Wendy Vardaman and Sarah Busse, the current Poets Laureate of the City of Madison, Wisconsin will be a frequent sight at the upcoming Wisconsin Book Festival, November 7-11. If they're not on stage, they'll likely be in the audience. "There's an amazing number of poetry events at the book festival this year, featuring a diverse array of Wisconsin voices. The Festival is an absolute gem, and it's great to see poetry becoming a central part of the action," said Busse.

In addition to multiple poetry readings, the two laureates have helped organize three panels centered on poetry, "The Pedagogy of the Personal Narrative," "Finding Poetry in Unexpected Places," and "The Creative Side of Publishing: Breaking Boundaries, Building Bridges." They have also been instrumental in bringing featured presenter Kentucky Affrilachian poet, Frank X Walker to the Book Festival.

"We're thrilled that Frank X Walker is coming to Madison," said Busse. "As poets, and Poets Laureate, we wanted to help ensure that there was a major poetic voice in the festival this year. Mr. Walker is a figure of national importance in the poetry community. He coined the term "Affrilachia" and reframed the way we think of Appalachia, both the region and culture. He also has opened new possibilities for poets who want to write in historical voice, bringing non-fiction content into poetry. We're grateful for the partners who came forward to help us bring Mr. Walker to our state."

Walker, the author of six collections, will read from his own work, and discussing the new genre of Historical Poetry, on Saturday night.

On Friday evening, he'll join Busse and Vardaman at "The Pedagogy of the Personal Narrative," a partnership with the UW Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives' First Wave program, to explore the connections and commonalities between spoken word poet-performers, more traditional academic poets, and poets in the Wisconsin community including Wisconsin's current Poet Laureate, Bruce Dethlefsen. First Wave students will perform three pieces, followed by responses to their work from poets and questions from the audience.

"Bringing different voices together to learn from each other is an important part of our mission as Madison Poets Laureate. Hip hop is 40 years old now, and yet, many of us are often ignorant of its elements, craft, aesthetics, and wider commitment to social justice and to effective teaching. We hope people come to learn about those things," said Vardaman.

(Walker will be even busier than the Laureates at the festival, also appearing at two more OMAI events on Friday and Saturday respectively. He will also be available at a screening of Coal Black Voices, a film which he produced about Affrilachian poets on Sunday.)

Vardaman and Busse team up with Walker again on Sunday, along with other poets and publishers, to explore the questions raised by the role of editor. "What criteria does an editor use to select poems? Whose voices are heard? What aesthetics gain preference and what are the political ramifications of those questions? Although the panel's lens is poetry, the questions are broad reaching across genre," said Busse.

Finally, the panel "Finding Poetry in Unexpected Places" is really "looking at ways to mainstream poetry, to help people encounter it in new ways, so that it loses its air of mystique and becomes hopefully a little less intimidating for people," said Busse. "That's another central piece of our mission as Laureates, to bring poetry into the daily life of more Madisonians in creative and fun ways."

Email Contact Poet Sarah Busse at sarah.busse@tds.net