacked the space to share their works. While spots were prioritized for members of the WFP, no other credentials or participation fees were required.
This allowed poets like Marshall Begel to properly perform his poetry for a large audience for the first time. Before his reading, during the first week of the festival, the only event Begel had read his poetry at was the end of his weekly work meetings. Now, he’s performed for over 60 pivotal members of Madison’s poetry community.
“I was definitely nervous at first,” Begel said. “But then, I felt more relaxed and people were laughing, so it’s something I want to continue.”
Poet Breanna Grow also indulged in the opportunity to read her poetry during the festival’s first week. Like Begel, Grow enjoyed the festival’s poetry community’s receptive and welcoming attitude.
“Other communities or institutions would have more gatekeeping, but the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets doesn’t do that,” Grow said. “Their whole mission is around making poetry accessible for anybody who wants to participate.”
While Grow was an avid writer and poet throughout high school, she lost touch with the craft in the midst of attending college and starting a career. After she moved from central Illinois to Madison in 2021, the upheaval prompted Grow to do some serious self-reflection, leading her right back to poetry.
Grow joined the WFOP upon hearing about the benefits of membership from former Madison Poet Laureate Angeia Trudell Vasquez during a workshop at the Arts and Literature Lab. While she performs at A Room of One’s Own’s open mic night often, Grow was specifically excited to read for the crowd at the Winter Poetry Festival.
“That audience is just ready to celebrate you,” Grow said. “It doesn’t have much of a sense of competition, it just feels like a community wanting to appreciate things together and support one another.”
Besides support and motivation from the community at the festival, practical advice, constructive criticism and career opportunities are in no short supply. Interested in producing a poetry book in the future, Begel said he enjoyed learning about the publication process from more experienced poets. A merchandise table at the festival allows members to sell their poetry collections and advertise upcoming readings. Additionally, a grant from the Dane Arts helped the WFOP pay the poets a small sum for performing.
The theme of this year’s festival, “Passport to Poetry,” encourages poets to write a piece based on a specific location that changes weekly. With the first week focusing on London, the series will bounce from Paris and Rome to Delhi and Tokyo.
Grow used the theme as an opportunity to reflect on the distance between herself and her family back in Illinois. Justin Russell, another poet who read during the festival’s opening week, went a completely different direction. His poem, about the wildfires currently ravaging Los Angeles, compares flames to tragic events to make the point that problems are only given attention when they finally go ablaze.
As Madison’s Youth Poet Laureate, Russell was tasked with opening up the festival with the first reading.
“The performance was good, the crowd was amazing and the other performers were incredible,” Russell said. “I was honored to be there.”
Along with reading his works, Russell said the highlight of the festival was experiencing new forms of poetry he’d never seen before. Among his favorites was Begel’s poetry, which often features call-and-response portions, funny anecdotes and light-hearted themes.
“I’ve seen all types of poetry, but this was the first poetry I’ve seen that interacted with the crowd,” Russell said. “He was hilarious, just the funniest guy.”
Begel read his poem “Alternate Route,” which takes the form of a letter from a cruise company informing customers that their cruise has been canceled because they were unable to find a cruise ship. He remembers being drawn to Shel Silverstein’s humorous poetry in elementary school. Once Begel took up poetry as a hobby, he found himself writing in a similarly jovial tone, even sorting through his old Facebook posts to find previous jokes and jabs to implement into his work.
“I am always trying to be funny,” Begel said. “Most people are doing a lot of personal stuff about their own issues, but I’m having fun doing this right now.”
While the festival will stay at the Arts and Literature Lab for the first four weeks, it’s moving to Madison’s Café Coda for its last four Sundays. Those interested in hearing from Madison’s most vibrant poets can catch the readings every week at 2 p.m.