Poetry Reading featuring Ed Werstein, author of Communiqué: Poems From the Headlines (Water’s Edge Press, 2021), and Ron Czerwien, author of 100 Umbrellas (Bent Paddle Press, forthcoming) and owner of Avol’s Books.

Ed Werstein is a Regional VP of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, and also is a Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commissioner. In 2018 he received the Lorine Niedecker Prize from the Council for Wisconsin Writers (judged by Nickole Brown). His first chapbook, Who Are We Then? (Partisan Press), was published in 2009 at the age of 60, after he spent almost 40 years in manufacturing and union activity. Communiqué: Poems From the Headlines is the latest of his four books of poetry. A 2019 chapbook of poems about his childhood, Benediction & Baseball (Fireweed Press), won prizes from the WFOP and from America’s Bookfest. More at edwerstein.com.

Ron Czerwien is the author of the chapbook a little rain, a little more, published by Bent Paddle Press in 2018. His chapbook, 100 Umbrellas, is also forthcoming from Bent Paddle Press. His poems have appeared online and in a number of print journals, and some of his collage work has been published in Bramble Literary Magazine, Moss Piglet, and Ope! A Pop-Up Anthology of Madison Writers & Artists. His poem “Where We Stand” was included in the anthology Sheltering with Poems: Community & Connection During Covid, published in 2021 by Bent Paddle Press. Ron is the owner of Avol’s Books LLC, which sells used and out-of-print books on the internet. He serves on the board of directors of the Council for Wisconsin Writers.

Poetry Reading: Ed Werstein and Ron Czerwien