Welcome to Woodland Pattern's Submittable site!
Located in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, Woodland Pattern is a poet- and artist-run nonprofit book center, gallery, and performance space. Each year, we present over 400 programmatic activities and events.
Our goals are to promote a lifetime practice of reading and writing; to serve as a forum and resource center for poets and other artists in our region; to encourage collaboration and exchange across the literary, sonic, and visual arts; and to act as a bridge between local and national communities of poets and other artists.
Help us open our gallery space in our new location at 347 E. Ward St. with a group show. Open to local and regional artists, submit your work for our inaugural exhibition. There is a theme; please read on to see if your work fits.
Iterations. Versions. Multiples. Shifts.
The multiple versions of one movement, one story, one timeline. Working through iterations, variants emerge, and they in turn branch out as new growth. Through small shifts and transitions moving towards transformation—what are the steps along the way?
Corresponding with our Poetry Marathon in January 2027, in which we come together as a community for poetic and musical performances and screenings, we hope this open call adds to our collective celebration of the arts and becomes an annual invitation as well.
Do you have work in multiples? Work that shows the process? Artwork that celebrates change? Please consider submitting your work.
Guidelines
- All mediums welcome! (4D, movement/dance, performance, moving image, 3D, installation, 2D) (We now have space to install work in the MIDDLE of the room 🙂)
- Please include an artist statement, images of existing work to be considered that fits the theme OR images of your practice in general with a proposal for a new project you would like to work on that’s specific to this exhibition, and a short third-person bio.
- We’re excited to work with Milwaukee and Wisconsin artists. Regional artists from the surrounding states are also encouraged to apply.
- This call closes October 23, 2026. Work should be ready and delivered to Woodland Pattern during the week of January 11, 2027 (details will be provided at acceptance). The exhibition will run through March.
PRACTICE FELLOWSHIP: This fellowship category seeks to support an emerging poet in their writing practice through a year long mentorship with an established poet. Mentor and fellow will meet monthly one-on-one to workshop writing, discuss poetry and poetics, and explore publication opportunities. Meetings will take place in person and virtually. During the fellowship period, the recipient will also receive a $500 book allowance, may attend any Woodland Pattern workshop free of cost, and will be invited to give a culminating reading. Poets with existing manuscript projects are particularly encouraged to apply in this category.
Eligibility: Open to Milwaukee poets between the ages of 20 and 35, who are not currently enrolled in an MFA or PhD program.
Mentorship: The Milwaukee Emerging Poet Fellow in the Practice category will be mentored by Sean Enfield. Sean is an essayist, poet, gardener, bassist, and educator. His debut essay collection, Holy American Burnout!, was published by Split/Lip Press in December 2023 and was a finalist for the CLMP Firecracker Award and winner of the Writer’s League of Texas Discovery Prize in Nonfiction. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, where he served as the editor in chief of Permafrost Magazine. Now, he serves as an assistant nonfiction editor at Terrain.org. You can find more of his work at seanenfield.com.
Application Instructions: Please submit 10 poems and a cover letter discussing your writing practice and reasons for seeking this fellowship. Poems may be submitted as either a manuscript or performance recording. Please submit all 10 poems in only ONE text document.
ABOUT THE MILWAUKEE EMERGING POET FELLOWSHIPS: Drawing inspiration from both the Mary L. Nohl Fund Emerging Artist Fellowship and the Poetry Project’s Emerge Surface Be program, Woodland Pattern established the Milwaukee Emerging Poet Fellowship program in 2022 to bring greater visibility and much-needed early support to Milwaukee poets through mentorships, access to opportunities that encourage a poet’s practice and development, and investment in literary projects for which younger poets frequently lack resources. The Milwaukee Emerging Poet Fellowship program also seeks to make available alternative avenues of support for emerging poets outside traditional academic-track poetry programs and environments.
PROJECT FELLOWSHIP: This fellowship category seeks to support an emerging poet in need of financial and administrative support for an ambitious literary project such as a reading series, small press, literary journal, or interdisciplinary exhibition. Both new and existing projects are eligible for consideration. The Project fellow will receive ongoing support from our staff, along with a $1,500 project budget. Poets with a track record in DIY publishing and/or hosting performance series are particularly encouraged to apply in this category.
Eligibility: Open to Milwaukee poets between the ages of 20 and 35, who are not currently enrolled in an MFA or PhD program.
Mentorship: The Milwaukee Emerging Poet Fellow in the Project category will work directly with Woodland Pattern’s Director of Special Projects & Initiatives, Chuck Stebelton, to realize their projects, and will receive additional support from Woodland Pattern’s Executive Directors Jenny Gropp and Laura Solomon in administrative matters such as budget planning.
Application Instructions: Please submit a project proposal, a budget, and a cover letter outlining your preparedness to execute your project and your reasons for seeking this fellowship.
ABOUT THE MILWAUKEE EMERGING POET FELLOWSHIPS: Drawing inspiration from both the Mary L. Nohl Fund Emerging Artist Fellowship and the Poetry Project’s Emerge Surface Be program, Woodland Pattern established the Milwaukee Emerging Poet Fellowship program in 2022 to bring greater visibility and much-needed early support to Milwaukee poets through mentorships, access to opportunities that encourage a poet’s practice and development, and investment in literary projects for which younger poets frequently lack resources. The Milwaukee Emerging Poet Fellowship program also seeks to make available alternative avenues of support for emerging poets outside traditional academic-track poetry programs and environments.