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U.P. poet laureate to speak at library

ESCANABA — A total of 1,557 votes were cast to select the Upper Peninsula Poet Laureate 2019-2020. Previous winners include Russell Thorburn (2013-2014), Andrea Scarpino (2015-2016), and Marty Achatz (2017-2018).

Marty Achatz was chosen to repeat as U.P. Poet Laureate so will extend his Poet Laureate position to run from 2017-2020. Achatz is the first-time repeat winner as U.P. Poet Laureate. In celebration of his appointment for 2019-2020, Marty Achatz will be appearing at Escanaba Public Library on Thursday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m.

Marty Achatz teaches at Northern Michigan University. His poetry has appeared in many anthologies and national journals. His collection of poems, The Mysteries of the Rosary, was published by Mayapple Press. His work will soon appear in the anthology Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice from MSU Press. He served as the 2017-1018 Poet Laureate of the Upper Peninsula, and he is a regular performer/contributor on the syndicated radio program The Red Jacket Jamboree, which airs on stations throughout Michigan. Blog address: saintmarty-marty.blogspot.com.

The 2019-2020 U.P. Poet Laureate runner-up was Sally Brunk. Sally R. Brunk is a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. She is in the anthologies: Sharing Our Stories Of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence, Voice on the Water: Great Lakes Native America Now, The Way North: Upper Peninsula New Works, and Here: Women Writing on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. As runner-up, Brunk will assist Achatz in spreading the word of Upper Peninsula poetry.

Top five finalists in the voting also included Kathleen Heideman, Eric Gadzinski, and Margaret Noodin.

Kathleen M. Heideman is a writer-artist-environmentalist, and the author of Psalms of the Early Anthropocene (Winter Cabin Books, 2017). Heideman has completed artist residencies with watersheds, foundations, the National Park Service, and the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. She is drawn to wild and threatened places, and works to defend them. She received the Sierra Club’s 2019 White Pine Award.

Eric Gadzinski taught for 20 years at LSSU. His poetry has appeared in two chapbooks, Tattoo and Absolutely, with a third, Kewadin, in circulation. HIs poems are also in anthologies and numerous journals. Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, he has also been a U.P. Poet Laureate top five finalist previously.

Margaret Noodin spends many days each year on the shores of Gichigaming. She received an MFA and a PhD from the University of Minnesota and is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she serves as the Director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education.

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