Special speaker will be the author Jack Koblas, from St. Paul speaking on longtime friend Donald Wandrei, co-founder of Arkham House Publishing House.

Chicago Composer and Pianist Ron Hill will perform pieces from his Derleth inspired works before they are introduced at the downtown Chicago Cultural Center. He will bring along a special Soprano to sing these songs. This will be a very unique and rare day.

The Agenda is as follows:

Walden West Festival 2011

Friday, October 7^th

6:00 P.M.  Dinner in Mazo at the Old Feed Mill

Followed by Tour of the Railroad Museum at Mazo

Saturday, October 8^th

1:00 P.M.  Annual Meeting at Park Hall in Sauk City

2:00 P.M. Car Caravan ride through the countryside to enjoy fall colors.

3:00 P.M. Ski-Hi Orchard for apple pie and chance to visit.

5:00 P.M. Video in Sauk City Library basement.  Use back door.

6:30 P.M. Dinner in Augie’s Room at Leystras.

8:00 P.M. Candlelight Graveside visit at Aug’s grave.

Bring a poem or talk to Aug.

Sunday, October 9^th

Park Hall at 1:00 P.M.

Guest Speaker Author Jack Koblas from St. Paul, MN talks about his friendship

withArkham House co-founder and close Derleth friend Donald Wandrei.

Chicago Pianist Ron Hill created music based on poems by Derleth.

The poems are sung by well-known Chicago Opera singerAudrey Grieme

and read aloudby Derleth Interpreter David Schweitzer of Milwaukee.

This is the first time the full Sac Prairie People Song Set will be performed.

 The next performance will be at the Chicago Culture Center.

3:00 – 4:00 P.M. Book Sales and Apple Crisp Delight!

Dinner at Green Acres at 5:00 P.M.

All of the events are free and open to the public. Come and join us and make new friends.

Stay current with our plans at www.derleth.org  and find out more about singer Audrey Grieme at www.audreygrieme.com

This year’s WWF will focus on August Derleth’s classic novel Walden West. Aug said that Thoreau has his Walden and Walden Pond, and he had his own west of Thoreau’s in Sac Prairie and the Wisconsin River. Hence the name of his book and the name we chose for our annual festival.

We are inviting everyone in the area and our members to join us in reading again, or for the first time, this wonderful book. Our informal gathering at the Park Hall in Sauk City will find us sharing what we liked best about the book. Our members will all point out their favorite quotes or what they noticed that jumped out at them. Surprisingly, so far, I haven’t heard the same thing twice from any of the members. If you have never read August Derleth before this is a good place to start.

Our schedule for Saturday,October 9^th

10:00 A.M.  Meet at the Tripp Museum in Prairie du Sac on Water Street to                           see their Derleth exhibit.

11:00 A.M.      Cross the street and share lunch at the Blue Spoon.

1:00 P.M.         Meet at Park Hall for our WWF

2:30 P.M          Do a car caravan to see the houses that were in Walden West

3:00 P.M.         Experience a drive through Derlethland  in full fall colors.

3:30 P.M.         Apple Pie at Ski-Hi

Return to Sauk Library basement- use back door.

5:00 P.M.         Presentation of August Derleth Children’s Writing Awards.

5:15 P.M.         Video of Jim Kirchstein’s other Walden West’s.

5:30 P.M.         Walden West Today presented by Sue Kenney/Gerry Clausen

6:15 P.M.         Dinner in Augie’s Room at Leystra’s Restaurant

8:00 P.M.         Graveside candlelight service at Aug’s grave. Bring a candle                          and a poem to read,. Talk to Aug and share with the group.

Sunday, October 10^th

We will leave from Park Hall at 9:00 A.M. to do a car caravan to Galena, Illinois which is one hour and 45 minutes from Sauk. On the way we will stop to see the first Capitol of Wisconsin, at Belmont. We will make other historic spots mentioned in The Land of Gray Gold and other of Aug’s novels. When we reach Galena we will tour Pres. U.S. Grant’s home and then go to the Galena Park for their annual Art Fair. It is the loveliest small town park in America and the fair is the best you will find anywhere. Come join us. Make new friends. Everything is free. You pay for your meals.

P.S. If people come early and are around on Friday night a group of us will do dinner at 6:00 P.M. at The Old Feed Mill in Mazomanie. We will then go 2 blocks to see the new Railroad Museum which is worth the trip.

Trestle in Sauk City

WALDEN WEST FESTIVAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2010 WE ARE IN THE PLANNING STAGES FOR THIS YEAR’S WWF. THE FOCUS WILL BE DERLETH’S AMERICAN CLASSIC BOOK WALDEN WEST. WE WILL BE DOING READINGS, SKITS, AND CHARACTERS FROM THE BOOK. SO FAR OUR SCHEDULE IS: SAT 10:30 A.M. TRIPP MUSEUM IN PDS FOR A GHOST EXHIBIT BASED ON DERLETH’S WRITINGS. FOLLOWED BY LUNCH AT BLUE SPOON ACROSS THE STREET FROM TRIPP. 1:00 P.M. PARK HALL – PROGRAM CAR CARAVAN TO SEE SITES DERLETH WROTE ABOUT, FOLLOWED BY FALL COLOR DRIVE TO SKI-HI FOR APPLE PIE. A STOP WILL BE MADE TO VIEW OLDEST ROCK ON NORTH AMERICA CONTINENT. 4:30 P.M. DERLETH VIDEO AT DERLETH ROOM IN SAUK LIBRARY. 6:00 P.M. DINNER IN AUGIE’S ROOM AT LEYSTRA’S. 8:00 P.M. CANDLELIGHT POETRY READING AT AUG’S GRAVESIDE. BRING CANDLE AND SOMETHING TO READ ALOUD.

David Schweitzer Reciting Derleth Walden West '02

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10TH, 2010 10:00 A.M. CAR CARAVAN TO GALENA, IL ART FAIR WITH STOPS AT SITES THAT DERLETH WROTE ABOUT IN HIS HISTORIC BOOKS INCLUDING FIRST CAPITOL OF WISCONSIN AND LEAD ORE MINES OF MINERAL POINT, WI. BOOKS SUCH AS LAND OF GRAY GOLD AND SHADOW IN THE GLASS ARE SET IN THIS AREA. WE WILL TOUR PRESIDENT U.S. GRANT’S HOUSE – FREE – AND ATTEND THE BEST ORGANIZED ART FAIR IN A SMALL TOWN EVER SEEN. IT WILL BE ON THE GALENA RIVER OVERLOOKING THE TOWN THAT TIME FORGOT, GALENA, IL, WITH A VIEW OF ITS 1850,S BUILDINGS. COME JOIN US! CHECK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS.

The August Derleth Prize ($1,000) is awarded annually to a graduate student in any discipline for work on Wisconsin regional literature or for writing in any genre to which August Derleth contributed (fiction, poetry, essay, creative non-fiction, etc.).

August Derleth Prize ($1,000) went to Kai Carlson-Wie for poetry.

Congratulations to Kai!

A LOOK AT THE PAST WINNERS OF THE AUGUST DERLETH CREATIVE WRITING AWARD

When the August Derleth Society, in co-operation with the Creative Writing Program at the University of Wisconsin, established the August Derleth Prize in 1986, it provided a much needed financial boost to a host of young student writers at the UW.  Many of these students have gone on to establish themselves as educators and authors who continue to provide inspiration to other writers.  One of the earliest award winners was Kirsten Wasson (1987) who is currently Assistant Professor in the English Department at Ithaca College in New York.  She was later joined by another Derleth Prize winner, Jerry Mirskin (1989) who is an Associate Professor of English.  The 1991 winner was a promising young writer named Philip Gould who currently is a Professor of English at the venerable Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island–home of H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) with whom August Derleth established a correspondence and friendship that led to the formation of Arkham House, the first fantasy specialty publisher.

Alison M. Cummings won the Derleth Prize in 1992; she is now an Assistant Professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University.  Mara Scanlon, the 1993 winner, is an Assistant Professor of English at Mary Washington College.

While the majority of the August Derleth Creative Writing Award recipients have continued within the academic field, some, like Anne-Marie Cusac (1994) have made reputations in other fields.  She has been an investigative reporter for The Progressive magazine.  Amy Feinstein won the Prize in 1995 and now teaches as an Associate Professor of English at Colgate University.

Rebecca Holden (1996) shares with August Derleth a love of science fiction and her work has appeared in the anthology Women of Wonder.  David Charbonneau was awarded the Prize in 1997. He has since gone on to become a member of the award-winning InterNet South Project from the American Library Association.  Jesse Wolfe (1998) published an article in the Spring 2005 issue of Modern Fiction Studies and recently completed his dissertation at the UW.

Katharine Adams was the winner in 1999.  She is now on the English faculty at the University of Tulsa.  Steven Belletto (2000) is an Assistant Professor of English at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.  Rebecca Entel won the Derleth Prize in 2001.  She is now an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Eleanor Stanford (2002) was the Henry Hoyes Fellow at the University of Virginia.  She now teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.  Her book of poetry, The Book of Sleep, was published by Carnegie Mellon Press in 2008.

Nick Lantz, the 2004 winner of the August Derleth Prize, whose first book of poetry, We Don’t Know, We Don’t Know won the Bread Loaf Writers Conference Bakeless Prize and was recently published by Graywolf Press.  His second book, The Lightning That Strikes The Neighbor’s House, won the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry and was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in April 2010.

More recently, Lauren Groff, who was the 2005 recipient of the August Derleth Prize, had her prize- winning story “L. DeBard and Alliette: A Love Story” published in the Best American Short Stories of 2007 and her novel The Monsters of Templeton has been praised by none other than Stephen King! Not only that, but The Monsters of Templeton later made it to #14 on the New York Times’ Best- Seller List!  Lauren later released a short story collection, Delicate Edible Birds, which also was critically acclaimed.  Heather Swan Rosenthal (2007) teaches at the UW-Madison and has a poetry collection, The Edge of Damage, forthcoming from Parallel Press.

Samar Fitzgerald walked off with the Derleth Prize in 2008.  She is now teaching at Rice University, having previously taught creative writing at the University of Wisconsin, Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, and worked as a journalist and reporting positions at the Christian Science Monitor.  The 2009 winner, Laurel Bastian, is on the faculty of Madison College, runs a creative writing program in a men’s correctional facility and is active in the Madison area poetry readings, most recently as one of the Monsters of Poetry at the Project Lodge Arts Center in Madison.  The latest winner is Kai Carlson-Wee, who received his Prize in May 2010.

THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

AUGUST DERLETH CREATIVE WRITING AWARD WINNERS

1986  Doyle Wesley Walls 1987  Kirsten Wasson 1988  No Award

1989  Jerry Mirskin 1990  Sylvan Esh 1991  Philip Gould

1992  Alison M. Cummings 1993  Mara Scanlon 1994  Anne-Marie Cusac

1995  Amy Feinstein 1996  Rebecca Holden 1997  David Charbonneau

1998  Jesse Wolfe 1999  Katharine Adams 2000  Steven Belletto

2001  Rebecca Entel 2002  Eleanor Stanford 2003  Denise Miller

2004  Nick Lantz 2005  Lauren Groff 2006  Stephanie Bedford

2007  Heather Swan Rosenthal 2008  Samar Fitzgerald 2009  Laurel Bastian

2010  Kai Carlson-Wee

Editor’s Note: If you want proof that your membership is worthwhile this says it all. With this award we are encouraging and helping young people to succeed in the name of August Derleth. This is true to Aug’s own nature; he went out of his way to help young writers see their by-line in print. Thank you James Roberts for taking your own time to show up at this awards ceremony. Thank you to all of our board who continually give of their time and undertake personal expenses to keep this society going. I am so proud of each and every one of you, as all of our ADS members should be too. Be sure to send your own comments to our new website so we know what you are thinking. www.derleth.org . To all of our friends out there we want to tell you we care.